The world is filled with Sheeple. People who blindly follow. People who don’t question. People who believe things ‘are the way they are’ and can’t change. Most people don’t even realize that they are ‘sheepwalking’ through live. They have been raised to be obedient, to play by the rules, get a stable job, go to church on Sundays and be happy with what they have.
Cover of Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
Then there are the rest of us. Those of us who challenge authority. Who ask ‘why?’ when we encounter something that doesn’t make sense. Who present alternatives to the status quo. Chances are that if you’re reading this blog, I’m talking about you. In his book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, Seth Godin describes people such as us as heretics. People who are willing to step outside the mainstream and lead.
As with most of what Seth writes, there isn’t much in this book that we don’t already know, at least on a subconscious level. We all have at one time or another felt restrained by the status quo and had a desire to change things. In fact many of us already lead tribes, even if we don’t always recognize ourselves as leaders.
Seth is a master at turning conventional concepts on their heads and presenting ideas in enlightening and refreshing new ways. The values of Tribes, therefore isn’t to tell us anything new, per se. Rather it is to package together things that people are already feeling and thinking and bring it to the forefront. It is meant to spur us to action.
Like his thinking, Seth doesn’t write in a conventional way either. The book is broken into a series of brief discussions about ideas, almost like a series of blog posts. it is perfect for those of us lacking the time or attention span to delve deep into a text heavy tome. It’s perfect for reading before bed, or while waiting for a friend.
Tribes won’t change the world, but it may inspire you to change your small part of it.
Final Verdict: ****1/2. I highly recommended for anybody who thinks.
This is day 23 in my 28 Day Blogging Challenge. 5 days to go.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Linchpin by Seth Godin – Video Book Review (chrisbrogan.com)
- Presenting Seth Godin’s Tribes (slideshare.net)
- Thoughts from Seth Godin (broadcasting-brain.com)
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Sorry I missed my weekly Friday 5 feature yesterday. Several Christmas parties made less time for posts this past week. Nevertheless, I still managed to read my usual level of articles. To make up for being a day late, I’ll include a bonus article this week. So here is the ‘Saturday 6’; a selection of articles I found interesting over the past week.
Infrastructure and Social Interactions. A look at how infrastructure can help reuniting a divided society, and created much-needed jobs for people of all talents and classes.
- We define ourselves by our neighbourhoods. An interesting article about the importance of neighborhoods to a city’s urban fabric. The article focuses on Toronto, but the lessons are applicable to any city, including (especially?) Phoenix.
- Bookshops are not dead. Long may it remain so. Why (independent) book stores remain more important than ever (hint, books are different from other types of consumable media.
- Reclaiming Urban Spaces. (Youtube Video) Paul White relates how cities like New York have reclaimed urban spaces from the car- and how the battle for clean, livable cities can be waged- and won. Recorded at TEDxEast on November 6, 2009 in New York City.
- What’s Wrong With Gentrification? A look at why displacement fears are misguided and how gentrification is actually a welcome development, especially when the alternative is abandonment.
- Self Connections: Being who you are. A piece by my friend Rhonda Bannard, founder of Inspired Connections. Rhonda takes a look at the South African concept of Ubuntu and how a person cannot be an individual without being part of a larger community.
Hope you have a great holidays. I’ll be spending much of the next two weeks with friends and family, so my blogging will be even more erratic than normal. One of my New Years Resolutions is to blog more regularly and with more original content. Hope it sticks!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=5823fed3-62f2-4492-967a-ce67b2e56f18 "Saturday 6: a special edition of what Ive been reading this week")
Here’s this week’s selection of the best articles I’ve read over the past seven days.
- Do You See a Pattern? Witold Rybczynski, one of my favorite architects and urbanist (and Canadians) wrote this profile on one of the most important (and controversial) architectural theorists of the past half century, Christopher Pattern. Pattern has inspired smart-growth advocates, counterculture DIY-ers, and computer programmers.
- The Teachings of Rome. An interesting article by Jay Walljasper on what the 3,000 year old city can teach new urbanists. Hint: it’s about ‘sense of place.’
- Diversity, crowds key to evolving communities. A short article by Neil Takemoto of Cooltown Studios looking at how crowds can create healthier, more vibrant, increasingly productive communities,
- Passenger rail needs to pay for itself? Take off the transportation blinders: Dave Zweifel of Madison‘s Capital Times debunks the myth that our love affair with the automobile are all paid for by highway. (via the blog, Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburbs by John Michlig)
- Mixier Use. Nate Berg of Planetizen looks at mixed-use projects and decides that they could be even ‘mixier.” He concludes that limiting our developments to a mix of two or three uses may not enough to create more active places.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Witold Rybczynski On The Four Paradigms of American Cities (treehugger.com)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=d7c3aed8-c1e0-4d38-b0ba-0addf24c9574 "Friday 5: What Ive been reading over the past week")
Five of the best articles and blog posts I’ve read over the past week.
