Just because it’s hard…
Doesn’t mean it’s going to work. MJ Rose has a great post about the realities facing authors in a noisy world: This Just In: Flogging vs Blogging.
Changing the air travel story
Over the last five years, security measures have gradually eroded the way people feel about commercial air travel. Today’s events (“imminent” mid-air bomb plot disrupted) and the government’s reaction to them will, in my opinion, mark the tipping point for an enormous amount of business travel by commercial air.
I’m delighted that the talented and brave investigators foiled this plot, and I’m saddened that we live in a world where something like this could even happen… the fact remains, though, that a key element of our lives has been changed, perhaps forever.
When you need an additional 90 minutes, can’t bring your laptop (or even a book on some routes) and can’t have a bottle of water, the calculus for most trips is fundamentally changed. Years ago, Tom Peters argued hard and long for the value of showing up, of being there in person, of establishing a face to face relationship with the person on the other side.
The prevalance of online video, constant skype connections and the multiple threads of data we get online, combined with the enormous overhead that flying now brings might just change the story for a long time to come.
This is broken, the video
Years and years ago, I brainstormed an idea for a website with Mark Hurst. He’s done nothing but great things with it ever since.
So, when Mark asked me to do a speech for Gel, I decided to update my original riffs. Some people think it was awfully amusing. I just hope it’s useful too. Seth on Google on Broken. Maybe one day, it’ll be a book. But for now, it’s a video and it’s free.
Google AdSense alternatives
Here’s some interesting data and a fascinating comparison: ProductWiki Blog. I’m not sure I agree with the conclusions, but the measurements are worth looking at. [ps, consider this alternative alternative.]
Our data keeps getting more accurate, but our understanding of how and why people actualy behave is still awfully murky.
The design knack
Thomas Marban sent me a note asking if he could run a promotion on his site. I said, "sure." A few days later, he sent me this url: popurls.com | seth godin. Check out how effortlessly he communicates with design. The typefaces, the color, the way he tweaked the image… Even without knowing English, you could look at this page and figure out something about the person running it.
This is an uncommon skill, which is why it’s so important. If it had been my work, it would have been far clunkier. What would your team have done?
PS, after seeing this post, Thomas sent me a note. I tweaked his English a bit, but he said, "that’s cool! btw, i didn’t even know that i had design skills." Exactly my point. It’s the way you see things, sometimes.
Our man in Havana
The other day on the radio, I heard an interview with the Chicago Tribune’s Havana bureau chief.
Wow. Think of all the newspapers. Think of all the cities that are as important as Havana. That’s a lot of people.
Is it even remotely conceivable that ten years from now, the Chicago Tribune is going to have a bureau chief in London or Beijing, never mind Havana?
I just read the reports on Joe and his primary from a paper in Australia…
Now that media has been completely atomized, blown to bits and rearranged, how do they pay for their man in Havana? They don’t, I bet.
Just as we’ve seen video take a huge downturn in quality (think American Idol vs. M*A*S*H) as the quantity has soared, it’s inevitable that news is going to go down the same path. The good news is that, just as video is rebounding as the voices find their footing, news will too. It won’t be "our" man in Havana. It’ll be a number of individuals representing themselves and building a following–with a filter to be named later.
The most useful thing you can do with this piece of data is exactly what William Randolph Hearst and others did several generations ago–realize that there are a passel of slots available. Go fill one (or more) and grow it. No, it’s not worth a lot now, but we’re already seeing that once a blog fills a niche well, it becomes a cash cow (and a center of influence)… far faster than a newspaper ever did.
Read this while you’re eating dinner
John Dodds points us to: Underwhelmed by It All – Los Angeles Times.
Nathaniel Johnson, a 17-year-old senior at Claremont High School who took part in the survey, spoke for the 62% of boys in his age group who like to multi-task. He’s a big fan of what the computer allows him to do: "You can open five or six programs simultaneously: work on a project, type a report, watch YouTube, check e-mail and watch a movie."
If you’re busy marketing like you’ve got my attention, you’ve already made a huge mistake.
Lesson learned at the movie theatre
Years ago, when my wife and I used to go to the movies in Yonkers, we noticed that most of the teenage girls dressed alike. Big blond hair, high heels, you get the idea.
What I couldn’t understand was–who was their hero? Who did they look to to decide what was right and what wasn’t right? It’s easy to see kids that are trying to emulate a particular rapper, say, or career women trying to be Audrey Hepburn. But who was their role model?
After a few years, I figured it out… Barbie. As in the doll.
All a long way of pointing out that while great websites are fairly different (compare Google with Yahoo), most bad websites are sort of the same. And I have no idea what the role model is, but there are plenty of places you can go to get all the building blocks you need.
It matters a lot what your website looks like. If you can use cookie cutter tools and end up with one that looks like something on MySpace, you should probably start over.
21 years later
In 1985, I was already a Mac addict. I had beta tested the original Mac and had one of the very first desktop published newsletters (an internal rag at Spinnaker Software, where I worked). I once got into real trouble when the owner of a nearby restaurant called and yelled at me after I trashed his place in a review (I had a circulation of 45…)
One day, a buzz went through the office. We had a lot of cool visitors at Spinnaker (I think the Governor of Mass. came once) but this time it was a louder buzz. I heard from a fellow brand manager that Guy Kawasaki was in the office. Even then, probaby in his twenties, Guy had an aura around him. Not only that, but he had a check with him (we needed the cash).
When Guy’s blog came out a few months ago, it was an overnight success. Overnight? Hey, it took Guy, like it took me, twenty years of figuring it out. We still haven’t gotten it right, not even close, but now people get to watch. Here’s our interview… Guy Kawasaki: Ten Questions with Seth Godin. I especially like the part at the beginning about the t shirts.
Do you need a boss?
You don’t realize how much you need a boss until you don’t have one. Bosses don’t always do the following, especially when they’re not very good bosses, but here’s what we know about good bosses:
Bosses organize your time for you.
Bosses decide what’s urgent.
Bosses give you cover when you work on something stupid ("she told me to!")
Bosses pay you even when the client doesn’t honor the invoice.
Bosses can be sued.
Bosses create deadlines, and stick with them.
Bosses make sure you show up in the morning.
Bosses pay for the Postits.
Bosses give you someone to complain about.
Bosses carve up the work and give you just that piece you signed up to do.
Bosses give you a role model. (Sometimes one to work against, but that’s a different story).
The main thing a boss does, though, is give you the momentum you need to get through the stuff that takes perseverance. The main thing that ends the career of a Free Agent is the lack of a hand pushing on the back, someone handing out assignments and waiting for the deliverables. Who keeps you going when you don’t feel like doing it?
If you don’t have a boss, you may need to invent one.