On "Show Your Work" by Austin Kleon

I really wanted to like this book. But in all aspects, I just found it completely underwhelming. A lot of the messaging was cliche and overused. The book is by no means long (can be read in about an hour), but I felt as if even this was too much. Book Rating: 2/5

Nevertheless, here are a few takeaways I got from the book.

• Importance of thinking like an amateur. Being an amateur is really a good thing because you take risks and are willing to do things in unconventional ways.
• Don’t worry about finding an audience, once you’ve started sharing content likeminded people will naturally gravitate toward your little corner of the internet (website, blog, etc).

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked.”

—Steve Jobs

• Kleon suggests reading obituaries in the morning to get a sense of the urgency of life, and the limited time we all have. The idea is that this sense of urgency will bring clarity to our decision making process and encourage us to take risks.
• Document your work (create a work journal). Put the results, byproducts, and other scraps related to your work here. You can use this as a treasure trove of content to share every day.
• Create a blog. Post regularly, and watch over the years as your repository of work compounds. Kleon writes how his decision to start a blog has been the catalyst from which everything good from his career has come.

“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.” (38)