‘Show Your Work’ — a review
So, sometime last month I read a book called “Show Your Work” by Austin Kleon and I had promised that my next article will be a review of this book. With that being said, I am going to use a book review template that was recommended by Ali Abdaal.
How I discovered this book:
I am a YouTube fanatic — I feel like YouTube is a great place to literally learn everything. So Ali Abdaal has a channel of his own on YouTube where he puts up content around productivity and all the positive content that you can think of that helps you grow as a person. So he recommended this book, and based on the review that he gave, I was sold. So I downloaded a PDF version of it.
The book in five sentences or less:
‘Show Your Work’ is literally about putting your work out there on the internet for everybody to see. You can think of this as creating a little digital gallery for all your work wherein, instead of you claiming that you did xyz on your CV, you actually have a digital proof of it.
Impressions:
Overall, I think it is a great book and straight to the point — I literally read it twice. Some of the things I read do not necessarily resonate with me and I don’t plan to adopt them in my lifestyle. However, the majority of the things were really helpful and helped me see content creation in a different perspective. One of the things that I learnt from this book and started practicing immediately is ‘The Vampire Test’ (You can read the book if you wanna find out more about the vampire test :)).
Who should read it?
I believe ‘Show Your Work’ is for any person who is scared of putting their content online for various reasons — you could be scared of being criticised; you could feel you are not good enough; you could feel your work won’t make a difference — trust me, it will. It is also perfect for people that believe putting your work on the internet is kind of boastful — no, it is not. Putting Your work online is another way of growing your network. This is how people that resonate with your work find you.
How the book changed me:
For me, this book made me want to write more — me writing this review is me ‘showing my work.’ It also made me more attentive to my surroundings, the things I do, and the people I keep around me. Things that drain my energy, I let go of (This is a sneak peek of the Vampire Test).
My top three quotes from the book:
“In order to be found, you need to be findable” — Page 2.
‘It sounds a little extreme, but in this day and age, if your work isn’t online, it doesn’t exist” — Page 23.
“If you have work that is too sensitive or too close to you to be exposed to criticism, keep it hidden” — Page 152.
I definitely think everybody should read this book — it is life-changing — at least for me it was :).
