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frooblie's review against another edition
3.0
Linchpin is one of several books that argue the same point: it's not enough to show up. You have to be good enough at what you do, and whatever you do has to be valuable enough, that people will pay you.
I prefer "So Good, They Can't Ignore You" or "Shop Class as Soulcraft" to Linchpin, if only because Godin never seems to develop a thought beyond a single page. By the end of the book, the never-ending half-page-long thoughts coming one after another became tiresome.
As I read it, I thought that in many ways Linchpin is a knowledge worker's Shopclass. Certainly, Godin's ideas are applicable to the trades, but that's not really his world. Where Shopclass argues for the dignity of hands-on work that is useful, Linchpin focuses on creativity and service. Both recognize that few people are happy just marking time at work, but take slightly different views of how to move away from the soul-sucking nine-to-five.
I prefer "So Good, They Can't Ignore You" or "Shop Class as Soulcraft" to Linchpin, if only because Godin never seems to develop a thought beyond a single page. By the end of the book, the never-ending half-page-long thoughts coming one after another became tiresome.
As I read it, I thought that in many ways Linchpin is a knowledge worker's Shopclass. Certainly, Godin's ideas are applicable to the trades, but that's not really his world. Where Shopclass argues for the dignity of hands-on work that is useful, Linchpin focuses on creativity and service. Both recognize that few people are happy just marking time at work, but take slightly different views of how to move away from the soul-sucking nine-to-five.
raquel_reading_stuff's review against another edition
5.0
This starts out as a book seemingly about how to become indispensable at your job, but then you start to realize it's about looking at your job in a new light, making the best of things, making "art" that makes you special, and valuing yourself more. Over the course of the book, Godin highlights different things about making "art", making maps, and learning to be indispensable. He also gives interesting side notes about how the brain works and how to conquer anxiety and fear.
We don't have to be brainwashed cogs in a scared, resistance-based system; we can all make "art", be brave, and be linchpins.
We don't have to be brainwashed cogs in a scared, resistance-based system; we can all make "art", be brave, and be linchpins.
ekirs's review against another edition
4.0
I took notes while reading this because there were so many parts that I loved. Especially relevant to me was Godin's definition of the "lizard brain" and "resistance" (these are already probably a part of your life, but read this book to have Godin put into words what all humans already feel, at least from time to time). This was a great read for me because much of Godin's advice on being an artist applies to my creative pursuits, but also my professional career.
I love Godin's assertions that we should all be artists in every interaction and project we are part of- art isn't just about music or paintings, but about authenticity in every aspect of your life, including your day job. I try to live my life this way and am very satisfied with how Godin has captured this lifestyle in words. I would recommend this book to young adults who are just beginning their careers, but also to anyone of any age in need of a refreshing reminder of what life can be!
I love Godin's assertions that we should all be artists in every interaction and project we are part of- art isn't just about music or paintings, but about authenticity in every aspect of your life, including your day job. I try to live my life this way and am very satisfied with how Godin has captured this lifestyle in words. I would recommend this book to young adults who are just beginning their careers, but also to anyone of any age in need of a refreshing reminder of what life can be!
architr's review against another edition
2.0
“Job security” no longer exists.
Godin knows you don’t want to hear this, but the heads-up is for your own good. For more than 100 years, a tacit agreement held true between employer and employee: Companies promised decent wages, solid benefits and job security in exchange for obedient workers who punched the clock, met expectations and followed the rules. The illusion of job security turned workers into timid tagalongs that were terrified of self-expression, innovation or risk. That contract is no longer valid. Vast economic and technological changes created an insecure workforce victimized by globalization, downsizing and layoffs. Unemployment rises, pensions disappear and workers lose their houses in record numbers. The prospects are grim. You work as previous generations did but reap few of their benefits. However, Godin says, you do have some choices.
2. You can embrace either hopelessness or opportunity.
The employer-employee system shattered into millions of disconnected parts. Unmotivated employees resign themselves to their lot. They don’t believe they can make a difference, so they no longer try. Even white-collar workers in tidy offices who believe they are a step above the masses perform numbingly repetitive tasks devoid of creativity. Now you can either bemoan your fate and embrace hopelessness, or climb out of the rubble and seize the opportunity to create a bright, new future.
3. Cast off mediocrity.
Society discourages creativity and artistry. For centuries, the working world compelled individuals to conform to one of two roles under different guises: bourgeoisie or proletariat, manager or laborer, leader or follower. The old rules said to stay out of trouble, obey instructions, work diligently and receive your just deserts. Godin’s new perform-or-perish rules demand that you stand out, be extraordinary, and create something new and innovative.
