How I came across Show Your Work?

It has been almost a year now since I have been following Ali Abdaal on YouTube. He is a doctor, YouTuber, podcaster, and much, much more. He mentions this book very frequently, but it wasn’t until I was listening to a podcast episode on Ali’s Not Overthinking, where he was interacting with Austin Kleon, that I really found myself wanting to read this book. I soon got an online version, and it took hardly two sittings to finish the book.

Show Your Work, Austin Kleon

Show Your Work reads much like a blogpost. On a slightly contras, reading SYW also feels like sitting beside a friend and listening to him giving you precious advice.

If there is one key idea that can summarise this book best, it will be nothing but the title itself: Show your work. I have read at numerous places, people stating that SYW is a must read for anyone aspiring to grow on internet, and is involved in any sort of art.

The book contains “10 ways to share your creativity and get discovered”. It opens with the wonderful and yet so obvious idea that to be found, you have to be findable. Showing your work is not about advertising yourself at every gathering and party, but it’s a wider idea: something done just because the right kind of people can discover you easily. As Austin Kleon puts it, “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.”

How to build this routine ourselves? How to show our work? What are the 10 ways?

1. Find a scenius
2. Think Process, not product
3. Share something small every day
4. Look for your curiosities
5. Tell good stories – about yourself, about your work
6. Teach what you know
7. Don’t turn into Human spam
8. Learn to take a punch
9. Sell out
10. Stick around

Habits we can learn:

1. Read obituaries every day
2. Share something worthy every day with others
3. Teach anything as soon as you learn it
4. Keep learning something new

My Ten Takeaways:

1. Show your work
2. Show your work on Internet
3. Show with care
4. Tell good stories
5. Show how you do your work
6. Keep expanding the list of your skills
7. Be humble, be honest
8. Don’t brag, but also don’t be unfindable
9. Find peers – surround yourself with people who can help you grow
10. Be consistent. Do not quit.