korrents

korrents · The Knowledge Project · #105

Seth Godin: "Failure is Learning on Your Way to Mastery" and Other Advice for Creativity (The Knowledge Project #105, published 23 February 2021)

Seth Godin · 1h 21m · youtube.com ↗

16 korrents from this recording

1h
Seth Godin did not write this page.

Every claim below is a statement made in this recording, quoted word for word and linked to the second it was said, so you can hear it rather than take our word for it. The wording comes from the transcript published alongside the recording; the sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording.

  1. 0:08:49 · watch on youtube.com↗

    Our reading

    No business has everyone as its customer, so the goal is the smallest viable audience rather than the biggest possible one.

    Their wordsnobody has everyone as their customer. Nobody. Maybe the water company, but that's about it. Our goal cannot be to be for everyone. That we have to be for someone. The smallest viable audience, not the biggest possible audience.
    Interesting
  2. 1 min later

  3. 0:09:30 · watch on youtube.com↗

    Our reading

    The internet is a micro medium: it reaches specific people better than any medium before it and reaches everyone badly.

    Their wordsThe internet is a micro medium. It is the best medium ever developed to reach specific people, but it is terrible at reaching everyone. There is no homepage. It is impossible to reach a hundred million people in one day on the internet, which is something TV used to do every night.
    Interesting
  4. 1 min later

  5. 0:10:28 · watch on youtube.com↗

    Our reading

    Even the most commercially successful books are written for a very small group of people rather than for everyone.

    Their wordsUh Harry Potter, the most successful uh book franchise in history, it made the author over a billion dollars. That book is for almost no one. Right? That book is for precocious 12-year-olds and people who like to remember what was like to be a precocious 12-year-old. That's not everyone. That's a very small group of people.
    Interesting
  6. 1 min later

  7. 0:11:39 · watch on youtube.com↗

    Our reading

    Naming a narrow audience puts a creator on the hook, while claiming the work is for everyone is a way to hide from failure.

    Their wordsthe way to be on the hook is to say, "This is only for people who are like this." Because if those people hate it, then you were wrong. Whereas if you say, "This is for everyone," you're allowed to hide behind, "Well, everyone hasn't found it yet."
    Interesting
  8. 6 min later

  9. 0:17:41 · watch on youtube.com↗

    Our reading

    Reading and listening are only preparation; learning happens by doing, and it consists of failing on the way to mastery.

    Their wordsThe only way to learn is by doing things. That we can read about how to swim and we can read about how to make uh uh uh a vegetarian maki roll, but you will not learn how to do it until you do it. And the reading, the listening is important preparation, but learning is the act of failing on our way to mastery.
    Interesting
  10. 8 min later

  11. 0:25:24 · watch on youtube.com↗

    Our reading

    Leaving an old relationship for a new one is usually shopping for novelty rather than refusing to honour a sunk cost.

    Their wordsa new relationship is like fresh powder. It is new and shiny and exciting but it will not be a new relationship for long. And then you're still stuck with an old relationship and the question is will your old relationship a year from now be better than your old relationship that you currently have is? And if the answer is yes then yes sunk costs completely apply. But if the answer is no then what you're really doing is shopping for novelty not ignoring sunk costs.
    Interesting
  12. 16 min later

  13. 0:41:29 · watch on youtube.com↗

    Our reading

    Which products become visible is decided by distribution friction rather than by any contest of merit.

    Their wordsYour product might be great, but how do you get it on the shelves of Walmart? Or how do you get it on the shelves of Google? Because if you're not on the shelves of Walmart, you're not on the shelves of Google, you might be invisible. And it's friction that kept you there, not some sort of merit contest.
    Interesting
  14. 6 min later

  15. 0:47:41 · watch on youtube.com↗

    Our reading

    A live verbal presentation is one of the worst ways to transmit information, because a talk given in real time exists to deliver emotion.

