Seth Godin's Blog, page 42

“It’s not for everyone”

“…but it might be for you.”

That’s a home run.

The stuff that’s for everyone, that’s easy to click, sniff, share, produce and learn–that stuff ends up having no character. It’s not memorable. Tater tots are for everyone.

But would you miss them if they were gone?

The goal isn’t to serve everyone. The goal is to serve the right people.

 

BIG PS: Today’s the first official post on my new blog, the first new blog platform for me in this century, give or take. If you’re getting this by email, click the title of the post to take a peek, or visit https://seths.blog if you’re curious.

Delighted that we’re now powered by WordPress. Special thanks to Alex Peck and Noah Grubb for tireless, thoughtful, careful work on this transition.

            

What do you aspire to be?

When we go looking for a co-worker, a freelancer, a vendor or even a boss, we’re hoping for something. It might be:

Perfect

Interesting

Accommodating

Productive

Challenging

and a host of other attributes that any of us are able to aspire to.

Of course, we never look for someone who is invisible, or brittle, or a bully.

The temptation is to take the lesson of a dozen years of compulsory education and choose to be the perfect one. The problem with perfect, though, is that it’s really difficult to pull off in the long run. The problem with perfect is that when you fail, you have none of the other more flexible human traits to fall back on. And the problem with perfect is that merely meeting spec means that the organization is soon going to be looking for someone cheaper and faster than you are.

            

Rethinking graduation

It’s that time of year again… If you hear “Pomp & Circumstance” playing, you know you’re in the right place, and you also know you’re about to witness a pre-electrification (never mind pre-digital) event.

Who’s it for?


What’s it for?

I fear that tradition has gotten in the way of design thinking.

When we ask those two questions, great opportunities arrive.

A prime audience for graduation is the graduates. And what do they want? A moment in the spotlight. Official recognition. Digital media to prove it. Speed. Humor. Connection.

At the same time, expanding the amount of time spent parading each student on the stage for a photo and a handshake undermines most of that, and it alienates or numbs everyone else.

Consider: we have screens now. Our graduates believe in speed, screens and being seen.

I’d do the following things, simultaneously:

1. Instead of one team of two doing the handshake and photo dance, have three teams. I don’t think a student cares if it’s a dean or an associate dean (or even a department chair) who shakes their hand. With three processions at a time instead of one, we go from six people a minute to 20. That means, even if you change nothing else, you’ve cut the time by two-thirds.

Reading the names more quickly is easy if you have three people doing the reading instead of one. Read them with care, and respect, and honor them, but that’s no reason to dillydally.

2. You could add extra cameras and have all the photos instantly posted to Flickr or Instagram. This means that the pictures would be shared immediately and with more power.

3. But the real win is in using the iMax video displays. In the month before graduation, each student comes to an office at the school (you can have multiple offices that do this) and records themselves saying their name. Now, we have a video of their face, with their name in bold type below, saying their name with pride. Edited tightly, this would permit a fun, energetic video with each student in it. You could cut in, every few minutes, some singing groups, a on-campus charity event, etc. While the videos are rolling, when a student’s name comes up, she marches across the stage.

Tension.


Excitement.


Speed.

And it would look great.

Produced.

Energetic.

I think the students would take even more pride in that sort of celebration. We would eliminate almost all the last minute worries (if someone doesn’t march when their picture is up top, that’s okay).

Graduation is a milestone. We should make it feel like one again.

            

Rethinking graduation (off topic)

It's that time of year again... If you hear "Pomp & Circumstance" playing, you know you're in the right place, and you also know you're about to witness a pre-electrification (never mind pre-digital) event.

Who's it for?

What's it for?

I fear that tradition has gotten in the way of design thinking.

When we ask those two questions, great opportunities arrive.

A prime audience for graduation is the graduates. And what do they want? A moment in the spotlight. Official recognition. Digital media to prove it. Speed. Humor. Connection.

At the same time, expanding the amount of time spent parading each student on the stage for a photo and a handshake undermines most of that, and it alienates or numbs everyone else.

Consider: we have screens now. Our graduates believe in speed, screens and being seen.

I'd do the following things, simultaneously:

1. Instead of one team of two doing the handshake and photo dance, have three teams. I don't think a student cares if it's a dean or an associate dean (or even a department chair) who shakes their hand. With three processions at a time instead of one, we go from six people a minute to 20. That means, even if you change nothing else, you've cut the time by two-thirds.

Reading the names more quickly is easy if you have three people doing the reading instead of one. Read them with care, and respect, and honor them, but that's no reason to dillydally.