4. Become a “linchpin.”
You can stand above the crowd by becoming a linchpin – an invaluable, indispensable employee who inspires everyone else. Be unique, inventive and dynamic. Project a winning attitude, even if naysayers surround you. Be the person others ask for help. When your colleagues depend on you, your firm will pay you accordingly. In an economic downturn, you will be the last person laid off.
5. Linchpins inspire through wisdom and shrewdness.
Linchpins aren’t brilliant all the time. They stand out due to their ability to recognize and seize opportunity. But to be a linchpin, Godin says, you must be smart and crafty, as well as hard working. Linchpins surpass their peers by combining wisdom about the job with shrewdness. Every interaction with your colleagues or clients is an opportunity to act as a linchpin in some way. Musicians, writers, painters and dancers create art because they must share their gifts. Financial reward or acclaim motivates few of them. Becoming a linchpin means becoming an artist. It means performing at your best because you simply can’t do otherwise.
6. Tune out your “lizard brain.”
Your lizard brain is wired for survival and fight or flight. It rules all animals by telling them to hunt, find shelter, stake out territory, and hide or fight their attackers. It fears risk and sows self-doubt and mistrust. It evolved earlier and has greater power than the creative part of your brain. Creative, optimistic, successful people tune out messages from their lizard brains. They don’t take failure personally. They don’t think of themselves as losers. They gain strengths from setbacks.
7. Beware of the danger of comfort.
When you reach that uncertain stage about making a change, Godin says go for it. Of course, it’s not his mortgage at stake, but he’s trying to be encouraging when he advises not succumbing to the paralyzing grip of fear. People whose phobias control them cling to dead-end jobs because they feel safe. They find change unsettling or frightening. They prefer a miserable status quo to the unknown. They don’t worry about failure because they never take risks. Trying something new or breaking old patterns means exposing yourself to criticism. To evolve, ignore tasks that abet procrastination. The nearer you are to a breakthrough, the more you will embrace distraction. Surfing the Internet or checking your email is a lot easier than being creative and initiating change. Most people won’t commit to self-discipline, but that’s the key to productivity.
8. Don’t let anxiety rule you.
Anxiety is the most useless emotion. Unlike fear, which alerts you to legitimate threats, you manufacture anxiety. It springs from imaginary worst-case scenarios you create in your mind. It inhibits creative production. Feeling stressed out about something that hasn’t happened isn’t logical. But Godin says, instead of trying to escape anxiety, just get used to it, and it will dissipate. With practice, you can break an anxiety cycle by recognizing its early signs. To embrace change, decide that nothing is going to stand in your way. No amount of self-doubt or negativity can derail you. March ahead fearlessly.
9. Giving is better than taking.
Generous, committed people understand the power of giving. They recognize the value of supporting others – with time, money or talent – and being part of something larger than themselves. Sadly, altruism gains little admiration. Society emphasizes consolidating power, accumulating possessions and soliciting praise. Yet some people share their bounty while asking for nothing in return. You defeat the purpose of giving when you give for money, personal gain or reciprocity. Giving fortifies the bonds among people and strengthens the community. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), for example, charges no dues; its meetings are free. People attend to receive and to give help – a philosophy that makes AA a powerful, close-knit community. Don’t think you can’t practice generosity until you’re successful. Many successful people never made money their goal; it flowed in because their priorities were in order. As a linchpin, consider how you can donate your art, your efforts, your inspiration and your energy.
10. Life will provide challenges you can’t control. Just keep believing in yourself.
Develop the right perspective and see things the way they really are. Linchpins understand that life offers many challenges they can’t control. If you go into a business meeting anticipating the outcome, you set yourself up for disappointment. Godin says hold back: Don’t emotionally invest in a situation that has so many variables that you can’t predict the outcome. Linchpins can accept the things they can’t change and still move forward.
You can settle for mediocrity because change is intimidating. Or you can defy the status quo. Look beyond the horizon, improve the world and strengthen your relationships. Persevere, and ignore lizard brain self-doubt messages. Don’t get in your own way.
