Show Your Work!

If you're only pointing to your own stuff online, you're doing it wrong. [...] If you want to get, you have to give. If you want to be noticed, you have to notice. Shut up and listen once in a while.

When you feel like you've learned whatever there is to learn from what you're doing, it's time to change course and find something new to learn so that you can move forward. You can't be content with mastery; you have to push yourself to become a student again.

It is actually true that life is all about "who you know". But who you know is largely dependent on who you are and what you do, and the people you know can't do anything for you if you're not doing good work.

Don't think of your website as a self-promotion machine, think of it as a self-invention machine. Online, you can become the person you really want to be. Fill your website with your work and your ideas and the stuff you care about. [...] Stick with it, maintain it, and let it change with you over time.

If you get one thing out of this book make it this: Go register a domain name. Buy www.[insert your name here].com. [...] Your website doesn't have to look pretty; it just has to exist.

Human beings want to know where things come from, how they were made, and who made them. The stories you tell about the work you do have a huge effect on how people feel and what they understand about your work, and how people feel and what they understand about your work effects how they value it.

The minute you learn something, turn around and teach it to others. Share your reading list. Point to helpful reference materials. [...] Take people step-by-step through part of your process.

The best way to get started on the path to sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn, and make a commitment to learning it in front of others. [...] Forget about being an expert or a professional, and wear your amateurism (your heart, your love) on your sleeve. Share what you love, and the people who love the same things will find you.

Be open, share imperfect and unfinished work that you want feedback on, but don't share absolutely everything. [...] The act of sharing is one of generosity— you're putting something out there because you think it might be helpful or entertaining to someone on the other side of the screen.

"Dumpster diving" is one of the jobs of the artist— finding the treasure in other people's trash, sifting through the debris of our culture, paying attention to the stuff that everyone else is ignoring, and taking inspiration from the stuff that people have tossed aside for whatever reasons. [...] All it takes to uncover hidden gems is a clear eye, an open mind, and a willingness to search for inspiration in places other people aren't willing or able to go.