Introduction
Online content sharing as we all know it can come in many shapes and forms and it might appear like a completely alien skill to acquire on top of everything else in our lives. Depending on what we consume, we might be tempted to believe that it should be of very high-quality, with lots of visual effects like in movies or like other popular content creators. However, it is a practice that we all engage in to a certain extent, because a majority of us are on social media platforms. For example, one could share their career-related milestones or goals on LinkedIn to have others recommend them opportunities or connections. Similarly, scientists publish articles detailing their experiments and discoveries on online science and engineering databases to get cited by others and for advancing knowledge in their respective fields. Even now, you can look at the discussion threads you had with people on social media and take all of these ideas and thought processes back then to mold together the evolution of your thoughts into a creative post. You would look back at it and be left in wonder. I wrote a separate blog post about how I got into blogging, but in this one, I will explain more generally why sharing content publicly online actually matters a lot. I would go as far as suggesting that showing one’s work as much as possible publicly and thoroughly through any large medium (YouTube, Instagram, etc.) can be massively valuable to one’s life. Even after examining myself, I truly believe that it is the extra step towards achieving my dreams while leaving trails for anyone to follow even if I still not successful as I am writing this.
The Pitfall I Fell for
What I disliked about being surrounded by engineers or scientist too often was that they were far too rigid and cold about sharing work, progress or emotions apart from their graded assignments. They were too results-driven and grades, wealth or any form of prestigious societal recognition were the only badges of honor in life. As a consequence, emotions and insecurities were worth listening to only if they came from the the top students or the greatest ones in any respectable and impressive field. In their eyes, you were just bragging if you were not at the top. I could sense amongst students that it was collectively frowned upon to let others know how hard you worked. I am not suggesting that all of them were like that and in fact, I am still close to a lot of top students who weren’t, but I did come across a significant number who were. This sort of behaviour fueled in me a reluctance towards advertising. There is a bit of a show of dominance some want to instill in you making you doubt yourself with thoughts like :
“Do I truly deserve to talk about accomplishing X or do I just want to sound impressive?”
Not to forget their cliché motto of :
“It is not what I say, but I do that matters.”
It is true that sometimes, people have too much to say and not enough to actually prove, but it certainly has gone too far with them. If we all lived following that saying perfectly, then nobody would have the right to say nor to write ANYTHING. Then, their tones would change to:
“How come I do not hear enough from you? You are not very talkative you know?”
Other variations of that popular saying include:
“If you just focus on working and you are so good, people will notice and they will come to you.”
“Do not be a talker, be a doer. “
“I talk less for the better.”
“I do more than I say.”
“You are all show and no go.”
“What have you done since this morning?”
Not just amongst engineers, but I have noticed this with my extended family from Madagascar. They were clueless about my life and they would make all sorts of negative prejudices about it. Where were they when I struggled with calculus? Nowhere. They would weirdly do that unless who they were talking to someone with a higher socio-economic status or position at a job than them. It feels weird to write this, but they were also very judgmental about someone’s social life based on their social media presence. They would look for cues such as pictures with hot girls, with groups of people, at fun events, at concerts, with celebrities, with cool athletes, etc. to assess whether to like someone or not. (I know… quite unfortunate but that’s who they are) If they saw that you were unemployed or not studying at school, the series of questions they would often have in mind are:
“What have you done during the summer?”
“What have been up to? I don t understand what you are doing.” (while mocking you)
“What else are you doing of your time?”
“You do not go out enough!”
I myself am not perfectly immune to this, because it is so ingrained in modern human nature. As sad as it is to say, we are all prone to making negative prejudices onto others when we feel like we do not know enough about them.
Showing my work through blogging has enabled me to silence and to unchain from these sorts of thoughts, because the real answer would lie in these essays, pictures or videos. What matters most is that it is accessible publicly and that it gets discovered by anyone. The rest is for them to believe or not even though they would look foolish not to. I am not one to suggest that you should care about what other people think, but those who ask you these kinds of questions can be forced to tightly shut up if they somehow saw your work.
In a book called Show Your Work by Austin Kleon, the author mentions one of the most popular and destructive misconception about creativity which is the myth of the lone genius.
