Phantasms

books

The books Deep Work by Cal Newport and Show Your Work by Austin Kleon are at odds with each other.

Deep Work advocates locking things down and going distraction free to focus on your work. While Show Your Work advocates giving out continual updates on your work and making use of social media to do so.

Cal would say that the time spent promoting your work on social media, is time better spent doing work or improving your skills. It’s basically a distraction. And in his book, he quotes some people who actually benefited from avoiding social media and focusing on deep work.

Austin would say, if you want your work to be discovered, then you need to keep sharing updates on it. Usage of social media is one of the best ways to do that. Actually his book gives out great advice on what to post on social media. No, he advises against posting about your life or documenting your life on social media. Rather, he suggests posting about what you're working on. Show your work, not show your life.

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