I just posted a review of Seth Godin’s new book on Amazon, but thought I would also post it here with a few extra thoughts.
I, like several others people, donated some money to a charity and was able to read an early release of this book. Seth is a brilliant and creative marketer. Why send your book to a bunch of critics who often have unpredictable taste when you can send it to your fans instead?
It is no surprise that there are so many 4 and 5 star reviews for this book since most of these reviews are from people who received an early release of the book, just as I did, and are likely already fans of Seth. Plus, by requesting something in return—a donation to a charity—he was able to better ensure that these people would actually read the book since they had already had an investment in it. I checked the Amazon reviews of the book the day it was released, and already there were around 100 five-star reviews compared with a few four-stars, one three-star and one one-star.
Not only this, but these people are likely already Linchpins themselves and are going to be very receptive to this book because they already have a connection. It’s always exciting to read a book and say, “Wow, that’s me!” or “So that’s why I think that way.” I think this book does a decent job of encouraging people who are already Linchpins—people who are the glue that holds a society or company together by their creativity, adaptability and generous spirit—to continue to do what they are doing. I’m not sure that anyone else, other than someone teetering on the edge, would find the book near as riveting.
What I Liked
The first third of the book is really good. I flew through it and found it very inspirational. If you are already a Linchpin, you will probably love this part of the book. He tells you that you are a genius, discusses how American society has been built on cheap replaceable labor, and explains the mindset of Linchpins and why they are better able to survive and flourish during difficult times.
I thought he had some great examples of people who go out of their way to show generosity and integrity. It certainly made me take more notice of these types of people in the world around me and appreciate them more.
I also liked his reference to Steve Jobs saying, “Real artists ship.” It is great to see people who are able to fight through adversity and actually deliver a product or service rather than just wishing they could.
What I Disliked
About midway through the book he began talking about your lizard brain and the resistance. Maybe I’m fueling the resistance by saying this, but I guess that is what keeps this from being a one-sided critique. Seth basically divides the brain into two parts, the lizard brain or limbic system, which is all about survival, fear, anger and resistance, and your creative brain or cerebrum, which is, as Seth puts it, the newest and most sophisticated part of our brain that is always overruled by the other parts.
Throughout the book, Seth encourages you to completely ignore your lizard brain and focus on the creative, artistic part instead. He makes it seem like one part of your brain is evil and the other part is heroic. If the cerebrum is so much more advanced and sophisticated, why is it so easily defeated?
I prefer to think in terms of each part of your brain having a purpose and dedicated function. Think of it like career specialties. A mechanic may be a brilliant mechanic who knows everything there is to know about cars, but ask him to do brain surgery and you are going to have some issues. It doesn’t mean he is stupid, it just means he is out of his specialty.
The same thing is true of your brain. Fear can be an extremely good motivator and when channeled in the right way, it can actually stimulate creativity. However, if allowed to completely take over it can be paralyzing. The same thing applies to the creative side of your brain. If all you do is sit around in brainstorming sessions, you may come up with some incredible ideas, but you’ll never actually accomplish anything.
The right boundaries and constraints actually fuel creativity. Have you ever been to a really good concert? Great bands are very creative, but they know when to use their creativity. Imagine going to a concert where everyone decided to show off all their skills at the same time. You might think it was interesting for about five minutes, but after a couple hours you would probably start throwing things.
Regardless of whether you agree with Seths thinking or not, toward the end of the book, he laments the NO FEAR motto as, “either disingenuous or stupid.” To be fair, I think he is talking about recognizing your fear and managing it, but after his tone earlier in the book it comes across almost contradictory.
Much of the latter parts of the book make it seem as if Seth is trying to be convincing, but either not certain of the best way to do it, or else uncertain of what he really thinks himself. For instance, in one place he says, “None of us knows the absolute truth, of course, but the goal is to approach a situation with the least possible bias.” Not ten pages later, he talks about people ignoring the truth by deciding to stay in their homes during a hurricane—easy to say in hindsight with the New Orleans tragedy, but what about before then?
He also tells a story of how no passengers wanted to ride home with him in a rental car instead of remaining on a delayed flight and assumes that most of the people wanted to have a reason to blame the airline for their situation instead of themselves. In reality, these people made a choice—just as he did—but it wasn’t the choice he wanted them to make so therefore they must be wrong. After all, he knew the truth of the situation and they didn’t.
Conclusion
I know it may not seem like it from this review, but I actually have a lot of respect for Seth and have found a lot of his writing to be very insightful and inspirational. If you are already a dedicated person and worker, you will probably find the first part of this book very encouraging. If your only reason for existence is to make a lot of money or just go to work, collect a paycheck, and go play, I doubt this book will change your outlook on life.
Seth does practice what he preaches. He’s been working on this book for over 10 years and he finally shipped! I think the timing may have been dictated more by the current state of our society rather than his understanding of how to communicate and inspire the remedy.