Disqus - Latest Comments for seth godin

Re: 6 Ways To Improve Your Telecommunication

seth godin — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 17:34:33 -0000

I guess the thing about numbers is that people assume they understand them... they are condensed versions of images, explanations, captions and all the rest.

I don't think you can accuse me of trying to trick people. I put the key information in the question itself, it's not buried or weak.

The reason people get this wrong (and in fact get really angry at me when they do) is because they think they are manipulating the truth when they're messing with the numbers, but they're not. They're averaging averages.

A car drives from NY to Buffalo at 60 miles an hour.
It drives back at 40 miles an hour.

What's the average speed?

Hint: it's not 50, and my wording isn't weak. We're just not that good at turning numbers into truth.

Re: Don’t Make Promises You Can’t Keep | Sui Generis

seth godin — Fri, 02 May 2008 20:24:17 -0000

Hi Derrick
If you drop me a note, I'll try to get you into our virtual internship program.

Re: Google Smacksdown Squidoo - It’s About Time

seth godin — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 08:21:54 -0000

Here's my take on the issue.

http://www.squidoo.com/blog/?p=158

Re: Seth Godin is a National Treasure For His Amazon Kindle Idea

seth godin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:23:17 -0000

Thanks for reading, and for such kind words.

In the meantime, at least my blog is free.

Re: What’s with the fake Facebook friends? | A View from Judi Sohn

seth godin — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 11:48:47 -0000

I'm guilty of being way behind on approving friend requests, but if it was the real me (I don't know which eric you mean), it was only because someone had friended me first!

Re: Labor Day Postscript

seth godin — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 07:11:39 -0000

You have my apologies, Benjamin. I certainly didn't mean my piece to be interpreted the way you did (thousands seemed to get my point). I find the tragedy of the abused worker to be one of the greatest sins of our time. My point was that only recently, people have had the opportunity to build a different job for themselves--if they were willing to take a different sort of risk.

So, if I appeared callous, I'm sorry.

Re: Meatball Sundae

seth godin — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:27:47 -0000

Thanks for reading, Tony. I really appreciate it!

Seth

Re: Belonging to Seth Godin’s ‘Tribe’

seth godin — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:04:28 -0000

Thanks for being there, and thanks for the great review!

Re: 2007/09/16/squidwho/

seth godin — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 21:38:21 -0000

Hi Paul.

Where's the spam? Randy built a page about Jessica Alba. It's good. If you want to build a better page, you can, and then Randy's page won't be found in the first level of search.

On his good page he points to auctions of stuff about Alba. Why wouldn't someone reading all this other stuff about her want to see the auctions?

Spam is the act of sending unsolicited, impersonal, irrelevant ads to people via some sort of interruption, like a phone call or an email. This isn't spam.

Randy has put a lot of effort into this and other lenses, and people like them.

If he starts emailing his lens to people who don't ask for it, we'll shut him down. But right now, where's the spam?

Re: 2007/09/16/squidwho/

seth godin — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 08:06:44 -0000

Paul,

Comments are always a bad place to have a thoughtful discussion, as it's too easy to read things into posts that aren't there. But here's my best shot.

My definition of spam comes from this page:
http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3A+spam&a...
I see dozens and dozens of people who agree with me and not one that takes the definition you're using to accuse us with.

Every single commercial page on the Internet has ads on it. Web ads aren't spam. Irrelevant ads are a waste of time. They don't work very well. Adwords, on the other hand, work really well because they're relevant.

The affiliate links on Squidoo have never been called spam before, and that's because they're not. If someone is reading about an author and there's a link to buy her book on Amazon, even the strictest critic wouldn't call that spam.

Sure, there are matters of degree here. I apologize if I'm overreacting, but fighting spam has been a bit of a religion for me for a decade or so.

Re: Seth’s Tribes Presentation in New York

seth godin — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:02:45 -0000

Raw produce!

thanks for the shout out. I'm blushing.

Re: Seth Godin’s “Remarkable” Launch of Tribes

seth godin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:41:12 -0000

Thanks for writing this up. I appreciate it.

The only thing I want to take issue with is one of intent. I know people continue to find this difficult to believe, but I'm not trying to hype the book and I'm actually not trying to sell the book. I'm trying to get people to read it and talk about it, and that's a different posture.

