Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? How to drive your career and create a remarkable future

by Seth Godin

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 extracurricular activities Be a generalist Try not to have the other kids talk about you Once you learn a topic, move on Now, the key questions: Which of these attributes are the keys to being indispensable? Are we building the sort of people our society needs? The problem doesn’t lie with the great teachers. Great teachers strive to create linchpins. The problem lies with the system that punishes artists and rewards bureaucrats instead.