Show Your Work

By Austin Kleon. Read June 2024.

In order to be found you have to be findable

Be on the lookout for voids that you can fill with your own efforts

Become a documentarian of what you do

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.

Attribution is about putting little museum labels next to the stuff you share

Another form of attribution that we often neglect is where we found the work that we’re sharing

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

Thinking about how to present yourself:

“By day I’m a web designer and by night I write poetry” […] “I’m a writer who draws”

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 […] Take people step-by-step through part of your process.

You can’t be content with mastery; you have to push yourself to become a student again.