If you believe in the lone genius myth, creativity is an antisocial act, performed by only a few great figures—mostly dead men with names like Mozart, Einstein, or Picasso. The rest of us are left to stand
Austin Kleon
around and gawk in awe at their achievements.
If you are still unsure about the term, it basically refers to a superhuman individual who simply bursts into the public scene out of nowhere with a masterpiece completed on their own. The author explains that there is no such thing as someone who performs in the shadows, because creativity can’t emerge from a vacuum of nothing (unless you believe lone geniuses are Gods), but from the result of a mind connected to other minds.
I can tell you from firsthand horrible personal experiences that working hard, suffering and achieving in silence is a terrible way to live. I myself stopped being too private about my accomplishments, thoughts, emotions or life aspirations more seriously in my third year of university. All of these years, although I wrote in a personal diary, I have been sort of grinding away in obscurity thinking that one day, I will hit the success tipping point when everything will magically arrange itself, but I do not believe in that anymore. It might look like bragging in the short-term, but in the long-term, it is a legacy and like I said previously, a trail of inspiration for others. The downside would be the regret of the lost thoughts, ideas and emotions acquired along the way.
My Top 3 Benefits
1. You Work Will Be Undisputable
If one was to take on any kind of hobby, it would not be obvious to others why such activity matters or why. However, because it gets online, the progress is tangible and undeniable. Those who do not believe you or who are maliciously trying to belittle you will think twice once they see it. (but worry not cause nobody really cares anyway) Nowadays, people learn about others mostly online first. They learn all they can about a person and they are very curious to know what they have been up to in life. Anyone’s level of competence can be seen once it gets public, because it is not only obvious, but also a valid form of work done. As with my colleague engineers who pretend like one should only mention it if it succeeds or becomes huge, they would not deny that reading or seeing the process with their own eyes affects how much they believe and respect it.
2. You Will Gain Familiarity
People become likable, because they feel like they know you, you have made them laugh, interested or whatever. You can potentially get greeted in any foreign place, because whoever lives there can relate to whatever they saw of you online. Someone who failed at something, but gave it all and made it public, can get much more upsides than someone who equally attempted the same task ,failed ,but did not publicly share. If people are made aware of what the journey has been like no matter the outcome, they will have something to assess you on. I stopped being worried that someone would discover me deeply or would stop being impressed about me because they know everything, but instead they are more confident and less suspect of my history. Even if it is a bad one, they have more to read about and to learn from than not enough.
3. Potential External Rewards
Showing one’s work has been commonplace in the mainstream media much more than we think by:
- Athletes
- Singers
- Actors and filmmakers
- Chefs
- Founders, Entrepreneurs, Businessmen
- Politicians
- Or any world-class successful outlier at anything
All of these people built personal brands from their careers and openly revealed their personalities. As a result, they can acquire sponsorship deals, VIP event accesses and even special offers on services and products. I am not suggesting that you need an amazing personality like Barack Obama, but showing anything can pave the way to it and it is worth taking the chance.
Of course, there are a lot more benefits that I can write down in a single post, but those were my main ones.
Closing With Quotes
Down below is a series of quotes that I find most relevant to this sort of topic specifically while being deeply inspiring to me.
Whatever the nature of your work, there is an art to what you do, and there are people who would be interested in that art, if only you presented it to them in the right way.
Austin Kleon
If you want to understand something – teach it. I teach all my students to teach. This forces them to be able to articulate exactly what they are trying to do. Learning to articulate this knowledge greatly clarifies it in your own mind. In my experience the more clearly you think about a given skill, the more decisively you will act with that skill.
John Danaher
The real problem in speech is not precise language. The problem is clear language. The desire is to have the idea clearly communicated to the other person.
Richard Feynman
Work like hell and advertise.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Everyone has something to offer to the world, call it content; and everyone needs a way to give it to the world, call it form. No matter how good your stuff is you must have a way to get it out there—speaking, writing, art, media, diagrams, graphics, dance, piano and on.
Story Musgrave
Click on the buttons below to subscribe and follow for more content!