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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Seth Godin
Read between
October 16 - October 18, 2020
We need to think hard about what reality looks like now.
Stop asking what’s in it for you and start giving gifts that change people.
If you learn how to be one of these workers, if you pay attention in school, follow instructions, show up on time, and try hard, we will take care of you. You won’t have to be brilliant or creative or take big risks.
Artists are people with a genius for finding a new answer, a new connection, or a new way of getting things done. That would be you.
Consumers are not loyal to cheap commodities. They crave the unique, the remarkable, and the human. Sure, you can always succeed for a while with the cheapest, but you earn your place in the market with humanity and leadership.
ordinary, more standard, and cheaper. Or win by being faster, more remarkable, and more human.
There are no longer any great jobs where someone else tells you precisely what to do.
If we can measure it, we can do it faster. If we can put it in a manual, we can outsource it. If we can outsource it, we can get it cheaper. The end results are legions of frustrated workers, wasted geniuses each and every one of them, working like automatons, racing against the clock to crank out another policy, get through another interaction, see another patient. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Linchpins are the essential building blocks of tomorrow’s high-value organizations.
But this abundance of trash is overwhelmed by the market’s ability to distribute news about the great stuff.
Yesterday’s remarkable is today’s really good and tomorrow’s mediocre. Mediocre is merely a failed attempt to be really good.
Yesterday’s remarkable is today’s really good and tomorrow’s mediocre.
An exceptional performer earns you $30 for every hour he works. A good employee is worth $25 an hour, and a mediocre worker can contribute about $20 an hour in profit.
Now, the only way to grow is to stand out, to create something worth talking about, to treat people with respect and to have them spread the word.
The only way to get what you’re worth is to stand out, to exert emotional labor, to be seen as indispensable, and to produce interactions that organizations and people care deeply about.
Consumers say that all they want are cheap commodities. Given the choice, though, most of us, most of the time, seek out art. We seek out experiences and products that deliver more value, more connection, and more experience, and change us
If every great programmer were given the best tools, the best marketing, and the best technology, imagine how much more work that would create for the members of the Programmers Guild. If we enlarged the pie by bringing in the best programmers from around the world, it’s inevitable that tons of jobs would be created for local talent as well.
Except Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs were raised by adoptive parents,
A hundred years ago, our leaders worried about two things that seem truly archaic to us now: How to find enough factory workers; and How to avoid overproduction.
Here’s what we’re teaching kids to do (with various levels of success): Fit in Follow instructions Use #2 pencils Take good notes Show up every day Cram for tests and don’t miss deadlines Have good handwriting Punctuate Buy the things the other kids are buying Don’t ask questions Don’t challenge authority Do the minimum amount required so you’ll have time to work on another subject Get into college Have a good résumé Don’t fail Don’t say anything that might embarrass you Be passably good at sports, or perhaps extremely good at being a quarterback Participate in a large number of
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What They Should Teach in School Only two things: 1. Solve interesting problems 2. Lead
Branson’s real job is seeing new opportunities, making decisions that work, and understanding the connection between his audience, his brand, and his ventures.
Finding security in mediocrity is an exhausting process. You
Depth of knowledge combined with good judgment is worth a lot. Depth of knowledge combined with diagnostic skills or nuanced insight is worth a lot, too.
direct mail writer
There are three situations where an organization will reward and embrace someone with extraordinary depth of knowledge:
1. When the knowledge is needed on a moment’s notice and bringing in an outside source is too risky or time consuming. 2. When the knowledge is needed on a constant basis and the cost of bringing in an outside source is too high. 3. When depth of knowledge is also involved in decision making, and internal credibility and organizational knowledge go hand in hand with knowing the right answer.
A tourist may have significant technical skill, but if she doesn’t know the territory—your territory—then the skill isn’t worthwhile.
His biggest concern? “Ford is a place where they wait for the leader to tell them what to do.”
Expertise gives you enough insight to reinvent what everyone else assumes is the truth.
It’s far more likely, though, that you will design a great Web site or direct a powerful movie or lead a breakthrough product development if you understand the status quo better than anyone else.
Linchpins are able to embrace the lack of structure and find a new path, one that works.
Marissa is a linchpin. She applies artistic judgment combined with emotional labor.
Organizations that can bring humanity and flexibility to their interactions with other human beings will thrive.
Statistics are a dangerous deal, because statistics make it strikingly clear that you’re only a little better than the other guy. Or perhaps not better at all.
Hermes would assign a craftsperson to work on a saddle for as long as it might take. The famous vintners of Champagne relied on trained professionals—men who had worked their whole lives with wine—
At the same time that France was embracing handmade luxury, Great Britain was embracing the anonymous factory. Looms that could turn out cotton cloth with minimal human labor, or pottery factories that could make cheap plates.
Relying on humanity made it difficult—it made the work done in France scarce, and scarcity creates value.
“unafraid of things that one shouldn’t be afraid of.”
Feckless is the worst of all. Ineffective, indifferent, and lazy.
If you seek to become indispensable, a similar question is worth asking: “Where do you put the fear?” What separates a linchpin from an ordinary person is the answer to this question. Most of us feel the fear and react to it. We stop doing what is making us afraid. Then the fear goes away. The linchpin feels the fear, acknowledges it, then proceeds. I can’t tell you how to do this; I think the answer is different for everyone. What I can tell you is that in today’s economy, doing it is a prerequisite for success.
Innovative solutions to new problems don’t get old.
Seek out achievements where there is no limit.
Consider the way a pilot walking down the aisle can change the entire afternoon for a restless kid on a flight. Or the way a doctor taking just an extra minute can change her relationship with a patient by pausing and caring.
Art is never defect-free.
The interviewer then reminded Dylan, “But you’ve sold over a hundred million records.” Dylan’s answer gets to the heart of what it means to be an artist: “Yeah I know. It’s a mystery to me too.”
If it wasn’t a mystery, it would be easy. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be worth much.
The problem with meeting expectations is that it’s not remarkable.
As a result of the tsunami of pretty good (and the persistence of really lousy), the market for truly exceptional is better than ever.
You want something remarkable, nonlinear, game changing, and artistic.
