Austin Kleon – Show Your Work

Synopsis

Austin Kleon’s ‘Show Your work’ is about just that – showing your work. It’s the encouragement that many of us need to share the things we care about in hopes of connecting with, learning from and inspiring others. Our work - whatever it may be - doesn’t have to be ground-breaking, extraordinary, or revolutionary, but it does have to come from us. For many, our work is our voice, so if you want to be heard then you must be willing to show your work

Likes

‘Show You Work’ encourages us to start as we are with what we know and what we have. We don’t need to wait for a golden opportunity because there will likely never be one. Nor do we have to be an amazing person who does amazing things because if there’s something we’ve all noticed in life is that there is something for everyone. We are surrounded by ordinary people who share incredible things and extraordinary people who share ordinary things, as well as all those in between. Whichever category we fall into, Kleon encourages us to let our ‘thing’ - whatever it may be - to be something that others can connect with

More often than not, we think our work isn’t ready or good enough to be seen by others. We may convince ourselves that we need more time, that more detail is required or that we should have done things differently. But all this does is encourage us to procrastinate. What’s great about Kleon’s book is that it promotes the sharing of our process, not just the finished product. Yes, people like to see the end result, but they also want to know what happened behind the scenes to get to that point – both the good and the bad. So, our work doesn’t have to be in its final stages or ‘good enough’ before we share it; it can be a complete mess with no clear direction because there is something to be learned and taught at every stage of our process

We are all thieves. None of us are unique or original but an amalgamation of our influences. We have taken pieces of the things that inspire us from different people and used that to shape the person we are today. If we can be inspired by others, then we should pay it forward and allow others to be inspired by us. Doing so allows us to not only be appreciators, but also appreciated

Dislikes

The end of Chapter 1 closes with a section on reading obituaries. Kleon describes this act as ‘near-death experiences for cowards’. The aim is to remind the reader that death is inevitable and we should be inspired by those who did things with their lives to also do things with ours with the time we have left. Although I appreciate the intent of the message, I would argue that we don’t need to read obituaries to appreciate life more, especially as the focus shifts onto the lives of others and what they have done instead of on our own growth and the journeys we have had. Looking externally for motivation is neither sustainable nor effective, especially when these motivations are not personal to us

Nobody likes to receive negativity regarding their work but in publicly showing our work, we must be prepared for both good and bad comments. In Chapter 8, Kleon suggests that if people want to comment on your work, they can either ‘contact you directly’ or ‘copy your work over to their own spaces and talk about it all they want’. Although there are those who make it their mission to be intentionally antagonistic regardless of what we do, the fear of receiving a negative comment about our work robs us of hearing new ideas and suggestions from those we expose our work to, especially as not everyone will care to contact you directly. Trolls aside, blocking ourselves from the things we don’t want to hear in case it offends us prevents us from engaging with those we share our work with and learning a new way of doing things. Just because we are proud of our work does not mean that it shouldn’t be challenged

Kleon encourages us to give credit where credit is due. However, he states that we shouldn’t share things we can’t properly credit. This makes sense as when we want to find out more information about something or someone, we click the link provided in the description to do so. Although I strongly agree that credit should always be given, sometimes we may come across something and we simply don’t know where it’s from or who made it. This doesn’t mean that we should ignore it or keep it to ourselves as in doing so, we are preventing others from being aware of something that could be useful to them. Instead, it should be shared, especially in our increasingly globalised world where it is easy for one person to connect with many in just a few clicks. Just because we don’t have the answer, doesn’t mean that something shouldn’t be shared as someone else will, and that person may very well be the creator themselves

General Thoughts

This book has a lot of inputs from different figures who have been used to corroborate the importance of sharing your work through their own experiences. Although very few of the people mentioned were names I had heard of, using different perspectives to build this book was an interesting approach. However, as the author is Austin Kleon, I definitely would have liked to hear more of his opinions as the external inputs were a bit heavy at times

I think it’s very easy for someone to tell you what to do without them ever doing it themselves, especially if they are a person with a lot of influence so people will be more willing to listen to them. In saying that, something that grabbed my attention after reading the last chapter was that Kleon seems to practice what he preaches. At the end of the book, the reader is presented with a ‘Behind the Scenes’ section which shows us the author’s process in writing the book, including some of the things which didn’t make the final edit. This isn’t something I’ve seen before so I thought it was a nice touch

What I really appreciate about the book is that the focus is on a process and not an end goal. Not everyone has a finished product to show but everyone is in the middle of some sort of process. This means that when the reader is advised to show their work, it is a call to anyone and everyone, no matter what stage you’re at in your process

Rating

‘Show Your Work’ encourages its readers to be part of a community of sharers and not hoarders. Through this book, we’re urged to expose our work, not just for our benefit but for the benefit of someone who may need exactly what we’ve been keeping to ourselves. Whether you’ve just started something completely new or you’re finishing the last bits of a project, Kleon advises that there is no perfect stage at which to share your work as every part of the process is vital and can be useful to someone. Furthermore, this book gives its readers the assurance that you don’t have to be the most interesting person for someone to take an interest in you, but if you want to be noticed, you must be willing to show your work

Based on this, I would rate this book a 3.5/5

Would I recommend?

Yes I would, particularly to someone who has work to show but needs a bit of a push in doing so as this book may be just that. I would also recommend this book to someone who may not consider themselves to be very interesting as regardless of what you do or what you’re into, there’s no limit to what people appreciate

Favourite Quotes

‘Be so good they can’t ignore you’

‘In order to be found, you have to be findable’

‘Imagine if your next boss didn’t have to read your résumé because he already reads your blog. Imagine being a student and getting your first gig based on a school project you posted online. Imagine losing your job but having a social network of people familiar with your work and ready to help you find a new one. Imagine turning a side project or a hobby into your own profession because you had a following that could support you’

‘If your work isn’t online, it doesn’t exist’

‘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’

‘Small things, over time, can get big’

‘Being open and honest about what you like is the best way to connect with people who like those things, too’

‘When people realise they’re being listened to, they tell you things’

‘If you want fans, you have to be a fan first. If you want to be accepted by a community, you have to first be a good citizen of that community. . . If you want to get, you have to give. If you want to be noticed, you have to notice’

‘You just have to be as generous as you can, but selfish enough to get your work done’

‘Show your work, and when the right people show up, pay close attention to them, because they’ll have a lot to show you’

‘The minute you learn something, turn around and teach it to others’

‘Use spell-check. You’re never “keeping it real” with your lack of proofreading and punctuation, you’re keeping it unintelligible’