2.5 385 Does it hurt enough? (?)(!)
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.
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SETH GODIN Take good notes
Facts are important, but facts don’t create learning. Stories do.
A story fits into (and changes) our understanding of the world. Good teachers are storytellers, and storytellers are teachers.
Notes, then, aren’t recitations of facts. They’re story prompts. A good note reminds you of a story that you already understand.
November 15, 2024
2.4 381 Are you too trapped? (!)
Luke 18:25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God
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SETH GODIN Catastrophizing toward action
A friend found a knobby growth near his knee. After a few doctor visits, it was diagnosed as cancer. A cancer diagnosis is a self-sufficient catastrophe–few people need more than that to start taking immediate action.
At the same time, we live in a media culture where catastrophe has become a business model. More catastrophe leads to more clicks and more profits. It’s not a surprise that people are brought into a doom loop.
This sort of amplified catastrophe never ends, and it can easily make us feel helpless. In fact, that’s part of its goal. Endless catastrophes, endlessly examined, magnified and perfected.
Experiencing failure in advance is only helpful if the narrative causes us to take productive action. Better is possible, paralysis isn’t useful.
If the story isn’t helping you move forward, focus elsewhere. Catastrophizing is contagious, but we can work to stop the spread and get back to work.
November 14, 2024
2.4 374 Who wants a Quickie? (!)
Luke 17:21 … behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
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SETH GODIN Broken (and not worth fixing)
In one corner of the parking garage near my office, there’s no reception for a car’s satellite radio.
This is clearly broken, but it’s also not a problem. Certainly not a problem worth anyone’s attention when there are so many other problems to be addressed.
Problems, by definition, can be fixed. But they might not be worth the focus and effort.
Letting these go is important, because it frees us up to work on the things that most people don’t think are problems that are worth fixing.
November 13, 2024
2.2 370 What's your distraction? (!)
Luke 12:48 For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.
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SETH GODIN Unforced errors
In hospitality and customer service, perfect is elusive. Someone is going to miss a shift, have a bad day, or fail to understand a situation.
But there’s a second kind of error, the one that’s far more common. When management makes bad choices, or underinvests in systems, training and people, it’s not really an error. It’s a choice that costs everyone involved.
These are choices with consequences. Don’t blame the actors if you have a lousy script.
When you built that automated phone tree to save a few dollars on customer service, you were choosing to lose some of your best customers. When you planned a lazy and boring menu for the group meeting at your hotel, you chose to send a message of carelessness. And when you ask under-appreciated and poorly-trained staff to step up and be the face of your organization, you’re risking your future.
Customer service is a chance to create delight and impact. It can amplify or undermine the marketing investments that you say are important–and yet, management often fails to see the systems they are building and maintaining. Begin with, “we’re doing these things on purpose, with intent.”
As in all things, getting the systems right is the foundation for everything else that follows.
Your hospitality strategy is the problem, not bad luck or uncaring staff.
November 12, 2024
![2.1 367 Signal or noise (?) [Veterans Day!]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/67267fa0702bd1206608ed17/1731335161290-WX29LVONCRRZFJKMHCVG/1+Monday.png)
2.1 367 Signal or noise (?) [Veterans Day!]
Luke 5:32 I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
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SETH GODIN “What should I do now?”
We’ve forgotten how often society had an answer for that question.
Perhaps our shift away from a dictated answer not only gives us freedom, it also creates ennui and fear.
The culture of a generation or two ago told you where to study, what to study, how to cut your hair, what to wear, where to work, how to present within your class or identity, what to listen to, what to eat, what to drive, where to live and more.
Things have changed, slowly and then all at once.
You’re way less likely to get picked.
The gatekeepers have left the gates unlocked.
And yet, the indoctrination of ‘supposed to’ continues.
The disconnect is real. Like all change, it’s not easy. One of the early subtitles of my new book was, “figuring out what to do next.”
Owning our choices is a privilege that we can learn to dance with.
