From the category archives:

seth godin

The why imperative

November 10, 2009 · 0

in Geek, seth godin

This article was orginally published at:
The why imperative
Successful organizations spend a lot of time saying, “that’s not what we do.”
It’s a requirement, because if you do everything, in every way, you’re sunk. You got to where you are by standing for something, by approaching markets and situations in a certain way. Sure, Nike could make [...]

Fabulous

November 8, 2009 · 0

in Geek, seth godin

This article was orginally published at:
Fabulous
This is so cool: because we only look at things we want to look at, only talk about things worth talking about, the amount of fabulous in the world continues to rise exponentially.
Even though we’re at the tail end of the great recession, think about all the cool stuff in [...]

Everyone is clueless

0 6 November 2009 Geek

This article was orginally published at:
Everyone is clueless
The problem with “everyone” is that in order to reach everyone or teach everyone or sell to everyone, you need to so water down what you’ve got you end up with almost nothing.
Everyone doesn’t go to the chiropractor, everyone doesn’t give to charity, everyone has never been to [...]

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When data and decisions collide

0 4 November 2009 Geek

This article was orginally published at:
When data and decisions collide
Until recently, most of the decisions we were called on to make were based on hunches, insight and a little bit of data. Occasionally, a field like direct marketing would develop into something quite data-driven (“I don’t care if you like mailer one, Smythe, mailer #2 [...]

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Ms. In-between

0 3 November 2009 Geek

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Ms. In-between
The either-or world continues to decay, confronted by a shifting economy and the tools of the net.
It used to be easy to tell if someone was a journalist. Either you were or your weren’t. So giving special privileges to journalists was easy. Parking permits, press badges, first amendment protections… [...]

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Attention lust and Olympic craziness

0 1 November 2009 Geek

This article was orginally published at:
Attention lust and Olympic craziness
For many organizations and individuals, attention is the most precious resource. The pursuit of attention for our ads, or our city or our careers dominates all else.
How else to explain the silly math that is used to justify Olympic hoopla? Can imagine how little patience people [...]

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Opt in and opt out

0 30 October 2009 Geek

This article was orginally published at:
Opt in and opt out

Every year, tens of thousands of people die because organ donor status in the US is opt in. If you want to be an organ donor when you’re dead, you need to go through steps now to opt in. The default is “no.”
Press releases, sent by [...]

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What you buy when you buy a lottery ticket

0 28 October 2009 Geek

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What you buy when you buy a lottery ticket
Hint: you don’t buy a future of money.
People who win the lottery are almost always unhappy in the long run, and most of them continue to buy lottery tickets.
It’s not the destination, it’s the journey. Same thing with first dates, blog posts, [...]

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Some people are better than others

0 27 October 2009 Geek

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Some people are better than others

By ‘better’, of course I mean better customers, better prospects, better sneezers, better at spreading the word.
Here are two interesting lessons from the book industry:

Kindle readers buy two or three times as many books as book readers. Why? I don’t think it’s necessarily because using [...]

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Begrudging

0 25 October 2009 Geek

This article was orginally published at:
Begrudging
I don’t know if this happens to you, but I’m noticing it more and more. Someone offers you a refund, or agrees to sell you something or even hires you to do a project, but then spend a lot of time explaining that it’s a one time thing, or that [...]

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The joy of quitting

0 23 October 2009 Geek

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The joy of quitting
The governor of New York faces an interesting choice.
He can do the natural thing, the thing with momentum, the thing he’s been trained to do his entire life: run for a full term. That involves raising a lot of money, living on the road, compromising a lot [...]

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Consistent, persistent generosity

0 22 October 2009 Geek

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Consistent, persistent generosity
That might be exactly the strategy you need to have an impact on the market.
Consistent as in not stopping to say, “my turn.” Persistent as in long-lasting, not as in annoyingly over the top. And with permission, because interacting without delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages is [...]

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Empathy

0 20 October 2009 Geek

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Empathy
I have no idea what it’s like to be pregnant.
And for most of us, we have no idea what it’s like to have $3 to spend on a day’s food, or $4,000,000 to spend on a jet. We have no idea what it feels like to be lost in a [...]

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Fear of apples

0 18 October 2009 Geek

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Fear of apples
At the farmer’s market the other day, not one but three people (perfect strangers) asked me what sort of apple to buy. What do I look like, some sort of apple expert? Apparently.
In our industrialized world, people are now afraid of apples. Afraid of buying the wrong kind. [...]

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The Rule of High School

0 16 October 2009 Geek

This article was orginally published at:
The Rule of High School
Any sufficiently overheated industry will eventually resemble high school. High school is filled with insecurity, social climbing, backbiting, false friends, faux achievements, high drama and not much content. Much of this insecurity comes from a market that doesn’t make good judgments, that doesn’t understand how to [...]

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The problem with cable news thinking

0 15 October 2009 Geek

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The problem with cable news thinking

Not only the networks of all political persuasions that come to mind, but the mindset they represent…
When I was growing up, Eyewitness News always found a house on fire in South Buffalo. “Tonight’s top story,” Irv Weinstein would intone, “…a fire in South Buffalo.” Every [...]

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