In my attempt to read one book a week for an entire year, the book I’ve chosen to start this journey is Show Your Work by Austin Kleon. I had heard nothing but great things about this book and, based on a few specific recommendations, it felt like it might be the perfect place to start this reading and blogging journey. I was not disappointed. Sometimes, books find you at the perfect point in time in your life and speak directly to you. It became apparent to me that this book would provide that within the first 5 pages.
This book is about “putting your work out there and making it discoverable while you’re focused on getting really good at what you do”. It’s about experimenting, valuing process over finished product, and embracing mediocrity and amateurism with your art and the community that gathers around it.
This is exactly what I’m trying to do with this site. I’m not producing ‘art’ per se, but really, what isn’t art? My goal is to become as healthy, as wealthy, and as wise as I can while documenting the journey. And, this whole site is an experiment (meta I know). It’s a conscious practice to become a better writer, and an attempt to put myself out and promote myself without ‘self-promoting’.
Show Your Work is a piece of art that I truly believe most people would benefit from picking up.
How I Found This Book: I’m really in to business/self-help podcasts and heard about this book while listening to Noah Kagan’s podcast. A guest he had on, Ali Abdaal, runs an extremely successful YouTube channel with close to a million subscribers WHILE holding down a job as a medical doctor in training in the UK. He mentioned how valuable this book was to him for testing ideas and getting over the fear of putting content out there and documenting the process.
Why I Decided to Read It: If someone successfully producing content recommends something because it helps them put themselves out there to produce content , I would almost feel embarrassed if I didn’t read it as someone just starting out. Also, pretty surprising when I got it in the mail, but it’s a very small book. It’s nearly 200 pages, but half the physical size of a ‘normal’ book and is filled with beautiful artwork and images throughout. Being a quick read, I wouldn’t lose much in the way of time to complete it.
What I’m Taking With Me: The whole point of this experiment is to gain wisdom through books, so I’m being very intentional about taking lessons from the books I read. This book is jam-packed with key takeaways. It’s one I’ll definitely revisit 2-3 times a year when impostor syndrome sets in. The idea of embracing mediocrity is what I’m taking with me this time. This is going to help me consistently produce content, even when I’m afraid it won’t live up to my own standards.
Favorite Quote:
“On the spectrum of creative work, the difference between the mediocre and good is vast. Mediocrity is, however, still on the spectrum; you can move from mediocre to good in increments. The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something.”
Austin Kleon, Show Your Work
You Should Read This Book If…you have work you’re hesitant about putting out into the world. If you’re worried about what other people will think or that your work is not good enough to be shared, read this book.
Affiliate Link: If you decided to check this book out based on this article, here’s a link. No extra cost to you and if a thousand people do the same thing I might earn $10.