Global Profit Center

Seth Godin’s Blog

• Defending change (or the status quo) September 22, 2021
  The easy argument to make is that the thing we have now is better than the new thing that’s on offer. All one has to do is take the thing we have now as a given (ignoring its real costs) and then challenge the defects and question the benefits of the new thing, while also […]
  Seth Godin
• Messing with Strathern’s Law September 21, 2021
  “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” Marilyn Strathern expanded on Charles Goodhart’s comment about monetary policy and turned it into a useful law of the universe. As soon as we try to manipulate behaviors to alter a measure, it’s no longer useful. That’s why you can’t believe social […]
  Seth Godin
• Labor and value September 20, 2021
  Adam Smith and David Ricardo argued that all value comes from labor, and the value of something is in the amount of labor it took to produce it. But Henry George understood that this is backward. The value of something lies in how much labor we’re willing to exchange for it. Too often, we’re tempted […]
  Seth Godin
• Gift cards, serial numbers and hard technology September 19, 2021
  I bought someone a digital gift card the other day. That’s generally a bad idea, since there’s so much waste and breakage, but it was the right answer to the problem in the moment. The code the person would have to type in to redeem the card was: X5LMFP478DRYTHQY I’m sure that the team who […]
  Seth Godin
• Raining on your picnic (on your birthday) September 18, 2021
  A friend just got handed an unreasonable rejection. It came on a platter, delivered with very little in the way of kindness and no hints at all about what to do next. It is not personal. Not about her. She did nothing wrong. It might not even be about her idea. No one wants exactly […]
  Seth Godin
• The programmatic ask September 17, 2021
  Favors are part of the glue of our culture. It’s not easy to ask for a favor, it’s not always easy to say yes, but when the two people engaged in this dance find a connection, it means something. Alas, the modern hustle, amplified by databases and computers, has turned this equation upside down. “It […]
  Seth Godin
• The simple market September 16, 2021
  If you want something that makes your life better, you can buy it. If you want to get the money to buy something, you can make something or do something that makes someone’s life better. It stops being simple when externalities, market failures and greed show up.
  Seth Godin
• Copy design September 15, 2021
  Copywriting turns words into action. But which words? And which action? Often, copywriters take a strategy for granted. They don’t take the time to think about what this sentence or that paragraph might be for. They hesitate to describe the foundations of their method, and instead resort to time-tested tricks and phrases. We have a […]
  Seth Godin
• Appropriate risk September 14, 2021
  We talk about risk like it’s a bad thing. But all forward motion involves risk. You can’t find a risk-free way to accomplish much of anything. Appropriate risk has two elements: The odds of it working out are commensurate with the benefits. The consequences of being wrong don’t eliminate your chance to try a different […]
  Seth Godin
• Respecting their time September 13, 2021
  When we go around the room and have each person introduce themselves, we’re burning time, attention and trust. 40 people: 45 minutes, gone. Worse—the person who goes first spends 43 minutes daydreaming, and the person who goes last spends 44 minutes worrying about what to say. When we read our powerpoint slides to the audience, […]
  Seth Godin