    Their wordsIf you want to exchange or deliver information to a group of people, one of the worst ways to do it is with a live verbal presentation. If your goal is actually to deliver that scientific paper or that insight, then you should either write a book or write a memo and say, here, in an asynchronous way, this is what we know. If you're going to show up live, in person, in real time, synchronized, you are performing. And the goal is to not deliver the information, but to deliver emotion.
    Interesting
  16. 5 min later

  17. 0:52:47 · watch on youtube.com↗

    Our reading

    Most book authors optimise for the status of being published, chasing bestseller lists and reviews instead of the reader.

    Their wordsThe authors of most books are looking for many of the magical elements of status that come from successfully being published. They pay attention to the bestseller list. They game it. They pay attention to reviews. They uh worry about what their friends think of the book, even though their friends don't read books.
    Interesting
  18. 1 min later

  19. 0:54:11 · watch on youtube.com↗

    Our reading

    Seeking reassurance never satisfies, because an unpredictable future keeps rendering the reassurance already received insufficient.

    Their wordsreassurance is futile. Reassurance that we seek is like a warm bath, it feels great, and then you need more of it. Because the future is unpredictable, and when the future doesn't match what you hoped for, the reassurance you used to have isn't enough. You need more reassurance.
    Interesting
  20. 2 min later

  21. 0:56:29 · watch on youtube.com↗

    Our reading

    Creativity is a choice: extending empathy to the person being served and announcing something into the future that might not work.

    Their wordsIt means that you have to extend yourself with empathy to the person you're seeking to serve, to the person who the work is for. And you have to extend yourself not just through space, but through time into the future, announcing something that might or might not work. You don't know yet. That's what makes it creative. If you exert the emotional labor to do those two things, sometimes you will have a successful creative outcome. That's a choice.
    Interesting
  22. 3 min later

  23. 0:59:44 · watch on youtube.com↗

    Our reading

    A professional keeps a promise whether or not they feel like it, and that obligation is what separates professional work from amateur work.

    Their wordsA professional makes a promise and then keeps the promise whether or not they feel like it. Amateurs get to be authentic, whatever that means. And amateurs show up when they want to and make what they want to make.
    Interesting
  24. 3 min later

  25. 1:02:33 · watch on youtube.com↗

    Our reading

    Quality means meeting spec and nothing else, so a product riddled with defects that fall within spec is a high-quality product.

    Their wordsQuality is not luxury. Quality is not expensive. Quality is not that you love it. Quality is just one thing. It meets spec. So, if I look under an electron microscope at any part of a Lexus, which is by any measure the highest quality car there is, uh under an electron microscope, it's filled with defects. But they're not defects that matter because they're defects that are within spec.
    Interesting
  26. 5 min later

  27. 1:07:12 · watch on youtube.com↗

    Our reading

    Shame is used as a tool of cultural coercion because it reliably makes people shrink and stop taking action.

    Their wordsshame has been sharpened into a tool for cultural coercion and compliance. That what people have figured out is that shame is a is a soft spot on almost everybody. And if you press that spot, people will shrink. They will run away. It is particularly used against women, but it is used against large numbers of people to cause them to not take an action.
    Interesting
  28. 5 min later

  29. 1:12:22 · watch on youtube.com↗

    Our reading

    Criticism is only useful from someone with domain knowledge who is not trying to gain status by hurting the person receiving it.

    Their wordsCriticism is what happens when someone with domain knowledge who is not trying to earn status by hurting you is able to help you see the world as it is. And those three pieces are the key, right? Because most of the criticism I've gotten in my life has come from people who felt like they would feel better if I felt worse.
    Interesting
  30. 4 min later

  31. 1:16:51 · watch on youtube.com↗

    Our reading

    Employees and customers do not want what founders want, and equity stakes become a demotivator in almost every organisation.

    Their wordsEmployees don't want what you want. Customers don't want what you want. Uh you know, that that one of the challenges of the whole stock option thing is entrepreneurs and founders think that other people will be as motivated by owning part of the company as they are. They are not. Not even close.
    Interesting