Show Your Work
Show Your Work
— Austin Kleon
Key ideas on creativity, identity, sharing your work, and surviving criticism.
Beginner’s Mind & Creativity
Expertise can quietly become a cage. The more you know, the harder it gets to see possibilities you haven’t already dismissed. Staying in the beginner’s mindset — open, curious, unguarded — is itself a creative skill.
“In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities. In the expert’s mind, there are few.”
— Zen monk Shunryu Suzuki
On Storytelling
“‘The cat sat on a mat’ is not a story. ‘The cat sat on the dog’s mat’ is a story.”
Tension is what makes something a story. Without conflict — however small — there’s nothing to follow.
Identity & Your Work
How you label yourself matters more than you think. Hedging with words like “aspiring” keeps you perpetually in the waiting room — as if the work you’re already doing doesn’t count.
“If you take photos, you’re not an ‘aspiring’ photographer, and you’re not an ‘amazing’ photographer, either. You’re a photographer. Don’t get cute. Don’t brag. Just state the facts.”
“Your work is something you do, not who you are.”
“Whatever we say, we’re always talking about ourselves.”
Sharing Freely
Hoarding what you know doesn’t protect it — it kills it. Sharing is not just generosity; it’s how ideas survive and how you find the people who think like you.
“The impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.”
“Part of the act of creating is in discovering your own kind. They are everywhere. But don’t look for them in the wrong places.”
Handling Criticism
Putting work into the world means opening yourself to all kinds of responses. The ones who handle it best aren’t those who stop feeling it — they’re the ones who’ve decided in advance what it means.
“Compulsive avoidance of embarrassment is a form of suicide.”
“Sometimes when people hate something about your work, it’s fun to push that element even further. To make something they’d hate even more. Having your work hated by certain people is a badge of honor.”
“When you put your work out into the world, you have to be ready for the good, the bad, and the ugly.”
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