Show Your Work!

Omnividium was ignited by the spark of a wonderful book, Show Your Work!¹ by Austin Kleon. It enlightened me to the simple yet profound concept that the more you give out, the more comes back in. One thing I’ve realised is that the traditional resume is slowly taking the backseat, and putting your own work forward is a great way to improve your network with likeminded people.

Christopher Hitchens said that having his work out in the world was “a free education that goes on for a lifetime²”.

1 - My key take aways from this book #

1. Show the process. Show your process. You are simply showing the world the way that works for you.
2. You are building a name. You are building a trove of information of what you have build. Small snippets (flow) become collections (stock).
3. What you give out, will come back 10 fold. You will attract like-minded people and learn from them. You giving away your knowledge will only make you more knowledgeable.

2 - Great inspiration from its pages #

I loved this amazing paragraph from the book. It offers a more realistic perspective on creativity as to now be the exclusive domain of a few individuals.

There are a lot of destructive myths about creativity, but one of the most dangerous is the “lone genius” myth: An individual with superhuman talents appears out of nowhere at certain points in history, free of influences or precedent, with a direct connection to God or The Muse. When inspiration comes, it strikes like a lightning bolt, a lightbulb switches on in his head, and then he spends the rest of his time toiling away in his studio, shaping this idea into a finished masterpiece that he releases into the world to great fanfare. If you believe in the lone genius myth, creativity is an antisocial act, performed by only a few great figures—mostly dead men with names like Mozart, Einstein, or Picasso. The rest of us are left to stand around and gawk in awe at their achievements.

The book is about being comfortable showing your work that is not perfected. Thom Yorke’s quote below highlights the idea that not knowing and the willingness to venture into the unknown can itself be a significant source of creative strength.

When Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke was asked what he thought his greatest strength was, he answered, “That I don’t know what I’m doing.” Like one of his heroes, Tom Waits, whenever Yorke feels like his songwriting is getting too comfortable or stale, he’ll pick up an instrument he doesn’t know how to play and try to write with it.

But even more-so, that people enjoy the process of how things are made, and that we very rarely see the the often invisible effort and hard work that goes into producing successful outcomes.

“A lot of people are so used to just seeing the outcome of work. They never see the side of the work you go through to produce the outcome.³" -Michael Jackson

Ultimately, I want to do this to continue to grow and learn what I love doing. Continual learning, personal growth, and even embarrassment about our past selves are natural parts of human development.

“Anyone who isn’t embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn’t learning enough⁴” -Alain de Botton.