Godin knows you don’t want to hear this, but the heads-up is for your own good. For more than 100 years, a tacit agreement held true between employer and employee: Companies promised decent wages, solid benefits and job security in exchange for obedient workers who punched the clock, met expectations and followed the rules. The illusion of job security turned workers into timid tagalongs that were terrified of self-expression, innovation or risk. That contract is no longer valid. Vast economic and technological changes created an insecure workforce victimized by globalization, downsizing and layoffs. Unemployment rises, pensions disappear and workers lose their houses in record numbers. The prospects are grim. You work as previous generations did but reap few of their benefits. However, Godin says, you do have some choices.
2. You can embrace either hopelessness or opportunity.
The employer-employee system shattered into millions of disconnected parts. Unmotivated employees resign themselves to their lot. They don’t believe they can make a difference, so they no longer try. Even white-collar workers in tidy offices who believe they are a step above the masses perform numbingly repetitive tasks devoid of creativity. Now you can either bemoan your fate and embrace hopelessness, or climb out of the rubble and seize the opportunity to create a bright, new future.
3. Cast off mediocrity.
Society discourages creativity and artistry. For centuries, the working world compelled individuals to conform to one of two roles under different guises: bourgeoisie or proletariat, manager or laborer, leader or follower. The old rules said to stay out of trouble, obey instructions, work diligently and receive your just deserts. Godin’s new perform-or-perish rules demand that you stand out, be extraordinary, and create something new and innovative.
4. Become a “linchpin.”
You can stand above the crowd by becoming a linchpin – an invaluable, indispensable employee who inspires everyone else. Be unique, inventive and dynamic. Project a winning attitude, even if naysayers surround you. Be the person others ask for help. When your colleagues depend on you, your firm will pay you accordingly. In an economic downturn, you will be the last person laid off.
5. Linchpins inspire through wisdom and shrewdness.
Linchpins aren’t brilliant all the time. They stand out due to their ability to recognize and seize opportunity. But to be a linchpin, Godin says, you must be smart and crafty, as well as hard working. Linchpins surpass their peers by combining wisdom about the job with shrewdness. Every interaction with your colleagues or clients is an opportunity to act as a linchpin in some way. Musicians, writers, painters and dancers create art because they must share their gifts. Financial reward or acclaim motivates few of them. Becoming a linchpin means becoming an artist. It means performing at your best because you simply can’t do otherwise.
6. Tune out your “lizard brain.”
Your lizard brain is wired for survival and fight or flight. It rules all animals by telling them to hunt, find shelter, stake out territory, and hide or fight their attackers. It fears risk and sows self-doubt and mistrust. It evolved earlier and has greater power than the creative part of your brain. Creative, optimistic, successful people tune out messages from their lizard brains. They don’t take failure personally. They don’t think of themselves as losers. They gain strengths from setbacks.
7. Beware of the danger of comfort.
When you reach that uncertain stage about making a change, Godin says go for it. Of course, it’s not his mortgage at stake, but he’s trying to be encouraging when he advises not succumbing to the paralyzing grip of fear. People whose phobias control them cling to dead-end jobs because they feel safe. They find change unsettling or frightening. They prefer a miserable status quo to the unknown. They don’t worry about failure because they never take risks. Trying something new or breaking old patterns means exposing yourself to criticism. To evolve, ignore tasks that abet procrastination. The nearer you are to a breakthrough, the more you will embrace distraction. Surfing the Internet or checking your email is a lot easier than being creative and initiating change. Most people won’t commit to self-discipline, but that’s the key to productivity.
8. Don’t let anxiety rule you.
Anxiety is the most useless emotion. Unlike fear, which alerts you to legitimate threats, you manufacture anxiety. It springs from imaginary worst-case scenarios you create in your mind. It inhibits creative production. Feeling stressed out about something that hasn’t happened isn’t logical. But Godin says, instead of trying to escape anxiety, just get used to it, and it will dissipate. With practice, you can break an anxiety cycle by recognizing its early signs. To embrace change, decide that nothing is going to stand in your way. No amount of self-doubt or negativity can derail you. March ahead fearlessly.
9. Giving is better than taking.
Generous, committed people understand the power of giving. They recognize the value of supporting others – with time, money or talent – and being part of something larger than themselves. Sadly, altruism gains little admiration. Society emphasizes consolidating power, accumulating possessions and soliciting praise. Yet some people share their bounty while asking for nothing in return. You defeat the purpose of giving when you give for money, personal gain or reciprocity. Giving fortifies the bonds among people and strengthens the community. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), for example, charges no dues; its meetings are free. People attend to receive and to give help – a philosophy that makes AA a powerful, close-knit community. Don’t think you can’t practice generosity until you’re successful. Many successful people never made money their goal; it flowed in because their priorities were in order. As a linchpin, consider how you can donate your art, your efforts, your inspiration and your energy.
