Book Notes, Summary and Review: Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon

Give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough, and I will move the world. — Archimedes

In the digital age, the Internet is the lever we use to move the world.

The Internet has made what was previously conceived to be impossible possible. Everything is just one mouse click away. Digitalized notes of Leonard da Vinci's journal, images of Pablo Picasso's paintings, or even a livestream of Earth seen from space can be found on the Internet.

The Internet has made it easier than ever for us to access information about anyone. The opposite can be said too — whereby anyone can find out more about us through our digital persona, because what we publish online can be viewed by anyone at anytime. This makes the Internet a largely valuable asset, as long as you're intentional with the way you use it.

Show your work

One of my favorite books of all time is: Show Your Work by Austin Kleon.

In the book, Kleon makes the compelling argument that everyone can benefit greatly from sharing their work online. We should all tap into this massive network of knowledge and feedback, the Internet as we call it, to improve our work.

Our work may come in the form of articles, videos, photographs, audio recordings. Anything. There's no hard and fast rule around the medium you choose to work with.

The same applies with how you show your work. I prefer showing my writing on my personal blog and on Twitter. You may have other preferences, it's alright. The most crucial part of this entire process is to show your work.

That's where the real magic happens.

Why show your work?

Whether you're an expert in your field or a novice who is learning the ropes, you can derive immense value from this endeavour.

By sharing your work online, you can take advantage of the exponential power of the Internet. Sharing your work online is a high leverage activity because it expands your reach to millions of people, as compared to just your immediate circle of friends and family.

Anyone can review your work and offer invaluable feedback to you. Ways, in which you would never have thought of, to enhance your work. This is how you ultimately improve your work — you do the work, receive feedback, learn from the feedback, and repeat. In the process, you'll gradually become an expert in your work, even if you didn't began as one.

The greatest benefit of showing your work, in my opinion however, is: it ties you to something larger than yourself. The Internet is mankind's most expansive library. By documenting your work and your progress, you're making an active contribution to this global repository of knowledge, in which millions of other people learn from and use as a resource. Knowing that your work may positively impact someone's life, even if it's only one person, is an irreplaceably, deeply gratifying feeling.

Wrapping Up

I often see my life as the product of the type of choices I make everyday. How I live each day defines how I live my life. When we choose to engage in value-adding activities each day, we set our future selves up in a better position.

The effects of seemingly insignificant activities, like brushing your teeth, exercising and sleeping well, take time to compound. There won't be any immediate, visible results if we only began doing them. But in the long run, we know they'll pay huge dividends to our well-being.

Showing your work regularly, I would argue, also falls into this same category of value-adding activities. Don't be disheartened if nothing amazing happens right away. Continue to show up with your work, give it some time to compound.

Each day you show up with your work is already a win in itself.