Seth Godin

Seth Godin has written a short, thoughtful post every day for 13 years: https://seths.blog Also worth reading is Seth’s top 100: https://seths.blog/top-100/

One of my favorite microblogs is Seth Godin's blog <https://seths.blog/>. One post per day, succinct, original, and often insightful. What I appreciate most about Seth Godin is that it's original, insightful writing. Most microblogging (Twitter) is either trivial and self-absorbed ("I liked this", "I had X for breakfast", etc.), or a link to someone else's content.

My #1 recommendation would be to read Seth Godin, he has a blog[1] and he writes daily. More often than not, each week he has a piece of advice that ends up being really valuable. One day after reading his blog for several months, I asked myself -- if this is what he offers for free, I wonder how good his books must be! And that's how I started reading his books. I would recommend you Purple Cow, Ideavirus and Permission Marketing, but most of them are very good. 1: https://seths.blog/

I follow a lot of tech blogs, but two non-tech blogs I end up starring/bookmarking posts from most often are: https://kottke.org/ https://seths.blog/

one more I follow https://seths.blog/

stevepavlina.com - It's not a patch on what it was in its heyday but I still check a few times a year. jamesaltucher.com - I can't say I've ever actually learned anything useful on the site, but I still enjoy James's writing. I found a few of the podcasts of interest - although most is the usual baloney of people thinking they are God's Gift and are just there to flog their tat. lifepassionandbusiness.com - new but I have listened to most of the podcasts and I like the questions the presenter (Paul Harvey) asks. By having a set set of questions for all guests it keeps things on point and not just about how wonderful the guests are (in their own estimation) as on some other podcasts. https://www.gogently.co/listen-to-a-podcast - blog/podcast with Michael Nobbs. Not personal development per se, but I think we could all do with slowing down a bit. Michael's a great presenter and should probably be hired by the BBC! :) https://seths.blog/ - again not strictly personal development, but there are usually useful life tips to be picked up. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ - some life changing content in there. Depends where you are in the journey though. For some all this falls on deaf ears, but if you've made a lost a fortune a couple of times this could help get you on the straight and narrow! https://www.alastairhumphreys.com/ - probably one of the best things you can do if you are serious about personal development is get your teeth stuck into a big hairy adventure that…

I appreciate that you assumed good faith. For what it’s worth, “yak shaving” is an analogy to what programmers often find themselves spending their time doing. https://seths.blog/2005/03/dont_shave_that/

Don’t Shave That Yak! - https://seths.blog/2005/03/dont_shave_that/ (this is the original with the borrowed EZPass) 2020 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21930441 (81 comments) Don’t shave that yak – God loves lazy programmers https://petewarden.com/2010/06/26/dont-shave-that-yak-god-loves-lazy-p… 2012 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4034034 (3 comments)

I believe the baseline expectations will simply increase like what Seth Godin said about this: > If your work isn’t more useful or insightful or urgent than GPT can create in 12 seconds, don’t interrupt people with it. https://seths.blog/2022/12/attention-trust-and-gpt3/

Martin Brinkmann https://www.ghacks.net/ Seth Godin https://seths.blog/ Multiple authors https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ Derek Sivers https://sive.rs/

Some things that help me a lot: - Go walk outside - Consume media / go to events with topics that are VERY different than my field of expertise - Do any kind of art - Play like a kid - Last but not least, my favorite: Have a lot of bad ideas. https://seths.blog/2018/06/the-two-simple-secrets-to-good-ideas/

I still read some of the classics (surprised nobody mentioned them so far) and also a few newer ones: https://kottke.org/ https://daringfireball.net https://seths.blog https://www.freedomain.com/blog/ https://www.cringely.com https://www.zeldman.com https://captaincapitalism.blogspot.com http://quirksmode.org/blog/ http://hypercritical.co

I really liked the definition of AI (back in 2015) by Seth Godin - a marketer! >One common insightful definition of AI: Artificial Intelligence is everything a computer can't do yet. As soon as it can, we call it obvious. If the term is used like that it does make sense to me. https://seths.blog/2015/04/the-noise-in-our-head-and-artificial-intell…

Disasters are also opportunities. Inventing and re-inventing, in a hurry, can force us to put in 'good enough' solutions, which end up iterating into true innovation and paradigm changes. This is not a "schools are broken" rant. There are schools, staff and teachers which do tremendous, underappreciated work. With 4 kids between the ages of 9 and 19, I have seen it first-hand. There is always room for improvement and improving remote education would make learning opportunities available to many more people, and be a great experience for many. The 'conversation' theme in this post for example: https://seths.blog/2020/03/the-conversation/ And the 'collaboration' theme in this post: https://avc.com/2020/03/teaching-online/

This conversation has not been very productive. Basically it’s a pedantic discussion about the meaning of marketing. I recommend this [updated] 10-year-old article about finding your first 1000 customers: https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/ Much has been written about the idea: https://seths.blog/2009/12/first-organize-1000/ https://nowspeed.com/seth-godins-latest-book-tribes/ http://jumpcut.com/blog/kevin-kelly-1000-true-fans/

I genuinely don't understand why there's any surprise here. Lack of confidence / fear / worry... it's a HUMAN trait. Not a gender-specific one. Of course, this would strike men just as hard as women. Why would there be any difference at all? On a related note... one of the best articles I've ever read on the subject... it's a Seth Godin blog post. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED https://seths.blog/2017/10/imposter-syndrome/

