Tribes, Seth Godin
Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 9:12 pm
Godin defines a tribe is a group of people who are connected by an idea and a leader. His book is about how the internet has led to tribes' growing like wildfire.
The book is the size of your hand, is 147 pages long, and has no table of contents or index. It's written as a series of probably 100 different perspectives that develop the idea by describing one aspect of a tribe or giving an example or encouraging the reader to become a leader of a tribe. Each perspective is self-contained and has a heading. The book is an easy read, but I found the and-here's-another-perspective approach to be frustrating. He says that a reader's frustration with his approach is part of the point. There are no simple definitions and formulas anymore.
IronGarm is probably a tribe in his use of the word, though IronGarm has no leader now. Its idea would be no-holds-barred fitness and free speech Part of modern tribes, Godin says, is that a leader launches the idea, provides the platform, and the tribe then grows and evolves wiki-style.
One of his tribe examples is cross-fit. He gives many others from business, charity, religion and elsewhere.
The self-help side of the book is that anyone can do it. You just need the vision and guts to step forth and break the mold and take a chance.
He thinks traditional organizations are dinosaurs and doomed by the new tribe approach. His business tribe is squidoo.com, and my guess is he makes a good living from book sales and promoting tribes on his web site.
The book is the size of your hand, is 147 pages long, and has no table of contents or index. It's written as a series of probably 100 different perspectives that develop the idea by describing one aspect of a tribe or giving an example or encouraging the reader to become a leader of a tribe. Each perspective is self-contained and has a heading. The book is an easy read, but I found the and-here's-another-perspective approach to be frustrating. He says that a reader's frustration with his approach is part of the point. There are no simple definitions and formulas anymore.
IronGarm is probably a tribe in his use of the word, though IronGarm has no leader now. Its idea would be no-holds-barred fitness and free speech Part of modern tribes, Godin says, is that a leader launches the idea, provides the platform, and the tribe then grows and evolves wiki-style.
One of his tribe examples is cross-fit. He gives many others from business, charity, religion and elsewhere.
The self-help side of the book is that anyone can do it. You just need the vision and guts to step forth and break the mold and take a chance.
He thinks traditional organizations are dinosaurs and doomed by the new tribe approach. His business tribe is squidoo.com, and my guess is he makes a good living from book sales and promoting tribes on his web site.
