Friday I had the opportunity to listen to Seth Godin at fundraiser for Haiti put on by Startup Princesses that I thought I would share what I heard. He was semi-pitching his new book, Linchpin. Seth began and ended with the same question: Are you a genius? By genius he means someone who creates something that wasn’t there before.

He then launched into a short description of the evolution of the type of work starting with hunting then farming, then factory work. At this point he took a tangent that lasted for some time as he elaborate on Henry Fords ability to make an assembly line and one of the keys to being able to do so is replaceable parts that were fairly consistent and still work within the system. Seth then extrapolated that this view has spread to replaceable people and that more and more all employees are being treated like lunch ladies (at this point Seth was showing us his large collection of lunch lady photos).

He goes onto riff that public school systems really just teach kids to be compliant so that eventually they can be good replaceable employees. Now this is a view I share in large part in that I think a lot of school systems even and especially charter schools are set up to meet the employment needs of major employers. Ideally, I think it should help kids explore there interests but that is another topic for another post.

Okay so some how Seth gets back to comparing Karl Marx’s and Adam Smith’s view of a pin making machine (2000 a day-give or take- vs the prior 4-5 per day per craftsman) Adam Smith apparently looked at it and sees the world through the eyes of those with the capital to buy the machine so that they don’t need to hire as many people and things run more efficiently and Karl apparently looks and sees the dangers to the craftsmen that now they will be replaceable. This is where he introduces where he thinks the next type of work is going to be. He used the term Artist-those that solve interesting problems and create or invent. He then hypothesizes this is because now everyone has The Machine and not just the capitalists because there is this thing on computers called the internet that allows the middle man to be cut out of the picture.

Artists are the linchpins of society that are rare but allow everyone else to work. Seth’s invitation was to become one of them and leave the cog world behind ignoring what he call the lizard brain and the resistance. If fear tells you not to do something then do it! It felt good to be going that direction. I also found his distinction between an entrepreneur and a freelancer compelling-A freelancer doesn’t make money while he is sleeping an entrepreneur does. Which are you or are you still a replaceable cog? Are you a genius?