Every Tool's a Hammer

Life Is What You Make It

By: Adam Savage

Narrated by: Adam Savage

MythBusters’ Adam Savage - Discovery Channel star and one of the most beloved figures in science and tech - shares his golden rules of creativity, from finding inspiration to following through and successfully turning your idea into reality.

Adam Savage is a maker. From Chewbacca’s bandolier to a thousand-shot Nerf gun, he has built thousands of spectacular projects as a special effects artist and the cohost of MythBusters. Adam is also an educator, passionate about instilling the principles of making in the next generation of inventors and inspiring them to turn their curiosity into creation.

In this practical and passionate guide, Adam weaves together vivid personal stories, original sketches and photographs from some of his most memorable projects, and interviews with many of his iconic and visionary friends in the arts and sciences - including Pixar director Andrew Stanton, Nick Offerman, Oscar-winner Guillermo Del Toro and artist Tom Sachs - to demonstrate the many lessons he has picked up from a lifetime of making.

Things like: don’t wait until everything is perfect - in your workshop or in your life - to begin. Plan with pencil and paper. Sweep up every day. Learn from doing. Share your toys. There is an exact tool for every task (Adam probably has four of them in his wondrous shop), but if you need to pound in a nail and all you have handy is a skill saw - hammer away. The most important thing, always, is just that you make something.

Every Tool’s a Hammer is sure to guide and inspire you to build, make, invent, explore and, most of all, enjoy the thrills of being a creator.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Adam Savage (P)2019 Simon & Schuster UK

Critic reviews

'Adam has drawn for us an imperative how-to for creativity that goes well beyond scissors, saws and glue, to include vulnerability, self-confidence and self-deprecating humour. I am aware of no human outside of fiction more qualified to pen this rousing paean to making. I adore this book' (Nick Offerman)

'Careful, close, often repetitive work lets the brain wander back and forth, from the micro-task literally at hand to the bigger problems, solutions, insights and emotions that we usually drown out with stimulus. Believe me when I say: when you’ve made as many Blade Runner blasters as Adam Savage has, you’ve learned a lot about yourself. Adam has stocked up a lot of deep thought and deeper wisdom: about how to make things large and small, decisions large and small, and how to make sure you’re making the things that matter. Consider this book as a 3D print out of Adam’s brain, and be glad you have it' (John Hodgman, Bestselling author of The Areas of My Expertise)

'This book is creative rocket fuel. Adam is a master maker, and this might be his greatest creation yet - a funny, vulnerable and soulful dive into the beautiful mind of passionate artist. It’s about making stuff, but there is also philosophy, insight, and, most of all, inspiration. This book is so cool!'
(Ed Helms)