We were assigned in our MASC491: User Experience class to read and discuss “Show Your Work” by Austin Kleon, which was a very informative book.
Here are 10 big ideas that I really took away from this book:
1)Almost all of the people Austin looks up to and tries to steal from today, regardless of their professor, have built sharing into their routine.
2)”Amateurs know that contributing something is better than contributing nothing.”
3)The best way to get started on the path to sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn and make a commitment to learning it in front of others.”
4)If your work isn’t online, it doesn’t exist.
5)Become a documentarian of what you do.
6)”You don’t really find an audience for your work; they find you.”
7)Instead of wasting their time “networking”, most people Austin know are taking advantage of the network. By generously sharing their ideas and their knowledge, they often gain an audience that they can then leverage when they need it—for fellowship, feedback, or patronage.
8)”Being a valuable part of a scene is not necessarily about how smart or talented you are, but about what you have to contribute—the ideas you share, the quality of the connections you make, and the conversations you start.”
9)The only way to find your voice is to use it. It’s hardwired, built into you. Talk about the things you love. Your voice will follow.
10)”Overnight success is a myth. Dig into almost every overnight success story and you’ll find about a decade’s worth of hard work and perseverance. Building a substantial body of work takes a long time—a lifetime, really—but thankfully, you don’t need that time all in one big chunk. So, forget about decades, forget about years, and forget about months. Focus on days.”
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