2.4 257 It's the chase (?)

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Seth GODIN Decisions as effort

Why are we more likely to get tasks done than to take on new initiatives?

Checking something off a to-do list requires far less emotional energy than adding something to the list was in the first place.

As is often the case, “resistance” is the answer.

It’s easy to type a book, hard to write one. That’s because writing one involves making choices.

The effort to perform a task we’ve done before is known in advance. So are the risks. There’s social pressure to do what we promised, and little friction in the way. It’s work, but not challenging.

Initiatives, on the other hand, go the other way around. The effort and repercussions are unknown, and in many settings, the social pressure to accept the status quo is high.

The most important work we do is to make decisions. Decisions don’t seem effortful (turn left or right, say yes or no) but the apparent risk and emotional labor is real. Hard decisions are hard because of the story we tell ourselves about repercussions and responsibility.

Once we acknowledge that taking initiative (which is more accurately described as ‘offering initiative’) requires effort, we can allocate the time and resources to do it well.

October 17, 2024

2.3 257 National Bosses Day (!)

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SETH GODIN  The interaction cascade

Walk into an office, and the person behind the desk begins an interaction.

You respond (or react). They respond (or react) in turn.

Answer the phone. Caller ID tells you who it is–are you smiling? How much enthusiasm or disdain or annoyance or delight comes through?

The caller responds (or reacts). And so it goes.

Every interaction leads to the next interaction.

But the first one starts the whole thing. And that one can be up to us.

October 16, 2024

2.2 260 Performance is contagious (?)

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SETH GODIN It’s not easy to see time

Consider a simple graph of the temperature of the Earth over time.

There’s nothing interesting about any frame of this graph. But when we pause for just a few seconds for it to load and render, we can see 150 years unfold and then the truth becomes apparent.

The snapshot is a useful way to capture a moment. But moments rarely offer as much insight as seeing something shift over time.

Is time hiding from us, or are we deliberately ignoring it?

Time and strategy are intertwined.

October 15, 2024

2.1 261 "Inside my skull sized kingdom"

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SETH GODIN Some simple rules for source control

Collaborating on documents and projects has never been easier, which is why we screw it up so often. Sharing and interacting with intent will save you heartache and wasted time. Some things to consider:

Naming: Begin by naming your file with a digit and concept and a date. Something like “1 Book Presentation October 24”.

And then, with each substantial edit, hit SAVE AS and increment the number. It’s very clear that “3 Book Presentation October 24” is a more recent edit.

Never name a file with “Final” because, as we all know, final is an elusive construct.

Who has the conn? While some cloud-based services like Google docs do a pretty good job of allowing shared edits, it pays to announce who has the controlling, official document. When two people edit different versions of a document at the same time, all that work is wasted. “Cheryl, it’s yours now, I won’t touch it until you send it back.”

Suggested edits: In Google docs, the default is to edit the document (the little pencil). You can switch this (top right corner) to the option for ‘suggesting.’ The beauty of this is that it allows the controlling editor to see the changes that are being offered and to accept or reject them. It creates a more thoughtful flow to creation. Endless conversations via the comments panel almost always lose important information.

A shared doc is better than an email thread: If you know that you’re working toward something, start a Google doc and outline the proposition. Then invite others to edit and improve it. This will lead to a final agenda or outline or proposal. The problem with email threads with multiple contributors is that nuance is lost and contradictions persist.

The original format: The original document is better than a PDF, and a PDF is better than a screenshot. If you start with a spreadsheet, take a screenshot, put the image in a Powerpoint and then email it to someone as a PDF, you’ve pretty much guaranteed that editing it going forward is going to be a mess. Always include a folder of the underlying documents, properly named.

I’d ask for edits and improvements to this post, but this is the wrong format for that. Feel free to copy and paste and share… you have the conn.

October 14, 2024

1.7 261 G.school #80 The Word of God

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SETH GODIN Amplifying the fringes

Culture is: “People like us do things like this.”

We might even have a chance to choose our group. Hipsters do this, hippies do that. People in this town wear this outfit, students at this school hang out here on Saturdays…

We might be born into a culture. Less agency, but just as much identity.

