# Show Your Work!  ## Metadata - Author: [[Austin Kleon]] - Full Title: Show Your Work! - Category: #books - Source: kindle - Last Highlighted: 2024-11-17 04:56:00+00:00 ## Highlights - Almost all of the people I look up to and try to steal from today, regardless of their profession, have built sharing into their routine. ([Location 26](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=26)) - Instead of wasting their time “networking,” they’re taking advantage of the network. ([Location 30](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=30)) - Imagine if your next boss didn’t have to read your résumé because he already reads your blog. ([Location 37](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=37)) ## New highlights added March 17, 2025 at 8:32 AM - “Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.” —John Cleese ([Location 19](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=19)) - But it’s not enough to be good. In order to be found, you have to be findable. ([Location 24](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=24)) - There are a lot of destructive myths about creativity, but one of the most dangerous is the “lone genius” myth: An individual with superhuman talents appears out of nowhere at certain points in history, free of influences or precedent, with a direct connection to God or The Muse. ([Location 47](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=47)) - We can stop asking what others can do for us, and start asking what we can do for others. ([Location 63](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=63)) - “That’s all any of us are: amateurs. We don’t live long enough to be anything else.” —Charlie Chaplin ([Location 71](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=71)) - amateur—the enthusiast who pursues her work in the spirit of love (in French, the word means “lover”), regardless of the potential for fame, money, or career—who often has the advantage over the professional. ([Location 73](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=73)) - “In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities,” said Zen monk Shunryu Suzuki. “In the expert’s mind, there are few.” ([Location 76](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=76)) - “On the spectrum of creative work, the difference between the mediocre and the good is vast. Mediocrity is, however, still on the spectrum; you can move from mediocre to good in increments. The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something.” Amateurs know that contributing something is better than contributing nothing. ([Location 79](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=79)) - Even for professionals, the best way to flourish is to retain an amateur’s spirit and embrace uncertainty and the unknown. ([Location 92](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=92)) - The best way to get started on the path to sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn, and make a commitment to learning it in front of others. ([Location 97](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=97)) - Share what you love, and the people who love the same things will find you. ([Location 101](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=101)) - If you want people to know about what you do and the things you care about, you have to share. ([Location 120](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=120)) ## New highlights added March 18, 2025 at 10:30 AM - thought, I’m not going to sit here and wait for things to happen, I’m going to make them happen, and if people think I’m an idiot I don’t care.” ([Location 131](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=131)) - Obituaries are like near-death experiences for cowards. ([Location 141](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=141)) - “A lot of people are so used to just seeing the outcome of work. They never see the side of the work you go through to produce the outcome.” —Michael Jackson ([Location 150](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=150)) - When a painter talks about her “work,” she could be talking about two different things: There’s the artwork, the finished piece, framed and hung on a gallery wall, and there’s the art work, all the day-to-day stuff that goes on behind the scenes in her studio: looking for inspiration, getting an idea, applying oil to a canvas, etc. ([Location 152](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=152)) - There’s “painting,” the noun, and there’s “painting,” the verb. ([Location 154](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=154)) - She can decide exactly how much or how little of her work and herself she will share, and she can be as open about her process as she wants to—she can share her sketches and works-in-progress, post pictures of her studio, or blog about her influences, inspiration, and tools. By sharing her day-to-day process—the thing she really cares about—she can form a unique bond with her audience. ([Location 164](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=164)) - Edgar Allan Poe, writing in 1846: “Most writers—poets in especial—prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy—an ecstatic intuition—and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes.” ([Location 169](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=169)) ## New highlights added March 23, 2025 at 12:46 PM - David Carr when he was asked if he had any advice for students. “No one is going to give a damn about your résumé; they want to see what you have made with your own little fingers.” ([Location 195](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=195)) - Start a work journal: Write your thoughts down in a notebook, or speak them into an audio recorder. Keep a scrapbook. Take a lot of photographs of your work at different stages in your process. Shoot video of you working. ([Location 197](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=197)) - This isn’t about making art, it’s about simply keeping track of what’s going on