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Amanda Palmer on The Art of Asking
Palmer discusses crowdfunding, vulnerability, and the memoir that grew out of her viral TED talk, at Talks at Google.
Quick facts
MemoirOn my shelf
The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help
Growing out of her widely watched TED talk, Palmer’s memoir traces her path from performing as a living statue on the streets of Boston to fronting the band the Dresden Dolls to running the most successful music Kickstarter of its time, using each stage to examine why asking for help is so difficult and what happens when you do it anyway — as an artist, a friend, and a wife to author Neil Gaiman.
The book expands well past the TED talk’s argument about crowdfunding into something more personal: Palmer is candid about the criticism she’s faced for asking so openly, and about the specific things — illness, grief, intimacy — she found she still couldn’t ask for. It works as both a memoir of an unconventional music career and a genuine meditation on vulnerability.
Frequently asked questions about Amanda Palmer’s books
From the bookshelf
“We can only connect the dots that we collect, and I have been collecting weird, colorful dots for as long as I can remember.”
— Amanda Palmer, The Art of Asking
For more memoirs that turn radical openness into genuine insight, browse the full shelf.
