Linchpin – Seth Godin (Chapter 4: Becoming the Linchpin)

March 15, 2012

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Types of organizations that don’t need Linchpins: “Organizations that are centralized, monopolistic, static, safe, cost-sensitive” (55)

In fact, these companies should look for the cheapest drones possible. But they shouldn’t expect to grow or have much customer loyalty.

“Today, if all you have to offer is that you know a lot of reference book information, you lose, because the Internet knows more than you do.”

However, Godin emphasizes the following point: “Depth of knowledge combined with good judgment is worth a lot.”

“Expertise gives you enough insight to reinvent what everyone else assumes is the truth.” (56)

Degrees of freedom – you have very few choices on a bus (get on or get off), a few more when you’re driving (which road to take), and infinitely more when you’re walking.

“In the face of an infinite sea of choices, it’s natural to put blinders on, to ask for a map, to beg for instructions, or failing that, to do exactly what you did last time, even if it didn’t work. Linchpins are able to embrace the lack of structure and find a new path, one that works.” (58)

Our society values being error-free (“Get nothing wrong and you get an A, right?”). The flaw in this approach is that art is never defect-free.

The problem with bowling is that it’s an asymptotic sport – the best you can ever do is get 300.

“Organizations that earn dramatic success always do it in markets where asymptotes don’t exist, or where they can be shattered. If you could figure out how to bowl 320, that would be amazing. Until that happens, pick a different sport if you want to be a linchpin.” (69)

“The only way to prove (as opposed to assert) that you are an indispensable linchpin–someone worth recruiting, moving to the top of the pile, and hiring–is to show, not tell. Projects are the new resumes.” (73)

Even if you are a linchpin, you often won’t be able to convince the standard HR establishments to make an exception for you. That’s fine. Your goal should be to look for companies that understand the value of a linchpin – companies that hire people, not just resumes.

“If you need to conceal your true nature to get in the door, understand that you’ll probably have to conceal your true nature to keep that job.” (79)
 

Groucho Marx famously said, “I don’t care to belong to any club that would have me as a member.”

The linchpin says, “I don’t want a job that a non-linchpin could get.”

Linchpin – Seth Godin (Chapter 3: Indoctrination – How We Got Here)

March 14, 2012

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“We’ve been trained to believe that mediocre obedience is a genetic fact for most of the population, but it’s interesting to note that this trait doesn’t show up until after a few years of schooling.” (40)

“The launch of universal (public and free) education was a profound change in the way our society works, and it was a deliberate attempt to transform our culture. And it worked. We trained millions of factory workers.” (41)

Godin believes that our consumer culture is a by-product of the network effect that came from universal education.

If your local public school had a description underneath its sign, Godin thinks it would read:

WE TRAIN THE FACTORY WORKERS OF TOMORROW. OUR GRADUATES ARE VERY GOOD AT FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS. AND WE TEACH THE POWER OF CONSUMPTION AS AN AID FOR SOCIAL APPROVAL.

At least today, it’s much more difficult to imagine a sign that reads:

We teach people to take initiative and become remarkable artists, to question the status quo, and to interact with transparency. And our graduates understand that consumption is not the answer to social problems. (42)

 
“We teach people to stick within a tiny range. We don’t want the lows to be too low, so we limit the highs as well.” (44)

It’s been shown things we learn in frightening situations tend to stick with us, so schools create a culture of fear (of getting a failing grade, of not obeying arbitrary procedures, of not fitting in, etc.) in order to teach compliance.

Godin argues that while we need school and we need teachers, they need to teach us to believe and reward us for doing our best work, not just our most predictable work.

School are teaching children to do the following (some more successfully than others):
-Fit in
-Follow instructions
-Use #2 pencils
-Don’t challenge authority
-Do the minimum amount required so you’ll have time to work on another subject
-Have a good resume
-Don’t fail
-Don’t say anything that might embarrass you
-Be a generalist
-Try not to have the other kids talk about you
-Once you learn a topic, move on (45-46)

“The problem lies with the system that punishes artists and rewards bureaucrats instead.” (46)
 

The model is simple. Capitalists need compliant workers, workers who will be productive and willing to work for less than the value that their productivity creates. The gap between what they are paid and what the capitalist receives is profit.

