Seth Godin's Blog, page 82

Stinginess in the connection economy

When six people are trying to split a pizza, some stinginess appears. After all, more for one person is less for the other five.

But in interactions that lead to connection, to shared knowledge, to possibility, it's pretty clear that there isn't a zero-sum game being played. In fact, the more enthusiasm and optimism people bring to the interaction, the more there is for everyone else.

You don't need to save up the goodwill and encouragement you offer to others. It will be automatically replenished, and it pays dividends along the way.

            

Groucho runs deep

Groucho Marx famously said, "I don't want to be a member of any club that would have me." Thanks to our connection economy, the membership rolls are now wide open, but the problem isn't declining.

There are so many communities that want you. So many opportunities to connect, to learn, to leap.

Some communities have skills and want to share them with you. And other ones need you to teach.

In the face of these opportunities, it's easy to say, "everyone's too smart for me," or worse, "I'm too advanced and I can't learn anything here."

The full Groucho is believing that you don't deserve to learn and you're not entitled to teach.

Of course, that's merely a form of hiding. Because connection leads to learning and learning leads to change and change is frightening. Easier, it seems, to push the opportunities away, say your Groucho Marx line and go back to doing what you were doing.

If you weren't afraid of change, what could you learn?

And if you weren't afraid of rejection, what would you teach?

Each of us is becoming, becoming something better or something worse. And we become what we teach and what we learn.

            

The middle of everywhere

If the railroad didn't make it to your town, or if the highway didn't have an exit, or if you were somehow off the beaten path, we wrote you off. Your town was in the middle of nowhere.

Now, of course, if wireless signal can reach you, you're now in the middle of everywhere, aren't you?

            

When time catches up

And it always does.

Bad decisions happen for one of two reasons:

A. You're in a huge hurry and you can't process all the incoming properly. But more common...

B. The repercussions of your decision won't happen for months or years. This is why we don't save for retirement, don't pay attention to long-term environmental issues, and, tragically, tolerate (or fall prey to) irrational rants about things like vaccines. It might be engaging or soothing to promote a palliative idea now, but years later, when innocent kids are sick and dying, the regrets are real.

A bad decision isn't only bad because we're uninformed or dumb. It can be bad because we are swayed by short-term comfort and ignore long-term implications. A bad decision feels good in the short run, the heartfelt decision of someone who means well. But there's a gap when we get to the long run.

Eula Biss has written a beautiful, honest book about this gap. About how we can fall into the trap of being well-meaning, emotional and loud in the short run, but how the truth of time changes the way we see things.

Our job as leaders (and we all are, in our own way) is to elevate the long run on behalf of those we care about, regardless how hard the marketing and tribal noise around us encourages to fall prey to instant comfort.

Everyone has feelings and opinions, but the future ignores them.

            

"It's not my problem"

But what if it was?

What if the apparently intractable cultural issues that you take for granted were instead seen as problems on your desk, things you could influence?

What if the rules others take for granted are seen by you and your team as standards you can change?

What if we take the responsibility instead of waiting for it to be offered?

            

Catching up with podcasts

Emma Gannon, with a focus on new careers.

Talking lawyers.

On marketing with the insightful Sonia Simone on Rainmaker.

Elin Barton on thin ice.

Reid and June have a new podcast about scale.

How we solved the altMBA with The Solution.

Talking writing with CC Chapman.

 

            

Possibility

This is not the same as reality. But without belief in the possibility, your reality is going to be severely curtailed.

We must avoid the temptation to begin with an analysis of what's easy, or what's probable, or even likely.

We can only do our work justice by examining what's possible, and then deciding if we care enough to pursue it.

            

Tension vs. fear

Fear's a dream killer. It puts people into suspended animation, holding their breath, paralyzed and unable to move forward.

Fear is present in many education settings, because fear's a cheap way to ensure compliance. "Do this," the teacher threatens, "or something bad is going to happen to you."

The thing is, learning is difficult. If it was easy, you'd already know everything you need to know. And if you could do it on your own, you wouldn't need the time or expense to do it with others.

But when we try to learn something on our own, we often get stuck. 

It's not because of fear, it's because of tension.

The tension we face any time we're about to cross a threshold. The tension of this might work vs. this might not work. The tension of if I learn this, will I like who I become?

Tension is the hallmark of a great educational experience. The tension of not quite knowing where we are in the process, not being sure of the curriculum, not having a guarantee that it's about to happen.

As adults, we willingly expose ourselves to the tension of a great jazz concert, or a baseball game or a thrilling movie. But, mostly because we've been indoctrinated by fear, we hesitate when we have the opportunity to learn something new on our way to becoming the person we seek to be.

Effective teachers have the courage to create tension. And adult learners on their way to levelling up actively seek out this tension, because it works. It pushes us over the chasm to the other side.

I've been running the altMBA for nearly two years, and in that time we've seen tens of thousands of people consider the workshop. Some of them see the tension coming and eagerly dive in. Others mistake that tension for fear and back away, promising themselves that they'll sign up later.

The ones who leapt are transformed. The tension pays off.

We're proud of the tension. We built it into the workshop from the start, because education is never about access to information, it's about the forward motion of learning.

You already know this workshop works. That's easy to check out. The hesitation comes from this very fact... that it works. That a change occurs. That the unknown is right over there, and to get yourself there, you have to walk through a month's worth of tension.

That's the best way I know to learn. And so that's the way we teach.

 

PS there are only two more sessions of the altMBA this year. Embrace the tension and apply in time for tomorrow's early priority deadline. 

            

Without a sail

A sailboat without a sail might float. 

For a long time, in fact.

But without a sail, it can't go anywhere, can't fulfill its function.

Floating is insufficient.

            

In defense of the tree emoji

The boom emoji gets a lot of play. It happened. It worked. We won.

Boom.

The tree emoji, on the other hand, celebrates the patient and generous acts of planting seeds, watering them, caring for them, and then, in a generation, you have a tree.

It doesn't even have a noise.

Simple growth. With patience. (I prefer the deciduous tree instead of the evergreen, because the leaves coming in and falling off are part of the deal). 

Put me down for the tree emoji.