There’s a built-in status quo here. Most groups want stability and the peace of mind that comes from being in sync. That’s why we join a group in the first place.

Of course, every culture also has neophiliacs, folks that find status and affiliation in embracing the new. They are most comfortable with novelty, not tradition.

Ideas spread from the ones who embrace the new to the folks who want to stay in sync.

But some cultures change more quickly than others. Some stagnate, others accelerate.

When change happens too fast, the culture gets stressed.

One factor in the speed of cultural change is the control of the media and distribution.

In an authoritarian environment, gatekeepers and censorship ensure that the culture changes very slowly. This includes most scientific journals, large organizations and spectrum-limited forms of media. This is a country with state-controlled media, but it’s also a community where the people who are most fearful of change also have power.

If there are only a few TV channels or radio stations, the programmers are going to become conservative, because they don’t want to lose market share. If the cost of being seen as too edgy is perceived as very high, the gatekeepers will stay in the center.

The Billboard Top 40 and pop music exists because a jukebox couldn’t hold every record, and radio stations didn’t want to risk losing a listener who wanted to hear what everyone else was listening to.

The other factor is the algorithm. How is attention parceled out?

You can probably see where this is heading.

The newspaper and the radio station determined the algorithm. A few surprising items, but mostly, the center.

And then social media arrived. And they intentionally turned the algorithm inside out.

They tweak what gets promoted and spread based on what is likely to grab our attention, to play with our emotions, to generate outrage or surprise. They do this without regard for truth or the stress that the idea might cause. They simply want to drive short-term attention.

The fringe. That’s where outrage and fear and novelty live.

And so creators of content responded. They discovered that in order to get the attention they craved, they had to run from the center and toward the edges. Even if they didn’t believe in what they were saying, or especially then.

The fringe, amplified, stops being the fringe.

So the next wave of fringe must be even fringier.

This is a fundamental shift in the world as we know it. One where a flywheel of ever more challenging cultural change continues to arrive, without balance.

It’s no wonder people feel ill at ease. Instead of the ship adding ballast to ensure a smooth journey, the crew is working hard to make the journey as rocky as possible.

October 13, 2024

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1.6 262 G.school #79 Viktor Frankl

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SETH GODIN  “Please create more tension”

This rarely comes up in focus group data.

It doesn’t come up when a school talks to students, or a conductor asks the orchestra. It doesn’t come up when the gym owner surveys potential members or when a chef or playwright thinks about building something new.

But of course, that’s what we remember.

That’s what changes us. Tension is the feeling we experience just before we grow.

Ironically, it’s what’s we seek, at the very same time we avoid it.

October 12, 2024

1.5 265 summarize

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SETH GODIN  The cheap chocolate system

The first step in building a successful and elegant strategy is to see the systems that are part of our lives.

October is a fine month to take a moment to look closely at one: the system that brings us cheap chocolate.

Like most systems, it’s largely invisible. The people in it don’t mean to do harm, they’re simply making choices that feel like their best option. And most of all, the system works to defend itself, to create culture that defends the status quo.

The giant chocolate companies want cocoa beans to be a commodity. They don’t want to worry about origin or yield–they simply want to buy indistinguishable cheap cacao. In fact, the buyers at these companies feel like they have no choice but to push for mediocre beans at cut rate prices, regardless of the human cost.

As a result, trees are bred not for flavor or resilience, but for yield. Farming methods ignore regeneration and are maximized for short-term output. And most tragically, labor (especially children) is exploited and suffers. The farmer, feeling powerless, feels as though they have no choice but to make what the buyer wants.

The cheap beans are made into reliable, cheap chocolate. Chocolate that doesn’t melt in the store, or in your hands. Chocolate that’s sweet, not delicious. But cheap. The merchant stocking the shelves feels as though they have little choice–they buy the usual kind, the one that’s well promoted and inexpensive.

And this convenient, prevalent chocolate becomes the normal kind. The regular kind. The kind kids get on Halloween, in bulk.

It’s easier, sometimes, to just go with the system.

We’re not stuck in traffic, we are traffic. If we see a system, we can work to change it. Our strategy can use elements of the system to alter it.

