Danny Meyer and Will Guidara have each written fabulous books about hospitality. They missed one thing. The customers who get the most authentic and lasting hospitality are the ones who deserve it. And the ones who deserve it actually enjoy it the most. Extraordinary hospitality offers someone more human effort and delight than they expect. […]

We don’t have written records, but I’m imagining that groups of cavemen made decisions around the fire in largely the same way we run sophisticated organizations today. About a hundred years ago, three disciplines helped create the modern world: Scientific management used a stopwatch and the assembly line to relentlessly improve the productivity of the […]

It often seems that everyone is talking about what everyone is talking about. No one cares about a song or a movie or a political issue–and then they do. Then it’s everywhere. But of course, that’s precisely why. Most people feel safe when they’re engaging within the expected social norms. It’s easier to fit in […]

I just built a page containing many of my books. Click on any one of them and it’ll take you to a directory of where you can get a copy. And the page then re-indexes based on which ones get the most clicks. https://hotlist.sethgodin.com Thanks for reading.

We’re unprepared. In high school, the quarterback isn’t allowed to call the plays, the actor isn’t allowed to write the lines and the math whiz isn’t allowed to choose what to prove. We all grew up in the age of compliance (and indoctrination). The long tail of the internet and the astonishing leverage of AI […]

Juan Tamariz and Wendell Berry recently passed away. Between them, they had more than 170 years of generous contribution. Juan was a card magician. His students are generally considered the best working in the world today. Wendell was a farmer and a writer. His essays on non-industrial farming and community-building will resonate for generations. What […]

Insider jargon, previously known as cant, is designed to keep outsiders out. The burglars in cartoons are often seen wearing a black mask over their eyes (like Robin in Batman but for a different reason) and carrying a bulging sack over their shoulders. [Of course, the burglar’s sack was rarely bulging. A robber would have […]

Just about everyone commutes to work, by car or by public transit. And just about everyone carries a smart phone. All organizations have a communications problem, and it gets worse as they grow. Which issues are we facing today? Who else is on the team? What’s changed in the environment, and what do we need […]

I know that you know that taking this exit will get us to Sheridan Drive, but the person who’s likely to be driving down this road in a few minutes has no idea. Let’s agree that most street signs are for folks who know where they’re going. We would label things differently if we were […]

but it isn’t. A company wants web traffic, so it dumbs down content, builds listicles and grows. But then others become even dumber or more convenient, so it has to race to keep up with them. Eventually, with nothing but junk, it fades away. A company builds a reputation for delivering useful permission-based email newsletters. […]

The truth is, I’m not a good worker. I’ve had very few traditional jobs, and my performance on typical tasks was poor. Work the exact hours, do precisely what’s asked, don’t ask questions and focus on what the boss wants. We modeled ‘good worker’ behavior in school. “Will this be on the test?” was the […]

On the 19th of October, I’m doing an open Zoom call for members of purple.space and those that might be curious about how cohorts and mutual support open the door to possibility. You can reserve a spot here. It’s free, but there are limited spots.

Don’t bring a spreadsheet to a fear fight. Change causes fear. And change is all around us. The fear of the unknown. The fear of failure. The fear of uncertainty. Mostly, we’d like safety. And when the world changes, safety feels like it’s in short supply. One reason we have security theatre is that the […]

Marketers and politicians too. We don’t say them because it’s assumed. And because we’re afraid. “I might be wrong.” “I’m just guessing” “This might be selfishly motivated.” “It could be that I’m hallucinating.” “I heard this somewhere but I don’t know firsthand that it’s true.” “I know I sound certain, but I’m not.” When an […]

It might be us. Even when there are photos, videos or tape recordings, people find that they can’t agree on what happened. Our vivid recollections can be vivid, but they might not be accurate. What would happen if, for a moment, we imagined that our version of what happened might not be the only one?

On a good day, my bongo score looks like this: Compared to all the people who have played this morning, it’s right at the top. That could be great… Except I’m not being compared to every player in the world. The first graph is built to compare every player who has never previously won the […]

Rivian has a new ad, starring Bill Murray. It’s not a great ad (more on that below) but the remarkable thing is that it features the quirky, beloved and scarce Bill Murray. Between the movie rights, music and Bill, they had to have spent many millions of dollars, and it doesn’t look like they bought […]

When focused on the things we can change, dissatisfaction is a powerful tool. Accepting everything else–the parts we can’t or won’t change–reserves our energy for the places where it’s useful. The tricky part is telling them apart and then focusing our agency and leverage on the useful. Solving problems for others is how we create […]

Civilized culture is based on a thin sort of friction. You don’t yell at the library, act boorish at a restaurant or hassle a minor celebrity at the supermarket. It’s just not done. The result of these human layers and inferences are cues and norms that add up to a connected, generative society. Add selfish […]

The djinn go back millennia, powerful and elusive creatures of the supernatural. They show up across time and culture. Three hundred years ago, Charles Perrault retold a short story about a headstrong woodcutter and his wife. On being granted three wishes from Jupiter (archetype for the genie of legend), he accidentally blurts out that he’d […]

In October, the apples in New England are some of the best in the world. Alas, the apples in this bowl are nine months old and from 3000 miles away. I found them sitting in a forlorn corner of a hotel gym in Cape Cod. Why source lousy apples? Because they’re not being hired to […]

A very long rant, riffing on the opportunity for bootstrapped startups who seek to create value using AI. I wrote it a while ago, thought it was too long, but in arguing with an AI today (everyone needs a hobby) I realized it was worth sharing: Most AI success stories to date are about cost […]

Someone who has seen a lot of movies but has never made one has a certain kind of knowledge. The same is true for clients, patients and students. They haven’t solved a problem, healed a patient or taught a class, but they’ve seen it done. They might have something helpful to add. Or they might […]

Imagine if your job required you to maintain an updated handoff doc, something the boss could give to a new hire that would let them immediately get caught up on the work. All the file names, locations, assumptions, choices, dilemmas and contacts, organized and ready to go. Creating something like this would be annoying and […]

I’d heard a lot about critical theory but didn’t really understand what was being talked about. The Frankfurt School of the 1930s wasn’t really a school. It was philosophers and academics who were arguing with each other about how the world actually works — and about why people keep accepting arrangements that hurt them. And […]

Consistency costs extra. If you want to buy machine screws or widgets that are exactly the same to five decimal points, you’ll pay a premium for that. In exchange, you’ll get parts that are precisely as expected, making assembly more reliable. Mechanization’s productivity and our fear of fear have driven us to do this with […]

“Vanity” has the same root as “in vain.” Emptiness. Staring at the mirror, focusing on our appearance. It’s an empty pursuit of a not-very-worthwhile goal. But modern vanity is amplified. Culture hooked the toxic emotion of shame to vanity. Now, instead of a chance to be seen and admired, vanity is mostly about avoiding the […]

Rock and roll came from the transistor radio. When Sony launched its cheap portable radio more than sixty years ago, it came with a headphone. For the first time in history, teenagers could listen to music without their parents eavesdropping. This opened the door to Chuck Berry and then the Beatles. AM radio needed hits, […]

If you buy a coal mine, the business model is simple: dig out as much coal as you can economically justify, then walk away. On the other hand, the model for a brand or a community or a movement is to relentlessly generate value, connection and possibility. Growth can be sustainable and occasionally exponential. Too […]

We avoid this question all the time, and it costs us. Don’t put kerosene in an electric car. It won’t work. Don’t give your dog dark chocolate, it’ll make him sick. And yet, we often hesitate to be honest about what gets us moving. What puts something at the top of your priority list, or […]