The Secret: Do good work and share it with people ~ Austin Kleon

I'm having fun working my way through the book Steal Like an Artist and am now on Chapter 6. The name of this chapter sums the content up pretty well — The Secret: Do good work and share it with people. So, there are two parts to this, "do good work" and "share", both of which are important. 

The first part can be a bit disconcerting. The author puts it in terms that make complete sense; while in school, everyone there, even the teachers, are either paying or being paid to help each other have "good work". But, once you're out of school, there aren't people there every day to tell you that you're doing a good job or to tell you how to improve your design. He even shares a design given to him by one of his friends, and I've included it below.

Then we have the concept of sharing. It sounds pretty simple, but actually doing it can be a little overwhelming. The main advantage of this day–and–age, is that we have the internet. I don't know about everyone else, but, I know that I'm a bit nervous about putting my work out there for "God and everyone" to see. In fact, it kind of terrifies me a bit, but, everyone starts somewhere.

The author mentions that the internet is an incubator for ideas. I think that is a great idea! Imagine putting something that you're working on up on your blog. People look at it and comment on it. First of all, people are looking at your work - that's a step in the right direction. Then, they are commenting on it, both good and bad. This is a good thing even if their comments aren't very nice. You can learn from these. By seeing the comments and working off of them, your design might go in a direction that you might not have ever thought about on your own. Even if that direction doesn't work out, you've tried something new and learned from it. 

Austin says that "I've found that having a presence online is a kick in the pants." I find that kind of funny because it can be taken two ways—either as a "kick start" of sorts, or as "I really wish I hadn't posted that." He points out something that some people may not realize, most websites and blogs are set up in reverse chronological order—most recent is first and oldest is last. "So, you're only as good as your last post." That in itself, is enough to make sure that your blog posts are as complete and clear as possible so that you get your point across and draw in viewers for the right reasons.