The chocolate we buy at the supermarket furthers the goals of the system, and directly harms the lives of the impoverished farmers who grow the cacao.

My friend Shawn Askinosie has written about this eloquently, and I’m thrilled to be working with him and his daughter to create a collectible chocolate bar. You can find the details here.

Or consider the chocolate from French Broad. They were hit hard by the hurricane in North Carolina, but their warehouse survived. A few bars purchased from them make an impact.

The folks at Original Beans offer a Porcelana bar that is, honestly, too good to share with your friends, and certainly over the top for a trick or treater.

There’s an adorable store in New York that can ship you ethical and delicious bars from all over the world… proof that the system can change.

The team at Tony’s have figured out how to make an honest, fair trade bar that’s also in your local market at a good price.

And consider Chocolate Rebellion, a group of Caribbean and African producers coordinated by Gillian Goddard of Sun Eater.

The system responds.

Don’t buy cheap chocolate. We can see the system if we look for it.

PS I’m going live with Lawren and Shawn at 10:15 ET this morning. We’ll be taking your questions about chocolate and about systems, and the recording will be archived. Here’s the link.

October 11, 2024

1.4 266 Be enthusiastic (!)(?)

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SETH GODIN  The inevitable meeting

When the person you could have been meets the person you are becoming, is it going to be a cause for celebration or heartbreak?

This is something we must work on right now, and tomorrow, and every single day until the meeting happens.

October 10, 2024

1.3 260 Be a camel (not in the zoo) (?)

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SETH GODIN  Everything costs

But not all costs are the same.

There are three kinds of costs that people get confused about, but understanding them, really understanding them–in your bones–unlocks opportunity.

Opportunity cost: If you eat the cupcakes, you can’t also eat the brownies. Every time we choose to do something, we’re choosing not to do something else.

Sunk costs: If you’ve invested time or money in something (a law degree, a piece of real estate, a bag of chips) that money is gone. All you have left is what you bought, and that is a gift… a gift from your former self. You don’t have to accept the gift if it’s no longer useful to you. Using a gift still has real opportunity cost, and if it’s keeping you from doing something better, walk away.

Marginal cost: How much extra does this decision cost? For a subscriber, the marginal cost of watching one more show on Netflix is zero. The service costs the same regardless of how many shows you watch. On the other hand, the marginal cost of a tuna sandwich is equal to what it costs to replace the ingredients. It makes sense to prefer things with a lower marginal cost if everything else is similar.

I’ve never encountered a person who was fully rational in making decisions on any of these three sorts of costs. That’s okay. But let’s do it on purpose.

October 9, 2024

1.2 257 Is IQ important (?)

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SETH GODIN Facing the future

The Tofflers explained that Future Shock kicks in when the world changes faster than we’re ready for. We react instead of respond, and often shut down in the face of too much of the new.

When our world changes (and it always does, more now than ever) we have four choices. And only one of them is helpful.

DENY: We can pretend that the world isn’t changing, that nothing is different and angrily push back on any evidence to the contrary. We can see the change as a personal affront, and insist that it’s not real or doesn’t matter.

GIVE UP: The contrary position is seductive as well. We can embrace our perceived powerlessness and simply stop trying.

CONTROL: While some understate their power, others overstate it. We can attempt to institute draconian measures, shortcut existing systems and demand that things go the way we want them to. You can hold back the ocean for a little while, but it always finds a way. It’s hard to make the tide against the law.

RESPOND: And this path is the resilient one, the one that not only makes it more likely we’ll achieve something but also engages us in productive work. Responders see and acknowledge the situation, then use their resources to make an impact. It never works out exactly the way we hope, but it usually works out better than any of the other paths.

October 8, 2024

1.1 262 big fish vs. fast fish (?)

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SETH GODIN Little dents

Deciding to fix a big dent in a car isn’t perplexing. It’s an easy choice. There’s a huge dent, get it fixed.

It’s the little dents that are a dilemma.

But not fixing little dents means that pretty soon, we’re driving a car that we’re not happy with. Either that, or we define happiness as, “okay with little dents.”

