I think that ‘hollow’ feeling some people talk about simply comes from their lack of desire and lack of decision-making.

Seth’s books are rich full of information – I LOVE his books (I love Tribes), and the fact that they are more about the theory (according to the average person anyway) because Seth teaches in a very different way – his words are INSPIRING, and that in itself encourages me to DO something with his work and ideas.

The fact that he makes you think on such a profound level is already value-adding.

Seth has single-handedly helped me to alter my thinking.

Plus, the ‘do’ part of things lose their value when it’s given to you. People love to tell you what to do. But when to to ‘DO’ part comes from within – and from your own learning, it’s real.

As for the haters, some people need to hate. There is nothing all that controversial in what Seth Godin as far as I can tell, but when someone becomes successful there are always those who do there best to knock him off the perch.

I for one get a similar feeling as you after reading Seth’s books. I want more meat; it seems superficial and I feel empty. But then, we are students of marketing deeply embedded in the art and science, I think Seth’s books are Pop marketing with bits and pieces of very useful insight to marketing pros.

While this may sound elitist, I really don’t mean it to because I’m not a marketing genius (God knows!), just a guy who worked in the field and is now back to taking pictures and writing for a living.

So, in that regard, I don’t think his work is fluff. It’s low on the “how to” scale, but there are plenty of those books flying around for us all to read.

Steve

PS – love what you are doing with the blog – keep it up!

When “The Dip” came out – I went to see Seth talk in the Bay Area. As you would expect the auditorium was full of “Choir” – who else would you expect ?

Seth did one really smart thing – he basically let you buy one book and get four free to give to colleagues who might benefit; which is what I did. The message in the Dip was highly relevant to the challenges my employer at the time (Sun Microsystems) faced :

http://blogs.sun.com/sharps/entry/free_book_the_dip_by

I think Seth’s books contain a lot of common sense and he delivers it well; more people should benefit – though I don’t think viral-book gifting is scalable !

- Rich

I guess a lot of it comes from where you draw the line. If you read the reviews on Amazon (I try not to) you’ll find a significant number of people are the haters, the ones who don’t get it, the ones who really need to hear what I have to say but don’t want to hear it.

The challenge isn’t to preach to the choir. The challenge is to give the choir ideas they can use to spread the word. Some people do that by cajoling peers into reading my books, or even better, they do it by rehashing and personalizing my riffs into their own.

That’s all you can hope for from a book, I think. If books were as powerful as good medicine, there’d be no ugly powerpoint slides, right?

You absolutely put your finger on it. I too read Seth’s blog and his books, have learned all kinds of good stuff, participated in the Tribes process, etc. But, yep, I’m bothered by that same weird hollow feeling.

Your advice to Seth is spot on. Reaching across the void needs to be his next challenge.

Hope life is treating you well!

Shaun