Todd Lyden

So I decided I would stop writing posts on a particular someone's blog postings. In hind sight, I think one of the subliminal reasons I wanted to stop was because I was overly reliant on the idea that I could just do it. Over and over, nitpick it or find something I just disagreed with. More to the point, it became an easy crutch for me. Need a post? See what Godin was writing about. I couldn't always, but there it was- something reliable, something supportive, but at the same time- debilitating. It was holding me back from something better.  I don't think my posts on my problems with Godin were bad, just the reliance. I could still come up with something similar for someone else and probably will on occasion. My point here is take a look at something you are doing that props you up. They aren't all bad. We often times need it to get by, but most people do not strive to live on  crutches .  But where you are overly-dependent on something to ge...

Photo:  Gruntzooki I'm done. I awoke to one  more  post of junk and I am cutting the cord. I've made much fun of  Seth  Godin's logic and trappings before .   But  this morning  was the topper. I can't do it anymore. I've read his books and gleaned good stuff, but the blog posts are tripe. They are the VERY definition of BLOVIATE. See? blo·vi·ate /ˈblōvēˌāt/ Verb:  Talk at length, esp. in an inflated or empty way.  Dictionary.com  -  Answers.com  -  Merriam-Webster  -  The Free Dictionary So  no   more . I am removing him from the feeds. Many "big names" are worth it, but this is hot air. Who do you read/listen to on a regular basis that you are done with?

Photo:  HMK I don't know why, but I LOVE picking apart Seth Godin's blog posts. I think mainly because his "nuggets" are designed to be helpful or be an "ah ha" moment of insight. Unfortunately, I think they are too often trying too hard and too often wrong. Case in point:  Latest is on the "new laziness."  Here is the meat of it: "...the new laziness has nothing to do with physical labor and everything to do with fear. If you 're not going to make those sales calls or invent that innovation or push that insight, you 're not avoiding it because  you  need physical rest.  You 're hiding out because  you 're afraid of expending  emotional labor . This is great news, because it's much easier to become brave about extending yourself than it is to become strong enough to haul an eighty pound canoe." REALLY? Does anyone really buy that? I've actually avoid tasks that require emotional labor by committing to doing physic...

Seth Godin tries to make an emotional appeal  for voting this week in the run up to the election. And honestly, I can't be sure if he is mocking people for voting or sincere in his effort to get out the vote. Godin blames the lack of voter  turnout  in mid-term election years on  TV advertising . He suggests that it is only designed to suppress opposition voters. And then proceeds to blame the electorate for not figuring this out. The only thing that he really gets right is that the voters have " permitted selfish partisans on both sides to hijack the system." He highlights that both sides have gotten more and more flaky and that the campaigns are more and more nasty. Perhaps Godin needs reminding on American political history but it has been this way from the beginning. The second we had an entrenched  two-party system  here, we were stuck with this melodrama.  His emotional appeal at the end is just like every other...

Image via CrunchBase Image via CrunchBase I love picking on Seth Godin . Not that anyone cares, I'm just a wannabe and he is the king of the mountain. One of his latest tidbits was on taste. It really struck me AFTER my post the other day about McCormick's attempting to drive LITERAL flavor combinations.  McCormick's was trying to drive actual taste combinations by giving it authority, using its brand reliability, and repeating to the point of habit. Godin's point was that brand name creators such as Martha Stewart stay ahead of their tribe by knowing what the tribe might like a "half-step" before they do.  He says: The difficult work is doing a new thing in a way that people who have never seen it before will 'get it'.  It seems to me this is more just herd mentality . See Adsavvy for a great piece describing a study of how willing we are to join the herd: Researchers at Leeds University, led by Prof Jens Krause, performed a series of experiments wh...

Image via Wikipedia Seth Godin is EXTREMELY popular. For good reason.  But in his labor day post today , he discusses the devaluing of labor, with a small L. He ends with something pithy to encapsulate his idea: "The future of labor belongs to enlightened, passionate people on both sides of the plant, people who want to do work that matters." He implies that teachers are only laboring to teach to tests when we say we want innovative teaching. But teaching to a test does not stop innovation does it?  We hear all the time of anecdotal evidence of some teacher find the way to get the information across in standard curriculum. He suggests that labor took the bosses dictum of "do whatever I say" and ran with it. However, the revealing part after comparing what is today knowledge and information services/work with assembly line work ala Henry Ford : " Improvisation still matters if you set out to solve interesting problems."  What are those interesting prob...