Jen read and liked Renee Contreras's review of Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity:

"I checked this out because I enjoyed the original Gaping Void post. I also lent it to my mother, a Seth Godin fan who'd heard Godin rave about it. We're both writers; I'm a newbie, but Mom earns six figures with her writing. Creativity is vital to wh...more I checked this out because I enjoyed the original Gaping Void post. I also lent it to my mother, a Seth Godin fan who'd heard Godin rave about it. We're both writers; I'm a newbie, but Mom earns six figures with her writing. Creativity is vital to what we do, and we represent both ends of the experience spectrum.

Neither of us cared for this book.

I made it through the whole thing (if nothing else, it's a fast read), but Mom handed it back halfway through. She said that the advice seemed to state the obvious (agreed), and she felt like in each chapter, the author merely repeated a point fifty different ways, instead of building a case for it (ditto).

Also, the author contradicts himself: ignore everybody, except for some people; keep your day job, but don't turn into a burnout wage slave; money doesn't matter, except when it does. Nuanced thinking is great, but it shouldn't muddy the message.

In the end, it's a blog post on steroids, and that's not good enough for a $24 hardcover book. The whole book can be reduced to pithy one-liners (some contradictory), and I expect more from print.

I wasn't crazy about the author's persona, either; Seth Godin defended MacLeod's profanity & sex references as brave, but they seemed superfluous. I also rankled at the condescension MacLeod directed at certain ex-colleagues & friends. He draws cartoons on the back of business cards. You'd think he'd know better than to make harsh judgments on people's lives & careers based on a lunch or chance encounter at a bar.

So, yeah. Not my favorite. Similar work that I found more useful: Stephen King's On Writing, Ira Glass on Storytelling (available on YouTube); John Gardener's On Becoming a Novelist (caustic, but smart); some of Daniel Pink's work.(less) "