November 11, 2024
1.6 365 G.school #87 A Minimalist theology derived from a Theocentric-Christology for non-believers (pt 1) (huh?)
Mark 5:36 …“Do not fear, only believe.”
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SETH GODIN Dumbing it down
There’s a lot of pressure to make things dumber. Better to make it dumb than to have someone simply walk away, apparently.
With so much to consume, and an unlimited amount to learn, there’s a race to make knowledge into a checklist item. Freon gas! Large language model! Coefficients! Many people just want to say a magic word and move on.
Of course, if we dumb things down, they become dumb.
This is not the same as simplifying concepts before adding nuance.
Four year olds easily learn to speak, and many kids in second grade can read. Not because they have a dumb version, but because someone cared enough to make the method simple.
There are simple explanations for quantum mechanics and for auto mechanics as well. They simply take a while to understand well enough to teach them to other people.
Start with basic principles, go slow and build. No need to dumb it down. Simple it up instead.
We have enough dumb. We need more simple.
November 9, 2024
4.6 359 G.school #85 Bible history (pt 1) (?)
Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.
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SETH GODIN Choose your fuel wisely
If worrying about paying the mortgage gets you motivated to lean hard into the next project, don’t be surprised if that sort of fear arises every time you have hard work to do.
If your goal is to teach the naysayers a lesson, remember that you’ll need to find people who you want to defeat every time you need to do important work.
If you are measuring a false proxy, a metric you say you don’t care about, it’s quite likely you’ll start caring about it.
When we pick our fuel, we pick our companions for the journey ahead.
Choosing to care about what other people care about surrenders your agency. You’ll find that success feels hollow, because it’s their success, not yours. And blaming the false metrics for losing your way is not as useful as simply walking away from them in the first place.
We thrive when we find a goal and a metric that’s resilient and easily replenished. It turns out that making a contribution is something we can do, again and again, and it never gets old.
November 2, 2024
4.5 354 Stress breaking point (?) (!)
Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
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SETH GODIN “Won’t get fooled again”
Alas, we probably will.
Recurring scams, hustles and deceptions work because we’re eager to be fooled by them.
Vaporware, false deadlines, fake budgets, unrealistic promises and straight out con jobs persist because at some level, we demand them. Divisive arguments, mob enthusiasm and simple lies work surprising well.
False hope delivers a benefit in the moment, while the reality we have to live with doesn’t arrive for weeks or months.
If you don’t want to get fooled again, think about why you got fooled last time.
November 1, 2024
4.4 353 What if you go deeper? (!)
Romans 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
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SETH GODIN Wearing the costume
There’s a huge difference between carrying a stethoscope and being a doctor.
And being a clown requires far more than getting a clown suit.
Entrepreneurs with business cards, slick websites and mission statements are confused. That’s not the hard part.
If the costume puts you in the right frame of mind, that’s great. But the hard part is the important part.
Can you list the parts that matter? (hint: they might be the parts you’re avoiding.)
October 31, 2024
4.3 349 A man after our own heart (?)
1 John 2:15-17 NIV — Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
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SETH GODIN The run-on sentence
Periods were an extraordinary invention. It took thousands of years of writing before we settled on this simple convention.
The most direct way to improve your writing is to make your sentences shorter.
I was reading a magazine article yesterday and was rapidly losing interest. The topic appealed to me, but I couldn’t keep reading. Then I noticed that halfway through the first column, I was still on the same sentence.
We have trouble keeping that long a string in our heads at once.
You can make sentences too long.
But it’s hard to make them too short.
October 30, 2024
4.2 340 The formula for Success (!)
Galatians 5:22-23 NIV — But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
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SETH GODIN What do we owe the future?
You are someone’s ancestor.
Most immediately, you are the ancestor of the you of tomorrow.
That’s why we don’t spend every penny in our bank account, why we put leftovers in the fridge, why we earn a degree–it’s a gift to the you of tomorrow.
