I'm going to start a new project for myself that will also hopefully be helpful to others.
To really internalize the lessons of books and have something to reference back to in the future, I'm going to outline and summarize the main points. The format may change, but as of now, I'll go chapter by chapter of books I'm reading and summarize them in no more than 3 sentences.
As the saying goes, "The best way to learn is to teach." My thought is that synthesizing the main points in my own words and pulling out snippets and quotes will help to internalize the lesson now and future-proof the learnings by finding the parts that resonate and will remind me in the future when the lessons have faded.
Show Your Work! [by Austin Kleon]
A new way of operating
Think about your work as a never-ending process, share your process for people who might be interested, and deal with the ups and downs of putting yourself out in the world.
You don't have to be a genius.
Find a scenius.
If you look at geniuses throughout history, they were part of a "scenius" - a group of artists, curators, thinkers, theorists, an other tastemakers - that all contributed and built their creative ecosystem.
Good work isn't created in a vacuum and creativity is always in some some sense a collaborative effort.
If we stop trying to be the genius and instead focus on how we can nurture and contribute to the scenius, we shift our perspective from asking what others can do for us and instead ask what we can do for others.
Be an amateur.
Amateurs are life-long learners that know contributing something is better than contributing nothing.
Think about what you want to learn and commit to learning it in front of others.
You can't find your voice if you don't use it.
Talk about the things you love and your voice will follow.
If you want people to know about what you do and the things you care about, you have to share.
Read obituaries.
If getting started is scary, consider the fact that one day we'll all be dead.
Even the perspective that you gain from a near-death experience fades and you get pulled back into the busy-work of life.
Read obituaries to be reminded of your mortality and be inspired to live a life worth living by putting yourself out there.
Think process, not product.
Take people behind the scenes.
Become a documentarian of what you do.
Share something small every day.
Send out a daily dispatch.
The "So What?" Test
Turn your flow into stock.
Build a good (domain) name.
Open up your cabinet of curiosities.
Don't be a hoarder.
No guilty pleasures.
Credit is always due.
Tell good stories.
Work doesn't speak for itself.
Structure is everything.
Talk about yourself at parties.
Teach what you know.
Share your trade secrets.
Don't turn into human spam.
Shut up and listen.
You want hearts, not eyeballs.
The Vampire Test
Identify you fellow knuckleballers.
Meet up in meatspace.
Learn to take a punch
Let 'em take their best shot.
Don't feed the trolls.
Sell out.
Even the Renaissance had to be funded.
Pass around the hat.
Keep a mailing list.
Make more work for yourself.
Pay it forward.
Stick around.
Don't quit your show.
Chain-smoke.
Go away so you can come back.
Start over. Begin again.
What now?