📖 Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon
Updated February 1, 2025
Austin Kleon’s Show Your Work! is often framed as a guide for artists and creators, but at its core, it’s really about being in relationship with what you’re creating, and inviting others into that process.
Here’s what stood out to me, and how I interpret it now.
You don’t have to be a genius, just engaged
There’s a powerful reframe here: creativity isn’t a talent reserved for the gifted few.
“Creativity is not a talent, it is a way of operating.”
John Cleese
That framing matters. It shifts the focus from identity (“Am I creative enough?”) to practice (“How am I showing up?”). Being visible isn’t about having the perfect output. It’s about being findable while you’re learning. There’s real value in staying amateur-minded: experimenting, iterating, and letting people see things take shape. Progress beats polish every time.
2. Think in systems, not outcomes
Instead of fixating on the finished thing, share the process. That resonates deeply with how I think about systems, cycles, and experimentation.
People don’t just want the final result. They want to understand how it came to be. When you document your process, you’re not oversharing; you’re creating context. And context builds trust.
3. Share in small, sustainable rhythms
A “daily dispatch” is a lightweight habit of sharing insights, questions, or learnings from what you’re creating.
There’s a useful distinction between:
Flow: small, frequent signals (notes, reflections, micro-updates)
Stock: longer-lasting pieces (essays, articles, Flow feeds stock). This is about rhythm, not volume. It’s letting what you’re already noticing gently accumulate into something more enduring.
4. Curate your cabinet of curiosities
Have a “cabinet of curiosities”— a collection of inspirations and influences to share with others. This practice shows your interests and fosters a culture of sharing and collaboration with your audience.
Kleon emphasized the importance of sharing the work of others and crediting your sources.
A “cabinet of curiosities” is essentially a visible knowledge ecosystem: the books you’re reading, ideas you’re testing, conversations shaping you. Sharing influences (and crediting them) creates a culture of generosity. It also makes your thinking legible. People understand you better when they see what you’re learning from. People understand you better when they see what you’re learning from. (I talk more about how I organize this ecosystem in my Building a Second Brain post.)
5. Use story to create coherence
Storytelling isn’t about embellishment; it’s about meaning-making.
A simple narrative structure helps others follow your thinking, especially when ideas are complex or still evolving. Story turns fragments into something people can hold onto.
6. Teach as a form of integration
Teaching isn’t about positioning yourself as an expert. It’s a way of clarifying what you actually know.
When you teach what you’re learning, you strengthen your own understanding and invite others into dialogue. That’s how community forms: through shared sense-making, not authority.
7. Don’t become noise
Be genuinely curious about others. Engage as a peer. Signal that you’re here to contribute, not just broadcast. Sustainable visibility is relational, not transactional.
8. Build resilience to feedback
Sharing openly invites critique, both external and internal.
The practice requires discernment: protect what’s tender, learn from what’s useful, and don’t let the loudest voice (often your own inner critic) shut things down prematurely. Growth requires staying present through discomfort.
9. Let value circulate
There’s nothing wrong with receiving support for something you’ve created. Exchange is part of a healthy creative. When the value is clear, asking for compensation isn’t “selling out.” It’s completing the loop.ng the loop.
10. Stay in the practice
This might be the most important point: stick around.
Momentum comes from continuity, not intensity. Some seasons are quieter. Some require rest. Walking away and returning with a fresh perspective is still part of the path.
Final Reflections: Building a Sustainable Practice of Visibility
What I take from this: sharing is an act of generosity, not self-promotion. It’s an invitation to let others witness your thinking, your experiments, and your evolution.
As someone who knows content creation is both important and genuinely fun as an entrepreneur, this has been a blueprint and reminder I needed. Not about doing more, but about sharing my work with more intention, rhythm, and presence.
When sharing becomes part of the practice (not a performance), you build trust, deepen connection, and create a body of work that reflects who you actually are.
And that’s what sustains creative life over the long arc.
Find me Showing my Work!:
💙 LinkedIn is where I share founder insights, leadership systems, and ops thinking for intentional teams.
🧡 Instagram is where you’ll find me in the wild - ponderings, learnings, and the human behind the systems.
📖 If you are curious and want to read this book, you can find it on the author’s website or borrow it from your local library.
