Every Tool’s A Hammer by Adam Savage

In this New York Times bestselling “imperative how-to for creativity” (Nick Offerman), Adam Savage—star of Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters—shares his golden rules of creativity, from finding inspiration to following through and successfully making your idea a reality.

Every Tool’s a Hammer is a chronicle of my life as a maker. It’s an exploration of making, but it’s also a permission slip of sorts from me to you. Permission to grab hold of the things you’re interested in, that fascinate you, and to dive deeper into them to see where they lead you.

Through stories from forty-plus years of making and molding, building and break­ing, along with the lessons I learned along the way, this book is meant to be a toolbox of problem solving, complete with a shop’s worth of notes on the tools, techniques, and materials that I use most often. Things like: In Every Tool There Is a Hammer—don’t wait until everything is perfect to begin a project, and if you don’t have the exact right tool for a task, just use whatever’s handy; Increase Your Loose Tolerance—making is messy and filled with screwups, but that’s okay, as creativity is a path with twists and turns and not a straight line to be found; Use More Cooling Fluid—it prolongs the life of blades and bits, and it prevents tool failure, but beyond that it’s a reminder to slow down and reduce the fric­tion in your work and relationships; Screw Before You Glue—mechanical fasteners allow you to change and modify a project while glue is forever but sometimes you just need the right glue, so I dig into which ones will do the job with the least harm and best effects.

This toolbox also includes lessons from many other incredible makers and creators, including: Jamie Hyneman, Nick Offerman, Pixar director Andrew Stanton, Oscar-winner Guillermo del Toro, artist Tom Sachs, and chef Traci Des Jardins. And if everything goes well, we will hopefully save you a few mistakes (and maybe fingers) as well as help you turn your curiosities into creations.

I hope this book serves as “creative rocket fuel” (Ed Helms) to build, make, invent, explore, and—most of all—enjoy the thrills of being a creator.

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For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #44: A celebrity on the cover)

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The Reason

I did not grow up watching Mythbusters. I only started watching the show a few months ago, and I am in newly in love with the whole cast!

The Quotes

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a model maker, a potter, a dancer, a programmer, a writer, a political activist, a teacher, a musician, a milliner, whatever. It’s all the same. Making is making, and none of it is failure.”

“When we say we need to teach kids how to “fail,” we aren’t really telling the full truth. What we mean when we say that is simply that creation is iteration and that we need to give ourselves the room to try things that might not work in the pursuit of something that will.”

“This is one of the main reasons I believe that adolescence can be so fraught for so many. Just as we start to catch the barest glimpses of our true selves and begin to understand what it is about the world that fascinates and intrigues us, we often run right into people who aren’t ready to be encouraging and can be downright hostile to someone being “different.”

“This is exactly the trap you don’t want to fall into when it comes to deadlines: you don’t want to cast them as the villain. What you want to do is embrace them, because at a certain point more time does not equal better output.”

The Narrator(s)

The author himself! I love listening to him narrate and talk about his life.

My Thoughts

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up this book. I have been watching Mythbusters – I haven’t finished the whole series yet – and I know it’s no longer running but all of it is still new to me and I’m loving all that I’m learning from the amazing cast. When I found out Adam Savage wrote a book, of course I had to pick it up, I was getting close to finishing Mythbusters and I’m been slowing down so that I could savor the last of the episodes.

The book wasn’t so much about Adam’s life in general as much as it was about his creative process, and I was surprised how deep he got into the process. It made me have to stop a few times to take notes on the process; being organized, clearing space, making lists… It gave me a bit of anxiety, to be honest!

But the more I got into it, the more it sort of reassured me. I’ve always thought of myself as a little messy, and I sometimes have analysis paralysis, where it’s hard for me to get started on creating because of how messy everything is. Listening to Adam, it seems like he’s not naturally organized but has learned to be; by experience, through other people’s examples, because he had to for efficiency. That gives me hope because that means I can learn to be more organized too! In fact, I think I might be starting out more naturally organized than Adam, and if he can do it, so can I.

It was wonderful to listen to him talk about his experiences and his career, the people he worked with, the things he learned. I love especially how open and generous he is with everything he knows, and how he continues to share everything that he does even now. I wish I had watched Mythbusters when they aired, but I’m glad I’m watching it now.

My Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?