2. You could add extra cameras and have all the photos instantly posted to Flickr or Instagram. This means that the pictures would be shared immediately and with more power.

3. But the real win is in using the iMax video displays. In the month before graduation, each student comes to an office at the school (you can have multiple offices that do this) and records themselves saying their name. Now, we have a video of their face, with their name in bold type below, saying their name with pride. Edited tightly, this would permit a fun, energetic video with each student in it. You could cut in, every few minutes, some singing groups, a on-campus charity event, etc. While the videos are rolling, when a student's name comes up, she marches across the stage.

Tension.

Excitement.

Speed.

And it would look great.

Produced.

Energetic.

I think the students would take even more pride in that sort of celebration. We would eliminate almost all the last minute worries (if someone doesn't march when their picture is up top, that's okay).

Graduation is a milestone. We should make it feel like one again.

            

Misunderstanding the free market

Ice skating requires two things: smooth ice and gravity. Without a reliable foundation, you can't move forward. And without the constraints and boundaries put on us by gravity, you can't move at all.

The free market, the holy grail of some capitalists, is similar.

In a completely unbounded environment, markets can't develop, investments won't get made, nothing moves forward. You need clean air and water, a civil society, an educated workforce, a confident and trusting market and more. The very taxes that some whine about are the gravity that makes the system work.

There's a reason that there are no libertarian utopias. Left to its own devices, the market will fall apart, as a few race to the bottom and the pain of incivility takes over.

            

Misunderstanding the free market

Ice skating requires two things: smooth ice and gravity. Without a reliable foundation, you can't move forward. And without the constraints and boundaries put on us by gravity, you can't move at all.

The free market, the holy grail of some capitalists, is similar.

In a completely unbounded environment, markets can't develop, investments won't get made, nothing moves forward. You need clean air and water, a civil society, an educated workforce, a confident and trusting market and more. The very taxes that some whine about are the gravity that makes the system work.

There's a reason that there are no libertarian utopias. Left to its own devices, the market will fall apart, as a few race to the bottom and the pain of incivility takes over.

            

Throat clearing isn’t necessary

Begin in the middle.

The first paragraph, where you lay out what's about to happen. The half-apology you use to preface your comments at the meeting. The email that takes a paragraph or two to get to the point…

You can skip those.

Throat clearing is a good way to make sure that people are looking at you. And an even better way to give yourself time to collect your thoughts, to indulge your fears or to get yourself warmed up.

But we're already looking at you. We've clicked through to your link, given you the microphone, read your note…

Say all that stuff in your head, but, we'd really like to hear the best part first.

Begin in the middle.

            

Throat clearing isn't necessary

Begin in the middle.

The first paragraph, where you lay out what's about to happen. The half-apology you use to preface your comments at the meeting. The email that takes a paragraph or two to get to the point...

You can skip those.

Throat clearing is a good way to make sure that people are looking at you. And an even better way to give yourself time to collect your thoughts, to indulge your fears or to get yourself warmed up.

But we're already looking at you. We've clicked through to your link, given you the microphone, read your note...

Say all that stuff in your head, but, we'd really like to hear the best part first.

Begin in the middle.

            

Writing for people who don’t read

Right there, there’s your problem.

I know you’d like to reach more people, and most people don’t read. But if you’re going to write, the only choice you have is to reach people who will choose to engage with you.

Do it properly, and there’s a chance that those voluntarily literate people will tell their friends and colleagues.

And of course, the same thing goes for trying to teach people who don’t learn, tell jokes to people who don’t laugh, and campaign to people who don’t vote. It almost always works better if you engage with people who are enrolled in the journey and then motivate them to engage with their peers.

PS for people who listen, the 16th episode of Akimbo is now live. I hope you get a chance to listen to my answer to the second question on this episode, about education…

 

            

Writing for people who don't read

[Breaking news! You'll soon be reading this blog on a new site... because you're here, now, you qualify as part of our preview beta team if you want to jump in. Preview the new blog here.

If you've got feedback, click and let us know. Thanks for being here all these years and years.]

 

Right there, there's your problem.

I know you'd like to reach more people, and most people don't read.

But if you're going to write, the only choice you have is to reach people who will choose to engage with you. Do it properly, and there's a chance that those voluntarily literate people will tell their friends and colleagues.

And of course, the same thing goes for trying to teach people who don't learn, tell jokes to people who don't laugh, and campaign to people who don't vote. It almost always works better if you engage with people who are enrolled in the journey and then motivate them to engage with their peers.

PS for people who listen, the 16th episode of Akimbo is now live. I hope you get a chance to listen to my answer to the second question on this episode, about education...