Show Your Work!

Quick Review: My blogging website is a result of reading "SHOW YOUR WORK".

Summary

First of all, I want to thank Austin Kleon for putting his though into a book.

Kleon encourages sharing your creative process from beginning to end rather than posting the final out. Use this strategy to learn, find your audience and improve your work. He provides practical advice on documenting your process, teaching others what you know, and becoming a better storyteller to help you share the work you love.

Buy this book on Amazon (Recommend)

Key takeaways

Start doing

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. Whatever you want to do in life, the best time to start is now. If you want to have a glass of water get up take a glass and fill it with water simple as that. Likewise, if you want to do anything start doing now. Just get to work, see how you feel about it, and keep going if it feels good.

You don't have to be a genius

There are a lot of myths about creativity. We’ve been conditioned to believe that creativity is the sole domain of geniuses, a kind of divine inspiration that is beyond the reach of ordinary people. We all have brilliance inside of us. We just need to exert the effort to mine it.

Instead of thinking about what people think about your work or creativity. Start from what you know and what you care about, and share that. . And then the people who care about similar things or who find that work valuable will follow you.

Think process, not product

People usually are interested to know the process rather than the final product. That's why we see a lot of "How to make" contents everywhere.

Instead of posting the final picture of the food you prepare, document the process of preparing the food. A lot of us go about our work and feel like we have nothing to show. You have to turn invisible into something other people can see. Whether you share it or not, documenting and recording the process as you go along has its own rewards. Become a documentarian of what you do.

Tell Good stories about your work

Every one of us wants to listen and read good stories. Perhaps the thing that makes us human is the stories that each of us has inside. The stories you tell about the work you do have a huge effect on how people feel and what they understand about your work, and how people feel and what they understand about your work affects how they value it.

Teach what you know

Teaching people doesn’t subtract value from what you do, it adds to it. The best way to learn is to teach. People feel closer to your work because you’re letting them in on what you know.

Learn to appreciate

If you want followers, you have to follow first. If you want fans, you have to be a fan first. If you want to be accepted by a community, you have to first be a good citizen of that community.