Seth Godin & Chris Do (The Futur)
In this interview with Chris Do, Seth Godin was an interesting one for me. Seth’s thoughts on education helped me put into words my own experiences with school and continuous struggle to unlearn its lessons. My views were also challenged in having mentors and how being personal is overrated.
Teach kids how to lead and solve interesting problems. How we teach now is because of the industrial economy.
The current work environment has a tension between the boss and the worker. Boss wants unlimited effort for no money. The worker who wants to do as little as possible as she knows the boss is going to ask for more. This is now systemised.
The people who don’t hold back are artists. People don’t save their art for the future. They always ask how they can do more and if they do more, they ask how they can do less.
Artists stare into the void. If you’re doing work that might not work, without instruction and showing up to make a change in a generous way but you’re not sure. You’re an artist.
Traditionally we learn, take good notes and give it back to the teacher. That’s not how we solve interesting problems.
You can find mentors that look out for you. But it’s unrealistic. Mentors don’t scale. Look for heroes instead. What would Susan do? Use their voice in your head as a compass. Be like SHAZAM.
Promises of success with compliance. Follow what I say and I will not punish you. If you wait and be told what to do it will make you less afraid. There is a pot of gold at the end if you comply.
Regularly find generous work that scares you. Dance with the fear and use it as a compass. When fear shows up you know you’re on the right path.
Do 100 pieces of content and when you look back you’ll see 100 signposts.
You win because you fail a lot BUT if you fail too big you don’t get to play anymore. Strategically fail at the right scale. Find a space where you get to play for a while and long enough that you can good at it by failing. So your failure serves a purpose.
Practical empathy. The understanding that other people don’t know what you know, don’t want what you want and that’s ok. Go to them based on their world view and tell them a story that fits into the way they see the world.
Being personal is overrated, be useful. Tell the story in a way that they can use it to move forward.
Be a professional. Be what you promise to be and give. You told me you could make a change happen for me, I’m interested, let’s do it.
Writer’s block is a myth, we are capable of writing poorly.
People who got into Harvard and went and those that didn’t go, both groups are equally happy and successful.
Comply your way to success, you’re living in 1961. Instead, figure out how to build a life with lesser overhead and as someone who can bring value to the world by making better things over and over. We need to be known for our work and not our resume.