Summary

The title is pretty self-explanatory, but the interesting parts are around what constitutes "work". Most of us view "work" as finished products, but when you think about it, that couldn't be further from the truth. "Work" is also a verb, and even though it's often messy, it's valuable for you and others to package and share your process, ideas, and interests.

Notes

Intro

• You don't just have to be good, you need to be findable.
• Build sharing into your routine.

You don't have to be a genius

• Don't buy into the "lone genius" myth.
• "Scenius" - great ideas are often birthed by a group of creative individuals.
• Start asking how you can contribute to a scenius.
• Be an amateur.
• Contributing something is better than contributing nothing.
• Think about what you want to learn, and make a commitment to learning it in front of others.
• Find a scenius and start taking note of what they're not sharing. Fill the voids.
• The only way to find your voice is to use it.
• If you want people to know about what you do, and the things you care about, you have to share.
• Just remember that you're going to die, and therefore have nothing to lose.

Think process, not product

• People want to see how the sausage gets made.
• Become a documentarian of what you do.
• Sharing process is most valuable if products of your work aren't easily shared.
• Shape the scraps and residue of your process into something.
• Documenting and recording your process will help you see your work more clearly.

Share something small everyday

• Focus on days.
• A daily dispatch shows what you're working on right now.
• Frame it as "what are you working on?"
• Only put things out there that may be helpful. Always ask "so what?"
• Stock and flow. Flow is the stuff that reminds people you exist. Stock is the durable stuff.
• Maintain flow while working on stock in the background.
• Stock is best made by collecting, organizing, and expanding your flow.
• Think of your website as a self-invention machine. Fill it with your work, ideas, and stuff you care about.

Open up your cabinet of curiousities

• Wunderkammern - wonder chamber of your curiousities. Have one of those.
• Collecting and creating are on opposite ends of the same spectrum.
• Your influences are worth sharing. They clue people in to who you are and what you do.
• Love your garbage. If you like something, like it.
• If you don't properly attribute the work of others, you not only rob the creator, you rob all the people you've shared it with. They can't dig deeper.

Tell good stories

• Work doesn't speak for itself.
• The value of things to others is deeply affected by what you tell them about it.
• The stories you tell about your work have a huge effect on how people feel and understand it.
• A story must have structure.
• The key is to edit the messiness of life and your work into something with structure.
• Pitches are stories without endings. They are a great structure for open-ended stories.
  • First act is past. Why do the work? What have you done?
  • Second act is present. What are you doing now?
  • Third is future. Where you're going. How can someone help you get there.
• Keep bios short and sweet.

Teach what you know

• Emulate chefs by out-teaching the competition.
• The minute you learn something, turn around and teach it to others.
• Make people better at something they want to be better at.
• When you teach someone how to do your work, you're generating more interest in your work. You're letting them in on it.

Don't turn into human spam

• Shut up and listen. If you want to be a writer, you have to be a reader.
• Be interested in something and someone other than yourself.
• If you want fans, you have to be a fan first. If you want to be accepted by a community, you have to be a good citizen.
• Be a connector.
• If you want to be interesting, you have to be interested.
• Make stuff you love and talk about stuff you love and you'll attract people who love that kind of stuff.
• "Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it" - Derek Sivers

Learn to take a punch

• Fear is often just the imagination taking a wrong turn.
• Practice getting hit a lot. Put out a lot of work.
• If you spend you life avoiding vulnerability, you and your work will never truly connect with other people.

Sell out

• Money has to come from somewhere.
• Touching monye doesn't corrupt creativity.
• Only ask for money for your work that you think is truly worth something.
• Maybe keep a mailing list?
• Keep yourself busy, say yes to opportunities that allow you to do the kind of work you want to do.
• Be as generous as you can be, but selfish enough to get your work done.

Stick around

• The people who get what they're after are usually the ones who stick around long enough.
• chain-smoke - use the end of one project to light up the next. Just keep going.
• Take a sabbatical if you feel burnt out and are looking for a match.
• Don't be content with mastery. Always push to be a student.
• Look for something to learn. Do it in the open.