✍️ Author Link: Austin Kleon

🥰 Who Would Like It?

Anyone who hates this idea of self-promotion and that you have to sell yourself to get anywhere you want. If you have literally any interesting hobbies that you are just dying to talk about, but have no venue for your passions and are not a huge fan of openly sharing, this book was made for you.

🔍 How I Discovered It

I found it through a YouTube video by Ali Abdaal, which you can find posted below. He talks about how this book changed his life as he realized that just by showing people what he was already doing, that was enough to attract an audience of like-minded people. He learned he didn't have to be an expert, just document his progress as a beginner.

🤯 How it Changed Me

I am quite terrible at self-promotion. This shouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that any higher-level career really depends on you articulating why, for example, you should be accepted into a position and not someone else. I'm a very results-driven person and talking myself up to others is just not in my wheelhouse, it's literally like there is a mental block for me on self-promotion.

Then I find this book that says "Imagine if your next boss didn't have to read your resume because he already reads your blog." I was hooked after that, and it may be unlikely that this actually happens to me when I go in for an interview in the future, but there is some truth to this quote.

Most people apply to places with a paper resume listing bullet points on their past experiences and accomplishments. But what if I make the internet my resume? What if I go and document all of my hobbies, what I'm doing, what I'm learning, and build up a community no matter how small it is while documenting my life? Then I would not only be providing a much more open view of who I am to my employer, but also connecting with like-minded people along the way which can build up serendipitous connections.

At the moment I'm still taking the first baby steps, but essentially what this book did for me was make me stop keeping my work to myself and be open to sharing my experiences with others. It's made me want to show my work.

📦 Compressed Summary

You do not have to be a genius/expert to share your opinion. Perfection is boring and impossible, it's much more relatable and entertaining to see an amateur like yourself explore different ideas. By seeing your success or failures, others can learn from you and follow along.
By doing just 1 post/week you will have 52 more documented works online after a year than the person who didn't share anything but wanted to. After 2 years you will have 104 posts. After 3 years 156 posts. The more you have, the easier it is to find an audience. If you do this for a while, you will have a massive archive to show off to anyone who wants to hire you.
Always give credit where credit is due. Most ideas are inspired by something and if you want people to look at your stuff and want to be part of a community, you should be involved in that community and participate. Do not become human spam and think in terms of me me me all the time, nobody likes that.

🤓 Top 3 Memorable Quotes:

Imagine if your next boss didn't have to read your resume because he already reads your blog. - Austin Kleon, pg. 3

It sounds a little extreme, but in this day and age, if your work isn't online, it doesn't exist. - Austin Kleon, pg. 23

Anyone who isn't embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn't learning enough. - Alain de Botton, pg. 197