If you’ve wanted to start a blog , a podcast , a Youtube channel , but weren’t sure if you had it in you or if it worth even trying this is the book you need to read. I come back to this book often when I doubt myself , and I’m sure the lessons learned in this book will go a long way towards your creative journey too. Here are the key lessons I learned by reading Austin Kleon’s “Show your Work”
We all want our work to be recognized and appreciated by others. The only way to make it easier for others to find our work , is to make ourselves findable by consciously making sharing information our highest priority. Hoarding all the information we have in secrecy is the wrong approach , instead be an open node in the infinite network i.e Internet and be generous sharing the information you learn with others. All you have to do is to share everything you learn by endlessly pursuing your curiosity. The goal is not to make money , the goal is to find that 0.1% of folks on the edge of the internet that share your same weird interests and are as passionate about them as you are ! Share what you have without overthinking , what you think is trivial can be life changing for someone else.
Being disconnected from others won’t help you get to where you want to be. We often wrongly think that geniuses of the past just sat on an arm-chair and had profound insights by shutting themselves in a room for years but the truth couldn’t be further from that. These geniuses looked at their peers works , bounced ideas off each other , copied ideas and contributed to the work of their peers. Good work is never produced in a vacuum , it is produced by collaboration , by a mind that is connected to other minds. It is never about how smart or talented we are , it’s all about the ideas we share , the quality of the connections we make and the conversations we start
The internet is an infinite world that has all the connections and information we need , we just need to tap into it an join the other open nodes in it and truly feel part of that weird edge of the internet that is truly ours. I’ve often had an insecurity about my own writing , a lack of confidence , that it has stopped me from writing or expressing my views in fear of possible future mockery from people who read my work. Austin reminds us that the stupidest creative act is still a creative act ! It is far easier to take something mediocre and make it good , than to go from nothing to good. Be a lifelong learner and learn out there in the open , and let others learn from your successes and failures along the way.
Does being an amateur make you afraid to start ? After all , there are so many experts in the same field who know way more than you , so why bother ? The amateur has one key advantage over the expert – he can explain a problem that he recently faced , but an expert may have experienced it so long ago , that the expert cannot effectively communicate it to other amateurs, nor does the expert realize it’s necessary. The raw enthusiasm of the amateur is contagious ! The world is changing at such a rapid pace anyway that it makes us amateurs all the time. Having an amateur’s fearlessness and curiosity can go a long way if you are not afraid to keep venturing into the uncomfortable unknown. Use whatever tools you can get to get your ideas out into the world. Think about what interests you – what are three things you are most interested about ? What three things do you want to learn the most about ? Learn it out in the open and in front of others. Don’t worry about how you will make money off of it , just share what you love. Today , if your work is not online , does it really exist ? Don’t let your best ideas die with you. We can use our voices and have our say, so let us not waste it away but always share what we truly care about
The problem is thinking that we have infinite time – so why bother working on our dreams now when we can do it later ? The author suggest that perhaps reading obituaries every morning is a good way to remind yourself that you are going to die. This moment of being alive is transient and temporary. One day both you and I will die. That could be today, in which case every day hence should be considered a bonus day to make the most of ! Let’s not wait there and sit around waiting for things to come to us , let’s go make them happen , and if people think we’re idiots while we are at it , then so be it! Life is too short.
Whatever we are working on , we can share it with others. Share something small every day. Put yourself and your work out there and you will meet some amazing people who will change the trajectory of your life ! That is far more important than just making money of your blog or Youtube channel !
Turn your flow into stock ! This was one of the most key concepts I took away from this book. Flow is the constant twitter feed – it’s the threads and the tweets. Stock is the durable stuff, the content that you produce out of it that will be read a year or ten years from now. Stock is made by collecting , organizing and expanding upon your flow.
Always give credit where it is due. Hyperlink to the work of the creators you are referencing , don’t share things you can’t credit.
Humans want to connect, the stories you tell gives you a unique advantage even if the topic you cover has been covered by other people.
Keeping to yourself all the knowledge that you have is shameful and self-destructive. It limits your potential to give. Out-teach your competition. The minute you learn something turn around and teach it to others. Share your reading list. Point to further useful material. People will respond back to you , and the world becomes your oyster for infinite learning and fun ! If you listen to the people who reach out to you, they will tell you things ! Hang out online with those interested in your work and ask them their ideas , books they read … if you want fans , first be a fan. Connect your fans to the folks who you are a fan of. Invite them to collaborate. Call the people you respect on the phone and share your ideas.
How to deal with the criticism when more and more folks start reading your work / watching your videos ? Let them take their best shot , nobody ever died from a bad review. The best way to take a punch is to practice getting hit a lot. Put even more work and get even more punches. Roll with the punches , and roll forward. Having your work hated by some is a badge of honor , and having it hated by others is a room for growth. Compulsive avoidance of embarrassment is a form of suicide. If you are not vulnerable , you cannot truly connect with others. Don’t care of what everyone thinks of your work, only worry about what the right people thinking,. Don’t feed the trolls – the ones who just want to have fun at your expense. The worst troll is the one who lives in your head. Don’t make a blog or a Youtube channel to make money – it is not about the money, it is about the striving.
The biggest take-away for me was realizing how the internet has opened to us an infinite online game that can have profound consequences in our physical reality if we play it with conviction. The downside is limited , the upside is infinite. It’s free to play and there are no limitations to how far you can go in this game ! This opens up an exponential world , instead of the physical linear world we live in. We under-estimate the power of the internet. It can change your life if you let it.
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