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Andy Matuschak describes a concept called Work with the garage door up. It’s all about showing the process of your work instead of just the finished work.
I’ve adopted this practice cause there’s tons of value in it, let me explain!
The process is often as valuable as the end result. And sometimes the process is the actual work.
To me, working in public is about giving others the possibility to see how you work, allowing them to learn, and allowing you to get early feedback on your work, which you can learn from in return, and improve the quality of your work.
And in any craft, you get better by doing the work, by refining your process, and by getting deliberate feedback. There’s only so much you can tell from a finished piece of work.
And there’s a massive audience waiting for you, Twitch and YouTube are all about watching other people do things. Show others how something came to be, what you had to overcome, the change of plans. Tell those stories.
You make your to-do lists public.
This making of, this unfiltered version of the work adds to your story.
Next to sharing your working process and any intermediate work there is good value in having finished work in public as well.
In his article Don’t end the week with nothing Patrick Mackenzie writes that you should prefer working on things you can actually show.
Telling people you can do great work is easy: any idiot can do it
Having people tell people you do great work is an improvement.
Work you can show off, though, is prima facie evidence of your skills.
Showing actual work beats any resumé, and any coding interview.
Now go out there and give others the opportunity to see what you’re working on and how you’re working on it. Share those intentionally unfinished bits too. It’ll pay off!
And hey, if you’re not ready yet to be out there in the open, you can apply this to other less public contexts as well. Such as the team you work on. Small steps!