I take a lot of notes. No. More than that. There are messy and I don’t have a goal for any of it. I fill my todo app with ideas, names of new people I meet and projects that I think would be fun to execute on. I write in notebooks, on printer paper and eventually a lot ends up in a giant markdown document. The notes are incomplete and often I lose enough context that they have no value after a week or two.

In L.A. last week I was introduced to a new book. Show your work by Austin Kleon. I have often come across the idea that it is essential to have an online presence, and a blog is needed to grow a software career, but that isn’t something that I find very compelling. I hate talking about myself, and if I wanted to go into sales I would have. No, I may try in fits and starts, but marketing yourself for the purpose of marketing yourself doesn’t resonate with me. Show your work makes a slightly different argument. As a follow-up to Steal like an artist, Austin argues that having an online presence is about allowing others to steal from you.

Furthermore, I like the idea of creating a space to steal from myself. Instead of the rushed scribbling that can lead to forgetting the original intent, something published should (hopefully) have a little more context, be more formal and make more sense in a year from now when I am reviewing what I have worked on.