(book review) Linchpin

Linchpin: Are you Indispensable? by Seth Godin
Penguin Group, NY-USA, 2010

I gave this book a second look and ended up reading it again. At first, I did not write a review on this one as I thought everyone knew how great this book was. But then, I realized, there are a lot of people who are not even aware of this treasure!

Seth Godin really is a master of his "art". He mentions the word "art" quite often in the book - it does not pertain to art as in paintings and sculptures but art as in creativity in one's work. Seth explains what a Linchpin is and why Linchpin's are indispensable. He explains that the real world does not have any maps or pointers. If one keeps on looking for direction or a map from someone, he becomes a dispensable resource. Linchpins find their own ways and create their own paths. They bring original and unique creativity into any work they do. That makes them indispensable.

The book is a new maze of ideas and each reader can take numerous paths through it. Godin gets you glued to the ideas in the book.

(Ruta Writes...) books that made me think...

I am writing this as a reply to someone who asked me about which book I really liked... or which author I feel makes me think the most.

As far as the 'Business' domain is concerned, I like to listen to and read Guy Kawasaki. He writes and talks simplistic - but his thoughts hit the right target - spot on. Currently, I have been reading Seth Godin's book called Linchpin - and now I have started realizing why people like him so much! I have read many books on design, strategy and branding - Many of those were by people I really admire - Were educating. These books taught me a lot about the actual practice of design business - They introduced me to some of the finest and innovative projects. But there was one book that really made me think and change my perception:

Wired to Care by Dev Patnaik
We always hear or read 'be human' in your designs or 'think about the customer first' or at times giving a 'personalized experience'. This is easy to read in books, to say and to talk about. Solving real world issues by design and applying these principles at the same time, is always a hard task. At times, designers go clueless about bringing in the human factor. Dev Patnaik clears the clouds around reaching to your end consumer with a human hand - through design, branding and strategies - He likes looking at any problem through the lens of EMPATHY. It is one of the books that changed my perception about creating great brands. They do not happen - they are created through EMPATHY.

Also, I liked one of my recent reads by Alina Wheeler  (look below for the review)
She goes through the entire branding process in her book - It feels like a textbook and I like the way she goes about describing all the processes with the help of graphics, quotes and "some text". I feel this book is an important one because no one at school or in our professional careers teaches us the A-Z of the design/ branding process - You have to learn it by yourself. I feel if the entire process is taught to all the design students right from the very start - be it any discipline, I guess the interaction between teams at work will be more close and harmonious and there will be no "new discoveries" at work

I just cannot write enough about the authors, designers or strategists I like. But a few others apart from Dev Patnaik, Alina Wheeler, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin are Marty Neumeier, Tim Brown, Hartmut Esslinger, Tom Kelly and the list doesn't just end there. I have still a lot more to read, learn, to do and to explore. The next book on my to read list is 'Brand Identity Essentials' by Kevin Budelmann, Yang Kim, and Curt Wozniak.