Show Your Work!, Austin Kleon

The follow up to Steal Like An Artist. The landscape has shifted since this book was published and things posted online are now easily stolen at scale to train generative AI, but the core of this still rings true.

Select highlights

…sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn, and make a commitment to learning it in front of others. Find a scenius, pay attention to what others are sharing, and then start taking note of what they’re not…

Chapter 1. You Don’t Have to Be a Genius.

Words matter. Artists love to trot out the tired line, “My work speaks for itself,” but the truth is, our work doesn’t speak for itself. Human beings want to know where things came from, how they were made, and who made them. The stories you tell about the work you do have a huge effect on how people feel and what they understand about your work, and how people feel and what they understand about your work affects how they value it.

Chapter 5. Tell Good Stories.

Bios are not the place to practice your creativity. We all like to think we’re more complex than a two-sentence explanation, but a two-sentence explanation is usually what the world wants from us. Keep it short and sweet.

Chapter 5. Tell Good Stories.

“Anyone who isn’t embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn’t learning enough,” writes author Alain de Botton.

Chapter 10. Stick Around.