- Curing Sprawlitis. How to fix fixing 50 years of urban sprawl. Provided a good overview of the policies that led us to our current situation, and recommendations only how to return to a more rational urban form. While the recommendations are directed at Lansing, MI, they will help to ‘cure’ any sprawling metropolis, including Phoenix.
- The Opposite May Be True. A short, but intriguing video of ‘opposites’ and how much cultural assumptions guide our underdatnding of the world, even though the opposite may also be just as true.
Retail Districts for Creatives. Image from Cooltown Studios.
- Retail district types for creatives. An interesting discussion on the differing retail preferences of the ‘creative class’. Summary: more corner stores and neighborhood centers and less big boxes and regional centers (aka malls)
- What’s wrong with Dubai? An investigation into the design flaws that are plaguing Dubai. The key take away (that is also applicable to Phoenix): “All that Arab culture learned in a thousand years about adapting cities to great heat—high-ceilinged buildings along narrow streets which provide shade and short distances to walk outside—have been forgotten or ignored.”
- MacAlpine’s a Valley time machine. A fascinating historical review of a midtown Phoenix gem: MacAlpine’s Soda Fountain.
Five of the best articles and blog posts I’ve read over the past week.
Note: In order to keep better track, (and a more reliable schedule) of my Recent Readings lists, I and going to use the meme of ‘Friday 5′, which several other blogs I use also employ. it is kind of like the Twitter ‘Follow Friday’ meme, but with blgs and interesting posts instead of Twitter account. this format has the additional benefit of giving people some weekend reading material, and a chance to catch up on some interesting articles and blog posts they may have missed during the busy work week. Hope you like it.
- How to build community: first, get out of the office Four suggestions on how to create community assets our of unused land and buildings/ Key Quotation: ‘It’s great to see how much can be done by the will of the people.’
Image from Identity Theft for Cities
- Identity Theft for Cities, by Carol Coletta on Good.is, A look at how poor regional planning can suck the life out of cities. This is especially true of a region like metro Phoenix, which although thought of as one ‘city’ by many outsiders, in fact has several dozen different municipal and county governments, each with separate (and sometimes competitng or conflicting) visions. Carol is one of my Favorite urban commentators. She is the President and CEO of CEOs for Cities, and the host of the nationally-syndicated public radio show, Smart City Radio. I follow both religiously. Carol can also be found on Twitter.
- What Makes Cities Live. Why authenticity matters in creating great urban spaces, even if it is gritty and a bit messy at times.
And for some non-urban, but related fare:
- The Generation M Manifesto. A letter to the “Old People Who Run the World” describing the tectonic shift that is currently rocking the social, political, and economic landscape. Generation M “is less about age and more about a movement that is doing meaningful stuff that matters the most”
- The Death of the Cool. How ‘being cool’ has become yet another commodity it today’s society. Key quotation: “Where literature once gave us models to emulate in creating lives for ourselves, media now give us merely images to ape.”
To keep up with other articles that I’ve found interesting, be sure to check out my shared items on Google Reader.
Tonight is my Christmas. It’s a night I’ve been waiting for a long time. That special day when a red and white icon enters your life and leaves you with gifts beyond your imagination. Yes, I know that Christmas is almost two months away (although judging by the number of displays in the big box stores already you’d think it is a lot sooner). The icon in red and white I’m excited about is not Santa Claus, but rather TED logo and the gifts are amazing ideas that will be shared at tonight’s TEDxPhoenix.
TED stands for Technology, Education and Design. It is an non-profit organization dedicated to “Ideas Work Spreading”  Starting in 1984, they have held high-profile annual conferences in Long Beach California and Oxford, UK, each year, as well as a new TED India conference that is occurring now in Mysore, India.  At these event,  some of the best and brightest in their fields gather to share their ideas and spread their passions.  For those of us not able to attend the events in person, TED has a great website where you can watch the  best of talks and performances from these (and other) events.
A more recent addition to they TED repertoire are the TEDx community events. TEDx enables local communities organizations such as schools, businesses, libraries, neighborhoods or just groups of friends to organize, design and host their own independent, TED-like events. Ever since I heard about the TEDx concept, I have dreamed that it would come to Phoenix. Well my dreams are answered. TEDxPhoenix is happening TONIGHT at 6 pm in the Ikeda Theater at the Mesa Center for the Arts.
I can’t wait to attend. TEDxPhoenix represents a “dream team” of 6 of Arizona’s leading thinkers and doers brought together to “inspire, enlighten, and entertain via ideas worth spreading.” In 18 minutes, each speaker will give the talk of their lifetime as they share their newest and most unique ideas in plain English. Local organizer, Tomas Carrillo has described TEDxPhoenix as a “Cirque du Soleil for the mind,” One presentation I‚Äôm especially looking forward to, given my interest in community gardens, is Urban Farm founder and sustainability guru, Greg Peterson. A full list of speakers can be found here or here.
