Notes on Seth Godin's "Your Job is to Make Art"

Most recent update: 29th May 2020 - 14:00:13 - 2627 characters

Notes on Seth Godin's Your Job is to Make Art:

  • The game of pinball would fail if the pins were an inch closer or an inch further apart - it's a deliberately constructed balance for maximum enjoyment
  • Don't be the average - be the one with no replacement
  • Ask of your product: Who is it for? What is it for? What is our best work for?
  • Don't aim for the middle, aim for the edges, for those who already care and already want to hear more
  • Rather than focusing on funnels focus on megaphones
  • Break out of the habit of fearing being different, of fearing being the Icarus
  • True artists don't ask what the client wants, they create the art with the purpose pulled from their heart and give clients the option of joining ("Full Cheetah")
  • Of your customers and audience, "I see you, I hear you"
  • Permission based marketing is a mailing list where the audience can unsubscribe if they decide they don't want it, that they've already bought in
  • The power of tribes is the ability to convince a massive audience of fans to spend thousands to compete in an Ironman in Hawaii where they know they'll lose
  • The Beatles didn't invent teens, they led them
  • If you can't convince someone of your idea then you're likely convincing the wrong audience
  • Be an artist, not a copyist (the first person to put an upside down urinal in a gallery is an artist, the second person a plumber)
  • "If I gave you a map you would be a plumber"
  • All innovation is is failing and failing and failing until you find the next thing that works
  • "The person who invented the ship also invented the shipwreck"
  • "There is no shipwreck free journey if you want to do art"
  • "Purple cows eventually go gray"
  • "When Gutenberg launched the printing press 94% of the people in Europe were illiterate. He should have waited until everyone knew how to read. There were no bookstores! He should have waited until Barnes & Noble got to Berlin!"
  • "When Mercedes launched the car it was against the law to drive a car. He needed a letter from the king for his own invention. There were no roads. There were no gas stations. There were no all night drive through liquor stores!"
  • "All of you are ready but none of you are prepared" / "All of you are prepared but none of you are ready"
  • "There are no videos online of people successfully riding a bicycle as it's not that interesting" (whilst watching bike fail videos in the background)
  • "Are you willing to own your story and own your failures?"
  • "Will you choose to matter?"