around you. Take ([Location 199](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=199)) - Dig into almost every overnight success story and you’ll find about a decade’s worth of hard work and perseverance. ([Location 207](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=207)) - The day is the only unit of time that I can really get my head around. ([Location 210](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=210)) - Once a day, after you’ve done your day’s work, go back to your documentation and find one little piece of your process that you can share. ([Location 211](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=211)) - A daily dispatch is even better than a résumé or a portfolio, because it shows what we’re working on right now. ([Location 217](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=217)) - Theodore Sturgeon once said that 90 percent of everything is crap. The same is true of our own work. The trouble is, we don’t always know what’s good and what sucks. ([Location 235](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=235)) - You find time the same place you find spare change: in the nooks and crannies. You find it in the cracks between the big stuff—your commute, your lunch break, the few hours after your kids go to bed. You might have to miss an episode of your favorite TV show, you might have to miss an hour of sleep, but you can find the time if you look for it. I like to work while the world is sleeping, and share while the world is at work. ([Location 240](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=240)) - Of course, don’t let sharing your work take precedence over actually doing your work. If you’re having a hard time balancing the two, just set a timer for 30 minutes. ([Location 243](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=243)) - As publicist Lauren Cerand says, “Post as though everyone who can read it has the power to fire you.” ([Location 253](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=253)) - “Stock and flow” is an economic concept that writer Robin Sloan has adapted into a metaphor for media: “Flow is the feed. It’s the posts and the tweets. It’s the stream of daily and sub-daily updates that remind people you exist. Stock is the durable stuff. It’s the content you produce that’s as interesting in two months (or two years) as it is today. It’s what people discover via search. It’s what spreads slowly but surely, building fans over time.” ([Location 267](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=267)) - Once you make sharing part of your daily routine, you’ll notice themes and trends emerging in what you share. You’ll find patterns in your flow. ([Location 275](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=275)) - figured out how to install a blog, and that changed everything. A blog is the ideal machine for turning flow into stock: One little blog post is nothing on its own, but publish a thousand blog posts over a decade, and it turns into your life’s work. ([Location 286](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=286)) - Patti Smith got this advice from William Burroughs: “Build a good name. Keep your name clean. Don’t make compromises. Don’t worry about making a bunch of money or being successful. Be concerned with doing good work . . . and if you can build a good name, eventually that name will be its own currency.” ([Location 299](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=299)) - “The problem with hoarding is you end up living off your reserves. Eventually, you’ll become stale. If you give away everything you have, you are left with nothing. This forces you to look, to be aware, to replenish. . . . Somehow the more you give away, the more comes back to you.” —Paul Arden ([Location 306](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=306)) - If you happened to be wealthy and educated and alive in 16th- and 17th-century Europe, it was fashionable to have a Wunderkammern, a “wonder chamber,” or a “cabinet of curiosities” in your house—a room filled with rare and remarkable objects that served as a kind of external display of your thirst for knowledge of the world. Inside a cabinet of curiosities you might find books, skeletons, jewels, shells, art, plants, minerals, taxidermy specimens, stones, or any other exotic artifact. These collections often juxtaposed both natural and human-made marvels, revealing a kind of mash-up of handiwork by both God and human beings. They were the precursors to what we think of today as the modern museum—a place dedicated to the study of history, nature, and the arts. ([Location 309](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=309)) - Where do you get your inspiration? What sorts of things do you fill your head with? What do you read? Do you subscribe to anything? What sites do you visit on the Internet? What music do you listen to? What movies do you see? Do you look at art? What do you collect? What’s inside your scrapbook? What do you pin to the corkboard above your desk? What do you stick on your refrigerator? Who’s done work that you admire? Who do you steal ideas from? Do you have any heroes? Who do you follow online? Who are the practitioners you look up to in your field? ([Location 327](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=327)) - “I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. If you f---ing like something, like it.” —Dave Grohl ([Location 335](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=335)) - Being open and honest about what you like is the best way to connect with people who like those things, too. ([Location 354](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=354)) - If you share the work of others, it’s your duty to make sure that the creators of that work get proper credit. ([Location 357](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=357)) - Online, the most important form of attribution is a hyperlink pointing back to the website of the creator of the work. This sends people who come across the work back to the original