Friday, June 15, 2007

Why I love Seth Godin

First of all, I am yet to read any of his books. Purple Cow is a part of my pile of books to be read soon - around 500 at last count - and I have downloaded the Idea Virus too.

But what prompts me to write about this guy - surely, he doesn't need me to plug his book or blog - is purely personal. I love reading his blog. And even though love cannot be put into a framework, here's what make me go to his blog, day after day.


The colors. Sunshine. Happiness. Optimism. Orange & yellow, but not going overboard with them. Also, smaller but readable font means that more content is packed into less space, and it makes reading easier.

When I open the blog, I find the articles first - not the adverts, not product placements. Also, the navigation is intuitive and easy to use. There are very less graphics ( except for the bright yellow picture of Seth's cranium) to distract me from the content.

The content itself, is crafted lovingly, with the reader in mind. Seth knows that he is not writing a romance novel, and hence, his words dont have mush. The sentences are simple and lucid. He understands how short paragraphs are easy on the eye, and hyperlinks all reference materials - other blogs, articles, videos etc - within the article. Once in a while, a picture or an embedded video breaks the routine.

The language is never preachy. Depending on the tone, it ranges from Seth talking to a friend to Seth talking to himself. Sometimes he sounds as if he is trying to advice the friend; sometimes he seems to figure out things himself. He never falls into the trap of trying to put in a minimum number of words in each post, unlike most of us, he is not concerned about the length, but the quality.

After I started visiting the blog, I discovered other, better blogs and other reading / viewing material. He links to quality stuff, but seldom quotes from them - a mistake may wannabe Seth's don't seem to avoid.

After I finish each post, I don't feel overwhelmed. I find myself shaking my head in agreement, sometimes thinking about what he has told, and at times fwding a link to my friends, inviting them to the discussion.

Thanks Seth, for providing a set of readings which are interesting, informative, funny, thought evoking - for most of them one or a few of the above adjectives will apply - but most of all, uniformly heartfelt posts.



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Here is a comment on Seth's latest book "the dip" posted by a reviewer on Amazon:

"I read this idiotic book in a half hour in a bookstore (it's 80 pages long). Now I'll save you fourteen bucks, here's goes:

When stuck in a rut, quit. Though... maybe not. For it depends.

That's it, my friends. This is a book by a pretentious noosphere beschmutzer peddling facile bs combined with commonplace trivialites. Don't bother."

I am not quite convinced to buy this book myself.