Book: The Icarus Deception, Seth Godin

Initially I battled to get 'into' the book. In my mission to read two books a month, I think that I had been spoilt with the more easy reading business books that didn't really challenge me; I pretty much agreed with the content of those books and took some learnings from them. This book was a lot more challenging; not that I didn't understand it, more in terms of me not really resonating with Seth Godin's writing style. This is the first book of his that I read, so I had to get used to his style. To be honest, it felt a bit preachy at the beginning and it felt very much like he was talking (shouting) down from a very high horse. My colleague really enjoyed the book, so I did decide to read it to the end.  

I don't necessarily agree with the author's thinking, e.g. he did not have anything particularly good to say about industrialism at the beginning of the book (although much later in the book he is less against it. i.e. "The industrial economy won't disappear, but the agenda will increasingly be set by those who make connection not widgets.")

In my opinion, I have no problem with industrialism, without it we would not be where we are today in terms of progress. Systems and processes are very necessary and important when it comes running a business, especially to ensure consistency and productivity. Take me on a trip to a manufacturing plant any day of the week, I absolutely love to see factories! It creates jobs, builds economies and the things it produces makes life a lot more convenient. 

I do agree with what Seth Godin says about needing to stand out from the rest and do things differently; we all need to be artists. I do like the idea that we all do need to be creative, think outside the box and be artists. We live and work in a connected economy, so we need to make a difference with all our interactions. He writes, "In the connection economy, the true measure of your work is whether you touched someone." 

He also writes, "It is not art if the world (or at least a tiny portion of it) isn't transformed in some way. And it's not art if it's not generous.

To be honest, I am not too sure whether I will be reading any of his books any time soon, but I will so that I can compare the two.

Do I recommend it? It's not my favourite book this year, but it gets more interesting towards the end. I'll give it a 6/10.