# Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon: Summary, Notes & Highlights
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Carving out a space for yourself online, somewhere where you can express yourself and share your work, is still one of the best possible investments you can make with your time.
The minute you learn something, turn around and teach it to others. Share your reading list. Point to helpful reference materials. Create some tutorials and post them online. Use pictures, words, and video. Take people step-by-step through part of your process. As blogger Kathy Sierra says, “make people better at something they want to be better at”
Find a Scenius - We need to move away from the lone genius myth of creativity. “Scenius” is a healthier way to think about creativity - “a whole scene of people supporting each other, looking at each other’s work, copying from each other, stealing ideas, and contributing ideas”. Anyone can contribute to the scenius. You don’t have to be an expert.
Share your successes, and more importantly, your failures. Help others who want to be on the same path.
Become a documentarian of what you do - As Gary Vaynerchuk says, “document, don’t create”. Share screenshots as you’re going along. Take photos of your process. Write down your thoughts in a notebook. Whether you share it or not, documenting your process has its own rewards.
Sharing vs Oversharing - Share stuff that might be helpful or interesting or entertaining to someone on the other side of the screen.
I think of it as “Will this potentially help at least one person in the world? If so, I should share it.”
Share other people’s work - We all like different things. If you can share the stuff you like, if you can curate it for others, good things will happen.
People want to read (and hear) good stories. You’ll become more effective at sharing yourself and your work if you can tell a good story.
Teaching people doesn’t take away from what you do, it adds to it. When you teach someone how to do your work, you’re actually generating more interest in your work. People will feel closer to it because you’re teaching them what you know.
The vampire test - “Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it” - Derek Sivers
When you put stuff out there, you’re going to get a bit of criticism. This is natural. Learn to take it. Don’t let the fear of haters stop you from putting yourself out there. They’re a tiny minority, and they have no real power over you.