- Read outside your "interests"/"comfort zone" [0] - Talk to other people (especially those a couple degrees separated from the field you're trying to think about) - Try to come up with bad ideas [1] - Carry something to write on and with (no - just typing it into your phone is not good enough (but it's better than not recording it at all)) - Ask questions - they're more important than ideas [2]. I reprinted "35 great questions" from Inc a few years ago [3] ... maybe they'll be of help here :) - Listen to music (especially instrumental or in a foreign language you don't know (eg Carl Orff's Carmina Burana)) that isn't "your thing" ..discovery mode (or whatever the different services call it) on streaming offerings can be pretty interesting; likewise checking-out random albums from your local library There're a few ideas for you on how to get ideas ----------- [0] https://theexceptioncatcher.com/blog/2012/11/varying-your-reading-mate… [1] https://seths.blog/2018/06/the-two-simple-secrets-to-good-ideas/ [2] http://paulgraham.com/ideas.html [3] https://antipaucity.com/tag/35-questions/

BTW, the Seth Godin article I referred to was [Mode switching | Seth's Blog Godin](https://seths.blog/2021/01/mode-switching/). David Sparks has a similar concept, "contextual computing". [Linking and Contextual Computing — MacSparky](https://www.macsparky.com/blog/2020/12/linking-and-contextual-computin… The background for Hook's is cognitive science / education tech R&D I and my co-founders had been doing 2001 (2003, 2006)- 2009 at SFU called gStudy and nStudy (www.sfu.ca/~lpb/tr/2009-Luc_P_Beaudoin-Phil_Winne-nStudy.pdf). We had been designing and implementing personal learning environment for Phil Winne's Learning Kit project at Simon Fraser University (SFU). The core concept I contributed from the beginning of my design was "linking anything to anything" within the system and web (cf. Ted Nelson and Douglas Englebart). We were implementing / incorporating tools in the PLE (note-taking, mind maps, web browser, flashcards, etc.) My Tundra-related insight that led to Hook was that instead of re-inventing the wheel (note-taking, mind maps, etc.) in a big PLE, I could allow users to use best of breed apps and simply connect all their resources with a nimble piece of software. So with Hook, users can use whatever software they like (e.g., for Note taking Bear, Obsidian, BBEdit, Apple Notes, whatever). Hook would serve the links, connect the items, and allow users to navigate in a popup window they invoke within the context of their favorite apps. Last year I published a…

> Without an incentive (i.e., paycheck) for people to work (e.g., code, write articles, answer forum questions, etc.) Many people do all those things in their spare time, unpaid, because they genuinely enjoy it. Let's not conflate work with a job. https://seths.blog/2026/05/doing-your-job-vs-doing-your-work/

Funnily this was on the front page recently: https://seths.blog/2025/04/how-to-win-an-argument-with-a-toddler/ Don't bother; they're a brand new user trying to cause trouble

A.k.a Yak Shaving [1] [1] https://seths.blog/2005/03/dont_shave_that/

This message is suspiciously like being told to draw the outline of an owl then draw the rest of the fucking owl. https://seths.blog/2014/01/how-to-draw-an-owl/ The word recursively does a lot of work in the post. Every project I go into thinking I can do it quick and it never works that way because the minimal viable or minimum lovable thing is a long way from the minimum actual concept of what I have in mind. I feel that I need to build enough that the user is engaged with it. I feel like those first explorers willing to try out a new thing are incredibly valuable and their attention should not be wasted on the outline, but they should be presented with the owl.

It sounds like you're looking for your "minimum viable audience". [0] https://seths.blog/2019/03/the-minimum-viable-audience-2/ I'd go for agencies, but even consider making it more specific. What kind of agencies? What features can you build that nobody else could offer? etc.

> he just made up some words about them I’m not so sure about that. His blog is one of the most well-respected blogs out there. Interesting chap. https://seths.blog/about/

https://lea.verou.me/ https://www.kottke.org/ https://chriscoyier.net/ https://seths.blog/ https://sive.rs/

http://projects.csail.mit.edu/gsb/old-archive/gsb-archive/gsb2000-02-1… — earliest internet mention (AFAIK), citing Carlin Vieri who coined the term (with this meaning). https://seths.blog/2005/03/dont_shave_that/ — a good example (and where I first saw it), which actually involves shaving a yak.

Reminds me of this quote from Stop Stealing Dreams [1]: > Philosopher Jeremy Bentham argued that if two kids playing hopscotch or push-pin are gaining as much joy and pleasure as someone reading poetry, they have enjoyed as much utility. > John Stuart Mill took a different approach. He argued, “it is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question.” 1. https://seths.blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/stop-stealing-dreams6pri…

Reminded of a Seth Godin post, Choose your clients, choose your future. > https://seths.blog/2009/11/choose-your-customers-choose-your-future/ So, we all want “better” clients. What does an ideal client look like to you and your team? * Not a flip question.

Since many still use RSS and since this post on Seth's Blog is so popular, thought I would point out that the blog has an RSS feed: https://seths.blog/rss

It all comes down to the definition of "hard", doesn't it. Seth Godin has a riff on how to think about hard work to get the most out of it: https://seths.blog/2019/02/hard-work/