Show Your Work
Austin Kleon
For someone who'd rather stay quiet, an argument for letting a little of the work be seen.
Austin Kleon's short book is for people who make things and don't like promoting them. His argument is that you don't need to be a genius or wait until something's finished to share it. People are interested in how you make things, the process and the mess, as much as in the result.
It's built around ten simple ideas. Share something small every day. Talk about the things you love and where your ideas come from. Teach what you know, because it doesn't make you less valuable. Tell good stories about your work. Don't turn into someone who only posts to sell. Learn to take criticism, and stick around long enough for any of it to matter. The book is full of his own drawings and blackout poems, and it takes about an hour to read.
He also has a nice idea he calls scenius. Great work usually comes out of a scene, a group of people sharing and swapping ideas, far more often than from one lone genius.
It's on the shelf because it's the argument for this site. Most of what I do happens late at night and nobody sees it. This is the small part I decided to show.
