Quote
“Teach what you know.”
— Austin Kleon, in Show Your Work! (2014) · Show Your Work! →
Why it was said
Austin Kleon makes this line one of the ten ways to share your work in Show Your Work!. It answers a fear many professionals share: that explaining how they work will make them easy to copy or replace.
What it actually means
The instinct of many experts is to guard their methods, on the theory that whatever others learn from you, they no longer need you for. Kleon reverses the logic. Explaining how you work reveals the depth behind it, and people who understand a craft tend to value the craftsperson more, not less. Teaching also tests your own understanding: what you cannot explain simply, you may not know as well as you think. Most of what an expert knows is not a secret recipe but judgment built over years, and that cannot be copied from a post or a tutorial. For anyone building a reputation, generosity with knowledge is one of the cheapest and most durable ways to earn trust before asking for anything.
How to use it
- 1Write a short explanation of one technique you use every week, as if for a colleague who joined yesterday.
- 2When someone asks how you did something, give them a real answer instead of "it's complicated".