Seth's Blog

本頁 30 篇

• Explaining funny

  This is one of the most famous comedy bits of all time: But why is it funny? The disconnect between experiencing it and explaining it represents one of the challenges of teaching. It’s also at the heart of leadership, marketing and culture. Design, good taste, genre, communication style–these are all human endeavors that inform our […]

  2026/10/29 17:03Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2026/10/explaining-funny/

• Be careful what you wish for

  At a recent Q&A, a small businessperson asked how to get clients to be more alike, willing to engage in systemic work that would be easier to deliver and offer a simpler path to getting the job done. Of course, once there’s a manual, anyone can do the work, and anyone will. It might be […]

  2026/10/28 17:03Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2026/10/be-careful-what-you-wish-for-2/

• The half-life of disappointment

  When things don’t turn out the way you pictured, how long does it take for you to move on? Reducing this window of disappointment unlocks the path to creativity and leadership. People who get over disappointment more quickly aren’t less excited about the project than the others. They realize that getting attached to an outcome […]

  2026/10/27 17:03Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2026/10/the-half-life-of-disappointment/

• Is our attitude up to us?

  If the stakes are high enough and the duration you need to keep it together is short enough, can you control your response? Because if we can do it then, we can learn to do it now. Acknowledging that it’s a choice is difficult, because choices come with responsibility. “I’m not a patient person,” is […]

  2026/10/26 17:03Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2026/10/is-our-attitude-up-to-us/

• Hospitality in the mirror

  Danny Meyer and Will Guidara have each written fabulous books about hospitality. They missed one thing. The customers who get the most authentic and lasting hospitality are the ones who deserve it. And the ones who deserve it actually enjoy it the most. Extraordinary hospitality offers someone more human effort and delight than they expect. […]

  2026/10/25 17:03Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2026/10/hospitality-in-the-mirror/

• Caveman leadership and the CDO*

  We don’t have written records, but I’m imagining that groups of cavemen made decisions around the fire in largely the same way we run sophisticated organizations today. About a hundred years ago, three disciplines helped create the modern world: Scientific management used a stopwatch and the assembly line to relentlessly improve the productivity of the […]

  2026/10/24 17:03Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2026/10/caveman-leadership-and-the-cdo/

• The relentless math of bandwagoning

  It often seems that everyone is talking about what everyone is talking about. No one cares about a song or a movie or a political issue–and then they do. Then it’s everywhere. But of course, that’s precisely why. Most people feel safe when they’re engaging within the expected social norms. It’s easier to fit in […]

  2026/10/23 17:03Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2026/10/the-relentless-math-of-bandwagoning/

• The hotlist

  I just built a page containing many of my books. Click on any one of them and it’ll take you to a directory of where you can get a copy. And the page then re-indexes based on which ones get the most clicks. https://hotlist.sethgodin.com Thanks for reading.

  2026/10/23 04:30Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2026/10/the-hotlist/

• The age of initiative

  We’re unprepared. In high school, the quarterback isn’t allowed to call the plays, the actor isn’t allowed to write the lines and the math whiz isn’t allowed to choose what to prove. We all grew up in the age of compliance (and indoctrination). The long tail of the internet and the astonishing leverage of AI […]

  2026/10/22 17:03Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2026/10/the-age-of-initiative/

• Toward depth

  Juan Tamariz and Wendell Berry recently passed away. Between them, they had more than 170 years of generous contribution. Juan was a card magician. His students are generally considered the best working in the world today. Wendell was a farmer and a writer. His essays on non-industrial farming and community-building will resonate for generations. What […]

  2026/10/21 17:03Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2026/10/toward-depth/

• Ask a busy person

  You might know one. The busy person has a bias for action, the ability to ship, and a willingness to contribute more than is required. The busy person is wrong more than most people (if you get up to bat more often, you’re going to have more hits and more strike outs, right?). Those errors […]

  2019/8/21 17:48Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2019/08/ask-a-busy-person/

• Data into information

  It takes discernment to do this. Most problems don’t require more data. They require more insight, more innovation and better eyes. Information is what we call it when a human being takes data and turns it into a useful truth.

  2019/3/24 16:29Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2019/03/data-into-information/

• People who don’t care…

  …doing things that they don’t understand, for managers who have no sense of strategy, in an organization that measures all the wrong things. Everyone involved unable to honestly answer the simple question: “Why?” Why are we doing it this way? Why is it like this not like that? “Because I said so,” is no way […]

  2019/3/10 18:18Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2019/03/people-who-dont-care/

• Make better promises

  We spend so much of our time keeping promises, fretting about promises, whittling down promises… that we rarely put the effort into creating better ones. More generous. More urgent. More personal. Your brand is a promise and your work is delivering on it. What have you promised us lately?

