Show Your Work! Book Summary
By Austin Kleon
I'd say this is a short book packed with immense value. I could not not take notes and write down thoughts while reading this book.
Share your journey
We generally have the tendency to share things when we release something. We announce when we are done. But then, that announcement, on social media, doesn’t get the reach and engagement we wanted to have.
In comparison, imagine you were tweeting about what you are building at every small win. These series of tweets are capable of reaching more eyes. And people who resonate will stick around.
People connect with the stories. Not just success stories, but also failure ones. Tell how you failed. And what you learned from it. Stories make us human.
... human beings are interested in other human beings and what other human beings do.
Be discoverable
... it's not enough to be good. In order to be found, you have to be findable.
This is the key #1 takeaway for me. How will anyone find out about you if are not discoverable. Put yourself out there. Social media makes it so easy to be discovered. Choose a social media where your type of people hang out, keep posting and helping people with what you know.
Teach what you know
Teaching people doesn’t subtract value from what you do, it actually adds to it. When you teach someone how to do your work, you are, in effect, generating more interest in your work.
People feel closer to your work when you let them know how it's done. You grow more as a community, when compared to growing as an individual by not keeping their methods as a secret.
When you tech, you also signal to your potential customers that you know what you are doing.
When one teaches, two learn. The person you are teaching and you.
When you try explaining to others, that topic gets clarified in your head as well. In turn, you will be developing a strong understanding of that topic.
Don’t assume what you know is obvious and think that others would know it as well.
All highlights from the book
But it’s not enough to be good. In order to be found, you have to be findable.
But human beings are interested in other human beings and what other human beings do.
If you’re having a hard time balancing the two, just set a timer for 30 minutes. Once the timer goes off, kick yourself off the Internet and get back to work.
“When shown an object, or given a food, or shown a face, people’s assessment of it—how much they like it, how valuable it is—is deeply affected by what you tell them about it.”
Teaching people doesn’t subtract value from what you do, it actually adds to it. When you teach someone how to do your work, you are, in effect, generating more interest in your work.
“Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it.” —Derek Sivers
He says the sabbatical has turned out to be invaluable to his work: “Everything that we designed in the seven years following the first sabbatical had its roots in thinking done during that sabbatical.”
Show your work, and when the right people show up, pay close attention to them, because they’ll have a lot to show you.