Henry Hagnäs

Poke the Box by Seth Godin

Seth Godin is a brilliant thinker, good speaker and decent writer. I liked parts of his last book, Linchpin[1], a lot and others a little less. It seems to me that in his quest to ship reliably and being very productive (which he is) he ignores crafting his books as much as other writers do. This is a shame because what he writes is worth reading and thinking about.

“Poke the Box” is a short book, a manifesto he calls it, about initiating. Basically starting and shipping new ideas, new things, and not bothering to ask for permission or waiting for an order before doing it. This isn’t, Seth argues, not just the domain of innovators, entrepreneurs and managers - but of everyone. I agree with this thesis but also hold it rather self-evident in many ways. Like “Linchpin”, this book seems to be written for Seth Godin fans to give away to people who they think needs a metaphorical kick in the behind to start doing and not just following. As such its great marketing for the Seth Godin-brand but unlike Linchpin, “Poke the Box” doesn’t have the nuggets of pure gold for the fans.

[1] http://www.henryhagnas.com/seth-godins-linchpin