  2018/10/25 17:23Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2018/10/make-better-promises/

• Lumpers and splitters

  There are two interesting ways to solve a problem, find a startup or even write a blog post. You can lump two previously disparate categories into one. Or you can split a previously coherent category into two or more pieces. Amazon is a lumper. They lumped 1,000 individual markets for bookstores into one giant one. […]

  2018/10/24 17:00Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2018/10/lumpers-and-splitters/

• Work that matters for people who care

  That’s the actual title for my new book. Or maybe it’s, “people like us do things like this.” It’s technically called, “This Is Marketing.” It’s about modern marketing, the way we spread ideas when we care enough to do it with respect, empathy and humility. It’s on sale now, and ships in November. It might […]

  2018/10/18 17:00Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2018/10/work-that-matters-for-people-who-care/

• Mirror, mirror

  When you see someone walking down the street with new sunglasses on, do you stare at them? Really stare at them, from every angle? If you're fortunate enough to have a selfie with President Obama, with Bono or with Sarah Jones, what do you look at when you look at the picture? Do you focus […]

  2018/10/14 17:25Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2018/10/mirror-mirror/

• In and of itself

  Culture is changed by design, and design by culture. There are things that look ‘right’, and others that don’t. We notice the mistyped word, the straight quote, the lousy kerning. But then, the paradigm shifts. An illuminated manuscript and a dime-store novel are both books, but neither would look right to someone accustomed to the […]

  2018/10/13 17:22Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2018/10/in-and-of-itself/

• Useful constructs

  We find knowledge (and express it) by dividing the world into grids and segments, and explaining how this organization works. The periodic table is a useful construct. Useful constructs are replicable and they’re predictive. If I tell you the rules needed to organize the elements, you’ll come up with the same table as every other […]

  2018/10/12 18:15Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2018/10/useful-constructs/

• Organized for browsing

  In the traditional world, most things are organized so you can find them when you’re looking for them. That’s why you keep your tools in your tool chest and the forks in the silverware drawer. That’s why books are stored in alphabetical order, by author. But in the digital world, finding is easy. Type what […]

  2018/10/11 18:17Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2018/10/organized-for-finding/

• A fist in search of a face

  If you want to cherry pick to make an argument, no doubt, you'll be able to find some cherries. And if you want to pick a fight, no doubt you'll find someone (or something) to have a fight with. Changing a mind is different than having an argument. Persuasion takes patience, skill and insight, not […]

  2018/10/7 17:44Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2018/10/picking-rarely-fails/

• Gloom (and doom)

  Doom is inevitable. Gloom is optional. Gloom has no positive effects on ameliorating doom. Doom happens. Gloom is a choice.

  2018/10/6 18:03Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2018/10/gloom-and-doom/

• The red zone is for unloading…

  If you want a process to go faster, it's tempting to focus on the straightaways. Get your delivery drivers to go faster on the highway. Get your development team to take fewer breaks during a sprint. Push for everyone to get out of the way of the moving object. Faster processors! Actually, you'll get far […]

  2018/10/4 19:12Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2018/10/the-red-zone-is-for-unloading/

• The myth of mirror magic

  Based on how much time we spend staring at the mirror, grooming our social media, tweaking our book cover… you’d think that there’s a correlation between the last few hours of tweaking and the results that we get. There must be… after all, we spend more time worrying about the cover than we spend writing […]

  2018/10/3 18:08Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2018/10/the-myth-of-mirror-magic/

• Letters and numbers

  If you make serial numbers or passwords, don’t use 0 or o or 1 or l. Simply skip them as options. If you want people to remember something, don’t mix letters and numbers together. If you want people to be able to type in a code on a phone, don’t use caps. The best passwords […]

  2018/10/1 17:37Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2018/10/letters-and-numbers/

• Inadequacy on parade

  A never-ending stream of pictures. People who are prettier than you, happier than you, more confident than you. Weddings that are fancier than yours was, with sun-dappled trees, luscious desserts and delighted relatives. Or perhaps it’s the status updates from everyone who is where you aren’t, but wish you were. And the billboards and the […]

  2018/9/30 16:40Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2018/09/inadequacy-on-parade/

• The daily

  Is there something you do every day that builds an asset for you? Every single day? Something that creates another bit of intellectual property that belongs to you? Something that makes an asset you own more valuable? Something that you learn? Every single day is a lot of days. It’s easy to look at the […]

  2018/9/28 17:25Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2018/09/the-daily/

• In search of your chord

  There are 88 keys on a piano. 64 colors in the big box of Crayola. You can’t own a key and you can’t own a color. But once you start combining elements, the possibilities go way up. The opening chord of a Hard Day’s Night is a unique signature. So are the colors in a […]

  2018/9/27 17:04Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2018/09/in-search-of-your-chord/

• We learn as we go

  If we stop going, we stop learning… and If we're not willing to keep learning, we should probably stop going.

  2018/9/25 16:58Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2018/09/we-learn-as-we-go/

• Mistakes, failures and problems

  A mistake is something you learn from… you did it wrong, you’ll do it better next time. A marketing failure is a mismatch between what you built and the market. And a problem is an invention waiting to be built, an invitation to find a solution.

  2018/9/22 18:37Seth Godinhttps://seths.blog/2018/09/mistakes-failures-and-problems/