Our mythical Common Sense has a habit of telling us that everyone would or at least should agree on certain ideas, practices, etc. As often as proclaimed, the notion is wrong.
For instance, it is suggested that we are all indispensable in our work lives. Otherwise, we can naïvely ask, why were we hired in the first place? Of course, in our eyes who can live without us? But we are not indispensable. It seems people are incurably and exceptionally skilled at making themselves dispensable. (For full disclosure: I have been very adept in my life at making myself dispensable, in more ways than I would dare share with you today.) With that admission, I am now ready to declare that Seth Godin’s book, Linchpin, captured me for a sleepless night reading experience.
Ok, I am a fan of Seth Godin. No, he is not a rock star, nor a member of the mindless’ Celebrity Hall of Fame. He is simply a very insightful person, who expresses his thoughts freely—nothing more and nothing less. But insights don’t grow freely on trees. Insights develop from life experiences taking time to see life, which cannot be bought nor inherited.
In Linchpin a careful and methodical reader can find thoughts worth rereading over the course of years. As a text it will not become a classic for the easy-living types. But it will become a guide for those who know they must continually learn and relearn how to see the world, especially within and outside their respective worlds. Going beyond readers are enticed to create perspectives on how to think very clearly about the future. Consequently, it is a book, which dares self-futurists to engage friends, bosses, partners and others, to consult their feelings on what they want out of life’s choices? How?
It simply asks if people want to become, remain and die as dispensable “cogs of machines?” Is that really important to know?
Finally, I do not care to spoil your exploration of the book. You must read it to form your own opinions. Yet, for the curious among you, who live in a challenging rut-filled fog, while navigating your lives and careers, please start the book at page 101. Pick it up and read a few pages and then do one of the toughest human tasks in our 21st Century way of living: THINK!
Think as a human being and not as a machine-child.
Michael Mason Norman, ED.D., January 15, 2010