The best way to increase profit was to increase both the productivity and the compliance of factory workers. And as (Andrew) Carnegie saw, the best way to do that was to build a huge educational-industrial complex designed to teach workers just enough to get them to cooperate.

It’s not an accident that school is like a job, not an accident that there are supervisors and rules and tests and quality control.

 
Godin ends the chapter by arguing that schools should only teach children how to do two things:
1. Solve interesting problems
2. Lead

“While schools provide outlets for natural-born leaders, they don’t teach it. And leadership is now worth far more than compliance is.” (48)

Linchpin – Seth Godin (Chapter 2: Thinking About Your Choice)

March 13, 2012

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“If you want a job where it’s okay to follow the rules, don’t be surprised if you get a job where following the rules is all you get to do.” (29)

“If you want a job where you get to do more than follow instructions, don’t be surprised if you get asked to do things they never taught you in school.” (30)

One of the main themes of the book is: unskilled laborers are not being rewarded in the same way that they used to, therefore, you must become indispensible so that people have no choice but to reward you.

The three words that can kill an entire organization: “Not my job.”

“In a factory, doing a job that’s not yours is dangerous. Now, if you’re a linchpin, doing a job that’s not getting done is essential.” (34)
 

Would your organization be more successful if your employees were more obeidient?

“Or, consider for a second: would you be more successful if your employees were more artistic, motivated, connected, aware, passionate, and genuine?

You can’t have both, of course.

 
“When you’re not a cog in a machine, an easily replaceable commodity, you’ll get paid what you’re worth. Which is more.” (35)

“When customers have the choice between faceless options, they pick the cheapest, fastest, more direct option.”

“In a world that relentlessly races to the bottom, you lose if you also race to the bottom. The only way to win is to race to the top.”

Linchpin – Seth Godin (Chapter 1: The New World of Work)

March 12, 2012

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This book is about love and art and change and fear. It’s about overcoming a multigenerational conspiracy designed to sap your creativity and restlessness. It’s about leading and making a difference and it’s about succeeding. I couldn’t have written this book ten years ago, because ten years ago, our economy wanted you to fit in, it paid you well to fit in, and it took care of you if you fit in. Now, like it or not, the world wants something different from you. We need to think hard about what reality looks like now.

-Seth Godin: Linchpin, page 2

It is becoming much easier for companies to replace people, therefore Godin argues that the only way to be truly secure is to be indispensible.

Godin argues that people get brainwashed into repressing their talents and dreams to work as factory cogs because of an implicit, attractive promise made by companies and bosses: “follow these instructions and you don’t have to think.” (9)

“Like scared civilians eager to do whatever a despot tells them, we give up our freedoms and responsibilities in exchange for the certainty that comes from being told what to do.”

Seth Godin’s criticism of The E-Myth Revisited: “If you make your business possible to replicate, you’re not going to be the one to replicate it. Others will. If you build a business filled with rules and procedures that are designed to allow you to hire cheap people, you will have to produce a product without humanity or personalization or connection. Which means that you’ll have to lower your prices to compete. Which leads to a race to the bottom.” (11)

The day-laborers that wait in front of hardware stores looking to be picked up for cheap labor are not much different than most businesses and employees. They stand next to a bunch of other similar entities, waiting to be picked – usually by someone who is pressed for time and is just looking for which one seems the cheapest.

A problem: “Consumers are not loyal to cheap commodities. They crave the unique, the remarkable, and the human.” (13)

“There are no longer any great jobs where someone else tells you precisely what to do.” (14)

“History is now being written by the artists while the factory workers struggle. The future belongs to chefs, not to cooks or bottle washers. It’s easy to buy a cookbook (filled with instructions to follow) but really hard to find a chef book.” (18)

“Our world no longer fairly compensates people who are cogs in a giant machine. There’s stress because for many of us, that’s all we know. Schools and society have reinforced this approach for generations.” (19)

Capitalism demands the best in us, and as such, attendance-based compensation (ABC) jobs in which you just have to show up to get a paycheck are dwindiling. Getting an unskilled job is like putting yourself in the path of a buzzsaw.

“You don’t become indispensable merely because you are different. But the only way to be indispensable is to be different. That’s because if you’re the same, so are plenty of other people.” (27)