I think that when you set out to hype something, you're manipulating a system. Movie PR people hype their movies, because they know that next month, they'll have a new movie coming. That's what they do...

In my case, the only reason to write a book (instead of just blogging) is that I want to make something easy to share. Authors that are in the hype business almost always fail, because there just isn't enough money in books to justify the hassle.

In my case, I'm really lucky that I've found a group of people who enjoy what I have to say, and more important, want to do something about it.

Seth Godins last blog post..Do you know about twitter search?

Re: How To Cook A Purple Cow

seth godin — Fri, 23 May 2008 08:00:06 -0000

Thanks for reading my blog, and I'm so sorry that you completely misinterpreted my post. Of course, it's your right to read it any way you choose, but that's not the way I wrote it.

I've read just about all of Fisher, and I relish books like Think Like a Chef or Paul Bertolli's Cooking By Hand. But those aren't "cookbooks." They are books about cooking.

My distinction is that there are plenty of fields with 'cookbooks' in them, but business books tend to go the other direction. I wasn't saying one was better than the other, merely that reading for recipes isn't particularly productive when it comes to business.

Re: How To Cook A Purple Cow

seth godin — Fri, 23 May 2008 08:00:06 -0000

Re: Join Me Live with Seth Godin

seth godin — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:57:43 -0000

can't wait!

Re: The Dip… is it time to quit?

seth godin — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 05:55:04 -0000

Wow. Thanks for such an incredible review. It's really appreciated.

Seth

Re: Example of a Great PR Pitch

seth godin — Thu, 22 May 2008 07:38:03 -0000

I'm in the minority here, Chris.

He sent me precisely the same note. It's spam.

Spam because I don't like pitches, spam because I didn't ask for it and spam because even though he wrote it nicely, when 1,000 other PR "professionals" do the same thing, I'm toast.

It's simple... manners are nice, but spam is not. It wasn't anticipated, personal or relevant, at least not to me.

Re: Appreciating A Seth Godin Post

seth godin — Fri, 23 May 2008 08:00:53 -0000

¡Gracias!

Re: Musicians Play for Tips- The Importance of Comments

seth godin — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:26:42 -0000

Great post, Chris.

I know I've written a good post when readers send me thoughtful email! I don't know what I'd do if I got as many emails as you get comments, though.

Re: More About the New Pepsi Logo

seth godin — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:43:23 -0000

"How much more" logic is what gets you a $4,000 barbeque, Chris.

The fanfare was ego, nothing but ego. The shareholders should be annoyed.

Re: Seth Godin: A Clowdy Picture of the Future?

seth godin — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:59:35 -0000

Great point.

I think this is going to cause enormous disruption and dislocation. I'm not lobbying for it, just predicting it.

It's up to us to make it worthwhile, not dangerous.

Re: Example of a Genuine Blog Experience

seth godin — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 14:23:40 -0000

Sorry I made you angry!

It's not the marketers who don't get it as much as the CEO and the board and the investors. They're the ones who insist on big and boring, and on not changing what they do.

Re: The Well Funded Layoff

seth godin — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:21:06 -0000

Layoffs are like surgery. It's hard to imagine doing one without an emergency.

If you've got people who are underperforming, who aren't as good as you hoped and who you can't lead to better output, then you should fire them, not lay them off.

If you have great people, amazing people with vision, and you have venture money designed to help you grow, how dare you lay them off. Isn't that what the money was for? And when better to grow then right now, when everyone else is getting quiet and selfish?

I've been through a lot of ups and downs over 25 years and never once did a lay off. To do it with millions in the bank is a true shame.

Re: Did I harm my blog by FriendFeeding this year?

seth godin — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:27:14 -0000

Robert,

My goal isn't to be discussed more. It's to launch ideas and to make a difference. Other people are doing a great job of spreading those ideas into media that they enjoy and I think that's fabulous.

As Gregory pointed out, I'm in no need of more dissing.

Some people are very good at short and quick bits of feedback and interaction with small groups of people. I find I do better when I'm a little longer and a little slower. And some of my colleagues need a month or a year between bursts. Different strokes.

You should be flattered by the people who want you to write more. We miss your bold leadership--leaps, not just increments.

Re: Seth Godin, Robert Scoble & Chris Brogan

seth godin — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:17:34 -0000

thanks guys!

