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Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Austin Kleon
Read between
August 6 - August 7, 2023
Instead of wasting their time “networking,” they’re taking advantage of the network.
They’re just regular people who get obsessed by something and spend a ton of time thinking out loud about it.
Even for professionals, the best way to flourish is to retain an amateur’s spirit and embrace uncertainty and the unknown.
use whatever tools they can get their hands on to try to get their ideas into the world.
think about what you want to learn, and make a commitment to learning it in front of others.
Don’t worry, for now, about how you’ll make money or a career off it. Forget about being an expert or a professional, and wear your amateurism (your heart, your love) on your sleeve.
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked.”
:(
Thinking about death every morning makes me want to live.
it does not have the same effect on me huhuhuhh
The first step is to scoop up the scraps and the residue of your process and shape them into some interesting bit of media that you can share.
Once a day, after you’ve done your day’s work, go back to your documentation and find one little piece of your process that you can share.
If you’re in the very early stages, share your influences and what’s inspiring you. If you’re in the middle of executing a project, write about your methods or share works in progress. If you’ve just completed a project, show the final product, share scraps from the cutting-room floor, or write about what you learned. If you have lots of projects out into the world, you can report on how they’re doing—you can tell stories about how people are interacting with your work.
Businesspeople, for some strange reason, love LinkedIn.
HAHAHAAHHHHHH
90 percent of everything is crap.
I had a professor in college who returned our graded essays, walked up to the chalkboard, and wrote in huge letters: “SO WHAT?” She threw the piece of chalk down and said, “Ask yourself that every time you turn in a piece of writing.” It’s a lesson I never forgot.
If you’re unsure about whether to share something, let it sit for 24 hours. Put it in a drawer and walk out the door. The next day, take it out and look at it with fresh eyes. Ask yourself, “Is this helpful? Is it entertaining? Is it something I’d be comfortable with my boss or my mother seeing?” There’s nothing wrong with saving things for later.
Be concerned with doing good work . . . and if you can build a good name, eventually that name will be its own currency.”
Somehow the more you give away, the more comes back to you.”
“Dumpster diving” is one of the jobs of the artist—finding the treasure in other people’s trash,
When you find things you genuinely enjoy, don’t let anyone else make you feel bad about it.
Don’t try to be hip or cool. Being open and honest about what you like is the best way to connect with people who like those things, too.
our audience is a human one, and humans want to connect. Personal stories can make the complex more tangible, spark associations, and offer entry into things that might otherwise leave one cold.”
You’re never “keeping it real” with your lack of proofreading and punctuation, you’re keeping it unintelligible.
Don’t get cute. Don’t brag. Just state the facts.
If you want fans, you have to be a fan first. If you want to be accepted by a community, you have to first be a good citizen of that community.
If you spend your life avoiding vulnerability, you and your work will never truly connect with other people.
I like new things, projects, plans, getting people together and doing something, trying something, even when it’s corny or stupid.”
“Above all, recognize that if you have had success, you have also had luck—and with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt, and not just to your gods. You owe a debt to the unlucky.”
