American Door Finishing / www.nicksbuilding.com

Most people who create digital things naturally accumulate a portfolio. Some people, though, end up with an oeuvre. These are the notable people in our fields who have a seemingly massive body of work, consistently writing, designing, shipping code, giving talks, and generally creating the things that everyone else consumes, discusses, and shares. What sets these people apart?

Talent is only part of the answer. There are lots of talented people with their heads down doing brilliant work with little major recognition. (Incidentally, the inverse is also true.)

It may also seem like they’re simply more prolific. But that’s not it either. You can have a million lines of code on Github and never get noticed or build something people are using. Between away messages, statuses, tweets, and e-mail, I’ve shared several thousand interesting links over the years, but that doesn’t make me Andy Baio or Jason Kottke.

So if being talented and prolific isn’t enough, what is? I’ve come to realize that the biggest factor setting the notable creatives apart is simple: they finish more. And not in the way you may think.

Most people think of “finishing” as coming to the end of something. I’m more interested in a secondary definition:

“completing [a product] by giving it an attractive surface appearance.”

Finishing is taking the extra time to not just release what you’ve created into the world like so much digital exhaust, but to sign your name to it, wrap a bow around it, and present it to an audience. It’s imbuing a sense of ownership, craftsmanship, and posterity into what you’ve already created. And, importantly, doing the same with your by-products.