Fixing little dents is a commitment to quality, a constant quest against entropy as we seek to deliver with consistency. And living with dents is a way to focus on what really matters, not on what can be fixed.

October 7, 2024

4.7 267 G.school #78 The Trinity

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SETH GODIN It just barely works

This is the story of every new software innovation, and in fact, just about everything engineers have ever created.

The first Wright Bros. plane just barely flew.

The first version of VisiCalc was just barely useful.

The earliest bridges were shaky, unreliable and made of vines.

The secret of successful product development isn’t an innovation that bursts forth as a polished and finished product. Instead, it’s sticking with something that is almost useless, nurturing and sharing and improving until we can’t imagine living without it.

[Worth noting that we do the same thing when we learn to walk or to speak a new language–or even visit a new community.]

October 6, 2024

4.6 267 G.school #76 The Church of the future (?)

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SETH GODIN Yes, but how does it work?

I worked with Arthur C. Clarke at the very beginning of my career. He’s most famous for saying, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Magic isn’t such a bad thing.

And we certainly have plenty of advanced technology around. Advanced in the sense that we can’t be bothered to take the time to understand it.

A friend showed me his electric water bottle. A tiny USB charged battery is in the lid. “It gets rid of the impurities.”

I wondered–where do the impurities go?

It’s probably a more powerful placebo if you simply accept that something magical is happening inside the bottle, but no, it doesn’t get rid of the impurities. There’s a chance that it creates a light that kills some microorganisms, and there’s an even better chance that in New York, there’s absolutely nothing to worry about, battery or no battery.

Perhaps it’s more useful to say, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is worth understanding.”

If we understand it, we can use it well. We can improve it. We can share it with confidence.

AI, rice cookers and vaccines are not magic. They’re understandable technologies we can learn about and improve.

October 5, 2024

4.5 271 Kaizen? (yes please!)

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SETH GODIN A really good reason

Do you see the defaults?

The question, “What are things like around here?” has two possible answers.

When a new idea or opportunity arrives, your organization says yes, unless there’s a really good reason to say no.

Or your organization says no, unless someone makes a powerful argument for yes.

In the no organizations, everyone has veto power. If it’s inconvenient or feels risky, it doesn’t happen. The bias is for the status quo.

And in the yes organizations, someone needs to make a very strong case if they want to impede the new work.

If it’s working for you, keep at it. If not, it’s worth naming and changing.

October 4, 2024

4.4 275 Broomsticks, anyone (?)

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SETH GODIN The broomstick objection

Every founder, leader, sales rep and person on a dating app has heard this.

“Bring me the broomstick!”

Why did the Wizard ask Dorothy to bring him the broomstick of the Wicked Witch? It’s not because he needed a broomstick.

It’s because he wanted Dorothy to go away. If you send someone away to get something ungettable, if you articulate a need that violates the rules of physics or possibility, then you’ve said no without saying no.

For his own concealed reasons, he wasn’t sold. It’s usually fear. Fear of the unknown, or fear of going first, or fear of being seen as a fraud. There are lots of reasons we don’t want to fund a company, offer a job, go on a second date or buy something.

But sharing the real objection is painful. It might expose us. We might have the objection ‘overcome’ and then we’re on the hook.

When we ask for a broomstick, we’re sending the well-meaning person on a fruitless mission, hoping that they won’t come back.

When someone asks for a broomstick, the first thing to do is to find enough empathy to imagine why the person actually needs a broomstick. Because sometimes they do (and if that’s the case, it’s not a ‘broomstick objection’ and you should either find new people to call on or fix what you’ve got).

But if they don’t need a broomstick, realize that the only thing you’ve learned is that the person you’re sitting with is afraid of something. For their sake, and yours, it pays to patiently and generously discover what it is.

October 3, 2024

10-02-2024 podcast 4.3 278 Perception (reality ?)

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SETH GODIN The opposite of ‘perfect’

It’s not junk.

No, the opposite of perfect is:

Meets spec

Useful

On time

Productive

Valuable

By definition, good enough is good enough. If the spec isn’t what you need, change the spec. But perfect is unattainable and perfect is a place to hide.

October 2, 2024