It has been almost a year now since I have been following **Ali Abdaal** on YouTube. He is a doctor, YouTuber, podcaster, and much, much more. He mentions this book very frequently, but it wasn’t until I was listening to a podcast episode on Ali’s Not Overthinking, where he was interacting with Austin Kleon, that I really found myself wanting to read this book. I soon got an online version, and it took hardly two sittings to finish the book.
Show Your Work reads much like a blogpost. At the same time, reading SYW also feels like sitting beside a friend and listening to him giving you precious advice.
If there is one key idea that can summarise this book best, it will be nothing but the title itself: Show your work. I have read at numerous places, people stating that SYW is a must read for anyone aspiring to grow on internet, and is involved in any sort of art.
The book contains “10 ways to share your creativity and get discovered”. It opens with the wonderful and yet so obvious idea that to be found, you have to be findable. Showing your work is not about advertising yourself at every gathering and party, but it’s a wider idea: something done just because the right kind of people can discover you easily. As Austin Kleon puts it, “Almost all of the people I look up to and try to steal from today, regardless of their profession, have built sharing into their routine.”