10. Life will provide challenges you can’t control. Just keep believing in yourself.
Develop the right perspective and see things the way they really are. Linchpins understand that life offers many challenges they can’t control. If you go into a business meeting anticipating the outcome, you set yourself up for disappointment. Godin says hold back: Don’t emotionally invest in a situation that has so many variables that you can’t predict the outcome. Linchpins can accept the things they can’t change and still move forward.
You can settle for mediocrity because change is intimidating. Or you can defy the status quo. Look beyond the horizon, improve the world and strengthen your relationships. Persevere, and ignore lizard brain self-doubt messages. Don’t get in your own way.
meganriley's review against another edition
3.0
You know how there are meetings that should have been emails? Well this is a book that should have just been a blog post.
jmcphers's review against another edition
4.0
Chances are good that you've heard some worn motivational speech about what a unique and special little snowflake you are. This is what I was expecting from Linchpin, but there's actually some good information in here. The book rests on two main premises.
The first is that if you do a job that can be performed by following a procedure, you are the new factory worker, and you're basically replaceable by anyone else who can also follow a procedure. This is most people, because people find comfort in being told what to do.
The second is that you can become a "linchpin", an irreplacable person, by doing the hard work of connection, creativity, and art (Seth's definition of "art" is very loose), things that are human and personal and can never be automated. Linchpins have a vision and they help connect and move people.
It's not hard to argue that the white-collar worker is no longer safe from having his or her job automated away or outsourced, and it's also not hard to argue that thinking and navigating without a map will make you stand out from the crowd. Thus a lot of Seth's statements seem a little obvious, and he certainly doesn't mind repeating them: this book, while encouraging, has a bit of filler. Seth writes exactly the way he speaks: the chapters are full of short little sections, half a page to a couple of pages in length. These sections are full of stubby little sentences and don't even try to connect to each other.
The best part of the book (and by "best" I mean "the part that made me think about something in a new way") is a chapter entitled The Resistance, which argues that the reason we don't take risks and make art and do our real best is, at its root, biological. Chances are you've felt like you were pushing against a wall when you thought about stepping out or up and this mysterious force is analyzed in some depth.
This book falls squarely into the "motivational reading" category. It probably won't tell you something you've never heard before, but it may scare and/or cajole you into becoming more than just another head for the headcount. Godin is funny and insightful and the book's a quick read--I recommend it.
The first is that if you do a job that can be performed by following a procedure, you are the new factory worker, and you're basically replaceable by anyone else who can also follow a procedure. This is most people, because people find comfort in being told what to do.
The second is that you can become a "linchpin", an irreplacable person, by doing the hard work of connection, creativity, and art (Seth's definition of "art" is very loose), things that are human and personal and can never be automated. Linchpins have a vision and they help connect and move people.
It's not hard to argue that the white-collar worker is no longer safe from having his or her job automated away or outsourced, and it's also not hard to argue that thinking and navigating without a map will make you stand out from the crowd. Thus a lot of Seth's statements seem a little obvious, and he certainly doesn't mind repeating them: this book, while encouraging, has a bit of filler. Seth writes exactly the way he speaks: the chapters are full of short little sections, half a page to a couple of pages in length. These sections are full of stubby little sentences and don't even try to connect to each other.
The best part of the book (and by "best" I mean "the part that made me think about something in a new way") is a chapter entitled The Resistance, which argues that the reason we don't take risks and make art and do our real best is, at its root, biological. Chances are you've felt like you were pushing against a wall when you thought about stepping out or up and this mysterious force is analyzed in some depth.
This book falls squarely into the "motivational reading" category. It probably won't tell you something you've never heard before, but it may scare and/or cajole you into becoming more than just another head for the headcount. Godin is funny and insightful and the book's a quick read--I recommend it.
23missb's review against another edition
3.0
I listened to the audiobook version of this. I didn't love the book, it didn't have me nodding along the entire time thinking yes, exactly! However, I was still able to glean some relevant info/wisdom that directly applies to me and a thing I am tackling soon that is completely out of my comfort zone but will in the end be very rewarding.
ronsos's review against another edition
2.0
First casualty of my recently implemented 100 pg rule. I didn't connect with the material at all. I do not recommend this.
litcontours's review against another edition
4.0
Mostly a cheerleading book, I would think most people have thought about this subject before. I appreciate a work culture of transparency and openness to ideas, and that helps bring about a lot of questions about status quo.