I keep tripping over the advice to show people the work instead of telling them about it. For most people it’s good advice. For me it’s always been a little backwards, and I think I finally know why.
The telling is the part I actually care about. Getting an idea to land the way I meant it. So “let the work speak for itself” would have me step around the exact thing I’m trying to get good at. For me, the work doesn’t speak for itself. The speaking is the work.
I don’t think that’s a free pass. If anything it’s a higher bar: if I can’t make an idea land in plain words, maybe I don’t understand it well enough yet.
What does “let the work speak for itself” quietly talk you out of?