Re: Long Tails, Tribes, Digital Natives and New World Hospitality

seth godin — Sat, 30 May 2009 11:55:35 -0000

Thanks JJ

Fortunately, I don't write for my critics, I write for the people who want to change. And it seems to work.

Re: Tribes author Seth Godin discusses free content and the publishing industry

seth godin — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 20:18:43 -0000

Thanks to all for reading, and sorry if my short summary of several years work wasn't clear enough!

First, many of the comments reflect the key insight/misunderstanding/hubris: The market doesn't care if you can't make money from this new model.

Sorry to say it, but it's true.

Second, the defensiveness in the face of opportunity is sad. The internet is like radio for books. It spreads ideas far and wide (fiction too, just ask MJ Rose). Instead of hiding from it and hoping it will go away, the opportunity is to embrace it. I'll repeat: I think most authors and illustrators care about people reached and money earned, not copies sold. Those are different things.

I have several free ebooks on my site, above, if you want more insight into this...

Re: The Kindle and Questioning the Economics of eBook Publishing…the Conversation Continues

seth godin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:43:12 -0000

Different answers to different questions.

Bob is asking, how do I use this new medium to support my current business model?

Here's an amazing riff:

"As was rightly pointed out by Carolyn K. Reidy of Simon & Schuster, it’s not a foregone conclusion that an e-book should be cheaper. It really depends on the upfront costs. The last thing we need is to habituate the consumer to an unsustainable and artificially cheap price point. There will be no going back once their expectations have been set."

Oh my!

Others are saying,

"How do we use this new technology to invent a better business model?"

If there's infinite shelf space, zero distribution costs and no returns, the question is: do you need a NY office, $30 salads, admins, interns, editors, publishers, sales reps, buyers, typesetters, copyeditors, proofreaders, pr people etc. etc.? In fact, in a long tail world, the number of people who need to touch a book before the consumer does goes from 25 to 2 or 3.

I'd challenge the original question, Bob. Someone is going to figure out how to profit on $2 ebooks being read like jelly beans by millions of people. If I were a gambler, I'd bet it would be you.

Until you figure it out, watch the tidal wave of authors beginning to go it on their own. Just watch what happened in music.

PS when in doubt, do what Michael Cader says. That's my rule.

Re: The Kindle and Questioning the Economics of eBook Publishing…the Conversation Continues

seth godin — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 08:18:30 -0000

Mike S has it totally right. I'd add one thing: the kindle device creates a different kind of scarcity... player/distribution scarcity. If everyone has one, it's a natural monopoly in a lot of ways, and Amazon does come out the winner, because readers don't have much choice.

Re: Guy Kawaskai on Darren Rowse on Seth Godin

seth godin — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:38:22 -0000

That's not why I don't have comments. I'm not that smart.

Re: 14 Trends No Marketer Should Ignore

seth godin — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 11:55:40 -0000

wow, Shannon, great job!

thanks

Re: What counts as an opt-in?

seth godin — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:46:04 -0000

my definition:

If someone opts in, it means that if you don't contact them, they'll miss you.

Re: Why Seth Godin Loves Me

seth godin — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:11:55 -0000

With an intro like that, how can I not comment?

I hope you enjoyed the book!

Re: Yes, It is Bad: Newspapers' Online Ad Revenues Down For Q3 As Well

seth godin — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 01:49:01 -0000

Not original, but easily and often overlooked, particularly by dinosaurs.

Re: Chris Anderson vs Malcolm Gladwell: The Freestyle Fight

seth godin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:10:55 -0000

Your piece starts out fine, Rafat, but then disintegrates into needless snark.

You write, "...peddling somewhat interchangable and at times indistinguishable ideas." Let me parse this a bit:

"Peddling" is a careful word choice, one that demeans and diminishes what they do. In fact, both of them are eager to share what they have with us for free or close to free. Neither does infomercials, neither sells expensive study at home courses, neither pretends to have precious secrets.

Second, your point point about, "interchangable and at times indistinguishable" doesn't make much sense either. If both are describing the truth of our economy and our world, then of course what they're saying is similar. How could it not be?

Perhaps the sentence would be better if it read, "Both of them have made a good living sharing insightful and productive ideas about how the world works today."

I enjoy your blog (a lot(!) even if it's free), but leave my peeps alone.