Don’t share something without crediting its creative authorship

“[…] what if you want to share something but don’t know where it comes from or who made it? The answer: don’t share anything you can’t properly credit. If you can’t find the source, don’t share it.”
—Austin Kleon in Show Your Work! (translation from the spanish version)

When I first read Austin Kleon’s Show Your Work!¹, his advice—“If you can’t find the source, don’t share it”—felt too rigid. In practice, this means that if I come across a valuable idea but don’t know its creative authorship, I shouldn’t share it.

One of the goals of my writing is precisely that: to share valuable ideas, whether they’re mine or someone else’s. So this advice felt like a stick in my spokes. Moreover, the line between one’s own and someone else’s authorship is often arbitrary. Then, attribution can end up feeling like a limiting and arbitrary formality.

Why should you credit creative authorship?

A few weeks ago, I became interested again in the topic of creative authorship and finally decided to process Austin Kleon’s reasoning behind that piece of advice. In my view, his argument can be structured as follows:

• Premise #1: “Sharing someone else’s work without proper creative attribution harms both the author and the reader.”
• Premise #2: “I don’t want to harm either the author or the reader.”
• Conclusion: “Therefore, don’t share someone else’s work without proper creative attribution.”

Let’s break that down.

First, when you don’t recognize creative authorship, you harm both the author and the reader. “Harm” here doesn’t mean physical harm, but rather preventing a situation that would be beneficial for both the author and the reader.

When you don’t recognize creative authorship:

• In the author’s case, you risk falling into plagiarism—whether consciously or not. But more importantly, you deprive them of the opportunity to gain visibility and recognition for their work.
• In the reader’s case, you deprive them of the chance to explore the original source of the idea more deeply.

For instance, if in one of my articles I share an idea from Sascha Fast about Zettelkasten but don’t credit his creative authorship, I’d be blocking the mutually beneficial opportunity for you two to get to know each other.

Second, I don’t want to harm either the author or the reader. In fact, I want the opposite—to create as much value as possible through my work, both for readers and for other creators.

If we understand creative work through the myth of the collaborative genius, proper attribution becomes essential. Not so much for intellectual property reasons (which would be the first form of “harm”), but because it helps creating an interconnected network of ideas that allows others to go deeper and build on one another’s work.

In other words, by recognizing the creative authorship of someone else’s work:

• you become a better collaborator
• you create and add value to the community
• you strengthen the collaborative genius

Therefore, recognizing creative authorship goes beyond being a limiting and arbitrary formality (a necessary evil to avoid complaints): it’s a key step in creating value through your work.

When should you credit creative authorship?

In practice, there are two situations.

1. You know who the creative author is. In this case, you should credit whoever holds the creative authorship (whether it’s yours or someone else’s).

2. You don’t know, or you’re unsure. In this case, you can take a more flexible approach. If it’s impossible to find the original author, look instead for relevant sources that have worked with that idea. In other words, show how your work fits into what others have done before you.

The goal isn’t only to respect others’ creative authorship. The ultimate goal is to contextualize and offer relevant sources so the reader can explore further if they wish.

An example of this is my double-value filter. It’s a tool of my own creative authorship (a new implementation of an idea), so, in principle, I wouldn’t need to credit anyone else. However, that would have greatly limited the value of the piece. Acknowledging Bob Doto’s influence expands the interconnected network of the collaborative genius and gives the reader an opportunity to follow the thread.

Conclusion: Develop your own creative authorship

In truth, I’ve always credited the creative authorship of others’ work. The shift I’ve had—after processing Austin Kleon’s argument—is that I now clearly see how attribution is tied to the creation of value in creative work. So I no longer see it as a necessary evil, but as a way to express my personal values regarding creative work.

Ultimately, Kleon’s advice is a way to empower the myth of the collaborative genius: to foster collaboration among ideas. But this advice points to something deeper than just learning to credit others—it’s an invitation to learn to build upon the work of those who came before you, so that those who come after you can do the same.

“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
—Isaac Newton

Do you know how to create by standing on the work of others?

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