Each of us have a way of thinking about our ancestorhood.
The circle of now is how far into the future you’re hoping to make an impact. Do you care enough to invest in a thousand tomorrows? What will you invest in (or sacrifice, depending on your point of view) to receive in the future?
And the circle of us is how many people you’re considering in the actions you take today.
The most convenient, easiest and visceral choice is to make no choice at all. Keep your circles small, focused on pleasure and the short-term win. If we don’t think about it, this is what we might collide with. No friend at all to our descendants, including our future self.
When we’re at our best, though, we expand those circles, creating generative possibility for ourselves and those around us. Everyone feeds their circles, the opportunity is to make them bigger.
Bina Venkataraman has written about this better than I ever could.
Choose to choose the circle you want to be part of. Become the ancestor you’d like to thank.
October 29, 2024
4.1 333 The winner effect (?) (!)
Galatians 2:20—“It is Christ who lives in me” “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.”
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SETH GODIN Promises and our best
There is a significant difference between, “I promise,” and “I’ll do my best.”
Promises are difficult to keep and ought to be offered with that in mind. Doing our best is assumed.
October 28, 2024
3.7 334 G.school #84 Rewind to 10-27-1521
James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
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SETH GODIN “I didn’t see you there”
Someone I’ve worked with over the years happened to be driving down my street. I called out and said hello…
They ignored me. So I repeated myself.
“Oh,” they said, recognizing me. “It’s you.”
We’re more likely to see, hear and care if the person over there is actually a person. A person we know, or admire, or recognize.
If you write a nasty email to a company, it might make you feel sheepish if someone actually responds. “I didn’t know you were going to read it…”
It’s easy to exclude people who aren’t like us, who might have a disability or come from a different background or group.
Not just exclude them, but not design for them, account for them, listen to them or see them with dignity.
October 27, 2024
3.6 325 G.school #83 What are the problems for the church of the future?
James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
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SETH GODIN Boring to who?
Sometimes, marketers, musicians or speakers dig themselves into a solipsistic rabbit hole.
They’ve heard their stuff before. They think everyone else has too.
So they bury the lede, look for new laughs and most of all, try to avoid boring themselves.
Which often leads to confusion or controversy or, most of all, a muddy message.
You’re not speaking up to entertain yourself. You’re here to teach the next group of people who need to hear from you.
Empathy in communication requires you to repeat the stuff that works as you continue to explore the next layer of what might work even better.
In the words of my late friend Jay Levinson, “Don’t change your story when you’re bored, or when your partner is bored, or when your team is bored. Change your story when your accountant is bored.”
October 26, 2024
3.5 314 What's your intuition quotient? (!)
1 Corinthians 6:19 RSV — Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own;
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SETH GODIN Intuition
Intuition is simply a theory we haven’t yet put into words.
Once we write down and share our intuition, it becomes more resilient, focused and useful to others.
October 25, 2024
3.4 309 why smart people get what they want
John 17:21-22 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us,[a] so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one,
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SETH GODIN Important problems
Some problems are easy to solve, others are difficult, requiring a lot more labor, willpower, resources and coordination.
Some problems have simple solutions, while others are complex in what it takes to move forward.
The trivial problems are fun. They’re simple to solve and don’t require much effort. Yes, please, go solve them.
We’re tempted to focus on the problems that are complicated but apparently easy. Somehow, a tweet or a scientific paper or some other announcement is all that it will take to unknot this situation. Tempting, but unlikely. If all it took to solve an easy problem was telling people the solution, we probably would have solved it already.
The other temptation is to seek out problems that are difficult to solve and complicated to organize around. After all, a herculean problem like this is so hard that no one can fault you if you don’t succeed.
What truly matters, though, are the important problems. The ones that aren’t rocket science, but need a significant amount of guts, emotional labor and community coordination to solve. They’re here. Right in front of us. Simple but difficult. But worth it.
October 24, 2024