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  • Every Tool's a Hammer

  • Lessons from a Lifetime of Making
  • Written by: Adam Savage
  • Narrated by: Adam Savage
  • Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (370 ratings)

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Every Tool's a Hammer cover art

Every Tool's a Hammer

Written by: Adam Savage
Narrated by: Adam Savage
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Publisher's Summary

In this New York Times best-selling “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 40-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; 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. 

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

What listeners say about Every Tool's a Hammer

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A valuable tool in and of itself;

Adam Savage presents a heartfelt dialogue that is applicable to a vast variety of creative endeavour. Whether your tools are screwdrivers, paint brushes or word processors, Every Tool's a Hammer is packed full of helpful advice to spur a maker on their way in a more thoughtful and efficient manner. It certainly helped me out a lot!

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Amazing inspiring man !

This book inspires me to be a better person. Thanks Adam!
makers and nerds and regular joes will love this book. Also his podcast .

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4 people found this helpful

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Adam Savage is my spirit animal

Once I finished the audiobook I went out and get the physical book. I rarely do it because that is reserved for the "I need it in my life" thing. For this book I'm glad to say : I need it in my life. Great work. Awesome knowledges.

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2 people found this helpful

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Chicken soup for the maker's soul

Helped me realize I was a kindred spirit, which is always nice. Contains great tips, philosophy, and inspiration.

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Enjoyed hearing that Im not the only one who wants to learn and share

Many parallels made it very familiar to me. Share the knowledge, seek the knowledge.. was fun to listen to.
And I saw Star Wars in 1977 for the first time at the drive in a van at age 9/10..

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Inspirational

love it and took great lessons out of it. Recommend to every building /maker out there.

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Practical tips on setting up a shop

I recently built a proper shop, and Every Tool's a Hammer gave me a lot of practical tips on how I might want to consider setting up my shop to suit the way that I think and work.

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Disappointment

Somehow, I may not have understood from the initial description, what this book was about. As a maker, all of my life, I was looking to Adam for some guidance about using my tools and materials selection, as well as design concepts, tricks, and traps.

This book is about writing and elaboration. Adam takes the topic and introduces it in the first couple minutes and then spend the rest of the chapter writing around it as if it was practice at elaboration.

To be fair, it appears that his Ent was to inspire those who have never made to make. I think the first words in the description should be about that alone. Then people like me would not pick this book up. Rather, we would go to other sources for the type of information that we need. I just found myself skipping through chapter after chapter looking for something useful for me, and there is nothing. I will be returning this book when I get home from vacation.

Incidentally, since I inserted a new Sim card for Canada US calling, and was issued a new phone number, I was not able to access the return mechanism, so I’m stuck with this book until I get back and then my old Sim card. Audible needs to understand that we need the option to verify email.

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A great listen! Entertaining, informative and self reflection inducing.

Hats off and a big thanks to Adam for sharing. As self identified MacGyver and a programming hack of 30+ years I now have a collective name for the things light me up over and over without fail. Builder! I would recommend this read to anyone has, thinks they have or would like to have a passion for creating things. Anything!

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A great Autobiography and story about making.

Loved learning more about Adam Savage, happy he also Narrated. I absolutely loved the chapter on Glues. It was easy for me to follow along. The PDF that accompanies, it is incredible.

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