source. The number one rule of the Internet: People are lazy. If you don’t include a link, no one can click it. Attribution without a link online borders on useless: 99.9 percent of people are not going to bother Googling someone’s name. ([Location 370](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=370)) - “To fake a photograph, all you have to do is change the caption. To fake a painting, change the attribution.” —Errol Morris ([Location 396](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=396)) - “Because, rarified exceptions aside, our audience is a human one, and humans want to connect. Personal stories can make the complex more tangible, spark associations, and offer entry into things that might otherwise leave one cold.” ([Location 402](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=402)) - like Gardner’s plot formula because it’s also the shape of most creative work: You get a great idea, you go through the hard work of executing the idea, and then you release the idea out into the world, coming to a win, lose, or draw. Sometimes the idea succeeds, sometimes it fails, and more often than not, it does nothing at all. This simple formula can be applied to almost any type of work project: There’s the initial problem, the work done to solve the problem, and the solution. ([Location 423](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=423)) - Every client presentation, every personal essay, every cover letter, every fund-raising request—they’re all pitches. They’re stories with the endings chopped off. A good pitch is set up in three acts: The first act is the past, the second act is the present, and the third act is the future. ([Location 430](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=430)) - Whether you’re telling a finished or unfinished story, always keep your audience in mind. Speak to them directly in plain language. Value their time. Be brief. Learn to speak. Learn to write. Use spell-check. You’re never “keeping it real” with your lack of proofreading and punctuation, you’re keeping it unintelligible. ([Location 436](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=436)) - “The impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.” —Annie Dillard ([Location 470](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=470)) - There’s an intuition that you only gain through the repetition of practice. ([Location 483](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=483)) - Teaching doesn’t mean instant competition. Just because you know the master’s technique doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to emulate it right away. You can watch Franklin’s tutorials over and over, but are you ready to start spending 22 hours a day smoking meat that will sell out in two hours? Probably not. If you’re me, you’ll pay the $13 a pound even more gladly. ([Location 485](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=485)) - The minute you learn something, turn around and teach it to others. Share your reading list. Point to helpful reference materials. Create some tutorials and post them online. Use pictures, words, and video. Take people step-by-step through part of your process. As blogger Kathy Sierra says, “Make people better at something they want to be better at.” ([Location 497](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=497)) - Author Christopher Hitchens said that the great thing about putting out a book is that “it brings you into contact with people whose opinions you should have canvassed before you ever pressed pen to paper. They write to you. They telephone you. They come to your bookstore events and give you things to read that you should have read already.” He said that having his work out in the world was “a free education that goes on for a lifetime.” ([Location 503](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=503)) ## New highlights added March 24, 2025 at 9:13 AM - “When people realize they’re being listened to, they tell you things.” —Richard Ford ([Location 508](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=508)) - “The writing community is full of lame-o people who want to be published in journals even though they don’t read the magazines that they want to be published in,” says writer Dan Chaon. “These people deserve the rejections that they will undoubtedly receive, and no one should feel sorry for them when they cry about how they can’t get anyone to accept their stories.” ([Location 512](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=512)) - Of course, you don’t have to be a nobody to be human spam—I’ve watched plenty of interesting, successful people slowly turn into it. The world becomes all about them and their work. They can’t find the time to be interested in anything other than themselves. ([Location 519](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=519)) - The writer Blake Butler calls this being an open node. If you want to get, you have to give. If you want to be noticed, you have to notice. Shut up and listen once in a while. Be thoughtful. Be considerate. Don’t turn into human spam. Be an open node. ([Location 534](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=534)) - Stop worrying about how many people follow you online and start worrying about the quality of people who follow you. ([Location 539](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=539)) - If you want followers, be someone worth following. ([Location 542](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=542)) - To put it more simply: If you want to be interesting, you have to be interested. ([Location 545](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=545)) - It is actually true that life is all about “who you know.” But who you know is largely dependent on who you are and what you do, and the people you know can’t do anything for you if you’re not doing good work. “Connections don’t mean shit,” says record producer Steve Albini. “I’ve never had any connections that weren’t a natural outgrowth of doing things I was doing anyway.” ([Location 546](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=546)) - Make stuff you love and talk about stuff you love and you’ll attract people who love that kind of stuff. It’s that simple. ([Location 551](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=551)) - “Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it.” —Derek Sivers ([Location 555](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=555)) ## New highlights added March 25, 2025 at 8:17 AM - If, after hanging out with someone you feel worn out and depleted, that person is a vampire. If, after hanging out with someone you still feel full of energy, that person is not a vampire. Of course, The Vampire Test works on many things in our lives, not just people—you can apply it to jobs, hobbies, places, etc. Vampires cannot be cured. Should you find yourself in the presence of a vampire, be like Brancusi, and banish it from your life forever. ([Location 564](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=564)) ## New highlights added March 25, 2025 at 1:17 PM - It’s partly for this reason that my business model is still pretty old-fashioned: I make something and sell it for money. Instead of having a donate now button on my website, I have buy now and hire me buttons. ([Location 673](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=673)) - Beware of selling the things that you love: When people are asked to get out their wallets, you find out how much they really value what you do. ([Location 677](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=677)) - Even if you don’t have anything to sell right now, you should always be collecting email addresses from people who come across your work and want to stay in touch. ([Location 685](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=685)) - Never ever add someone’s email address to your mailing list without her permission. ([Location 694](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=694)) - The people who sign up for your list will be some of your biggest supporters, just by the simple fact that they signed up for the potential to be spammed by you. ([Location 696](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=696)) - “We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.” —Walt Disney ([Location 699](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=699)) - Be ambitious. Keep yourself busy. Think bigger. Expand your audience. ([Location 709](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=709)) - an opportunity comes along that will allow you to do more of the kind of work you want to do, say Yes. If an opportunity comes along that would mean more money, but less of the kind of work you want to do, say No. ([Location 710](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=710)) - As a human being, you have a finite amount of time and attention. At some point, you have to switch from saying “yes” a lot to saying “no” a lot. “The ([Location 718](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=718)) - You just have to be as generous as you can, but selfish enough to get your work done. ([Location 725](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=725)) - The people who get what they’re after are very often the ones who just stick around long enough. ([Location 734](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=734)) - Author Ernest Hemingway would stop in the middle of a sentence at the end of his day’s work so he knew where to start in the morning. ([Location 758](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=758)) - Add all this together and you get a way of working I call chain-smoking. ([Location 760](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=760)) - You avoid stalling out in your career by never losing momentum. ([Location 761](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=761)) - “The minute you stop wanting something you get it.” —Andy Warhol ([Location 767](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=767)) ## New highlights added March 26, 2025 at 7:34 AM - The designer Stefan Sagmeister swears by the power of the sabbatical—every seven years, he shuts down his studio and takes a year off. ([Location 769](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=769)) - Now I’m hitting my seven-year itch, and I find myself needing another period to recharge and get inspired again. ([Location 775](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=775)) - Of course, a sabbatical isn’t something you can pull off without any preparation. Sagmeister says his first sabbatical took two years of planning and budgeting, and his clients were warned a full year in advance. ([Location 777](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=777)) - It’s very important to separate your work from the rest of your life. As my wife said to me, “If you never go to work, you never get to leave work.” ([Location 788](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=788)) - “Whenever Picasso learned how to do something, he abandoned it.” —Milton Glaser ([Location 792](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=792)) - When you feel like you’ve learned whatever there is to learn from what you’re doing, it’s time to change course and find something new to learn so that you can move forward. ([Location 793](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=793)) - So don’t think of it as starting over. Think of it as beginning again. Go back to chapter one—literally!—and become an amateur. Look for something new to learn, and when you find it, dedicate yourself to learning it out in the open. Document your progress and share as you go so that others can learn along with you. Show your work, and when the right people show up, pay close attention to them, because they’ll have a lot to show you. ([Location 806](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=806)) - Go online and post what you’re working on right now with the tag #showyourwork. ([Location 811](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0B5L8J6W1&location=811))