But the main reason I‚Äôm looking forward to tonight is not the presentations (afterall, anyone can watch TED talks online), but a rather the opportunity to hang out with the creative, innovative and community oriented people who TED attracts. It is events like this that illustrate that Phoenix is more than strip malls and golf courses. Indeed Phoenix is becoming know as an “opportunity oasis‚” a city that encourages people to follow their passions and create. As a result the city has some amazing talent. Alas, given the sprawling geography, it is sometimes hard to connect with each other. Events like TEDxPhoenix help overcome this geography.
Moreover, as an acquaintance of mine, Pamela Slim wrote in her Escape from Cubicle Nation blog: “When you come to a place where people are sharing good ideas, you will ask yourself‚ ‘what good ideas do I have to share?’” This has been my experience.
It was through watching hundreds of TED talks online, as well as hanging out with passionate creative people at events such as Social Media Club that I got the idea and courage to submit an idea to Ignite Phoenix. Watching people share their passions to a receptive audience inspired me to do the same. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had the opportunity to share my passions for urban space and social media earlier this week at Ignite Phoenix 5.
At this time, I believe there are still a few tickets left for tonight’s event. If you are inquisitive at all, or want to connect with passionate, enterprise people, I suggest you go buy tickets now and come out to tonight’s event. (Don’t worry, the First Friday festivities will still be going strong after the event is over!)
If you are still unsure, you can check out the TEDxPhoenix Beginners Guide, or better yet, watch a few of my favorite TED talks to get an idea of what is in store for you this evening:
Sir Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity
Bill Strickland makes change with a slide show
Hans Rosling: Let my dataset change your mindset
Hope to see you there!
The Mesa Arts Center is located at One East Main Street Mesa, AZ 85201 (Google map).  Tickets are $5
A curation of what’s caught my attention over the past week:
- Whole Earth Discipline: from the land back to town: A review of Whole Earth Discipline by Stewart Brand, the author of the 1970′s classic Whole Earth Catalog.¬† In this book Stewart slays several sacred cows of environmentalism, and celebrates the city as the best tool for energy and resource efficiency.
- Bad Example (or why we fail to adapt good examples): Attempts to answer the question “Why do so many places seem unable to learn even from their own successes, much less others?”¬† Key quote: “The mark of a great city is in how it treats its ordinary spaces, not its special ones.”
- Gary Vaynerchuk Live on Crush It Tour (Video): A link to a video recording of a special Gary Vee’s presentation hosted by Doug Sutton with Keller Williams Realty East Valley. I admit that I was skeptical at first, but seeing him speak in front of two different audiences on Tuesday night made me a believer. Though his message was largely the same, he carefully tailored it to the different audience, keeping it fresh and interesting (if anything I though the second time was better suited to me personally, even with the lack of his trademark¬† ‘colorful language’.)¬† Gary is truly somebody who gets it. Not just business, or social media, or family, or community, but ALL of it.¬† If you follow the link to my friend Jay Thompson’s site and leave a comment on Jay’s original post, you can win a copy off Gary’s bestselling book Crush It!.
- What Jane Jacobs Can Teach Us About the Economy: Jane Jacobs is well known for her contribution to urban thought.¬† After all, she recently led Planetizen’s recent Top 100 Urban Thinkers poll.¬†¬† She is less well-known for her insights into economics, although that is quickly changing.¬† Here ‘s an overview of some of Jane’s economic notions and how they resonate during this recession.
- Halloween Costumes for Urban Planners: And for a bit of fun to mark the end of October, here are some Halloween costume ideas from Planetizen’s Nate Berg for the incurable urbanist.
Highlights of what I’ve been reading over the past 5 days:
Re-imagining the Good-Life A look at the need to create a new vision of the American Dream that is urban, not suburban in nature.
Brains And Cities Obey The Same Growth Laws The similarities in the patterns of connections in brains and cities.
Pavement to Parks The connection between Park(ing) Day and land-banking. Inspired, in part, by a chat I had with NYT blogger Allison Arieff.
Density and Sustainability‚ÄîA Radical Perspective An inquiry into the optimal building heights and density in urban centers; and the reasons that bigger isn’t always better.
Where Everybody Knows Your Name Why, especially in the age of social media, real public places matter.
Here are a few of my favorite articles and posts from the past week:
- Losing Touch With the Changing Definition of “Community” A perspective on the impact of the internet on how we define community, and the impact that this could have on the structure on local governments.
It Takes Great Places to Create Great Architecture The role of placemaking in fostering better and more creative urban design and architecture.
- Parking is Required to Diet In honor of Park(ing) Day, this article is the first in a series that will looks at the relationship between parking and urban development.
- “Any place can become a park” A look at some of the more unlikely parks in New York City.  Great inspiration!
- Fighting For The Right To Bike To School A look a the disturbing impacts that North America’s obsession with cars has had on what used to be a childhood rite of passage.
These are some of the articles I’ve read that have got me thinking recently:
- The Art of Public Space: The essential role that that arts community plays in creating successful public spaces.
- Jane Jacobs over Robert Moses: The Victory That Keeps On Giving: a retrospective of an epic battle over the soul of New York City.
- Rethinking Our Canals: A residents perspective on Phoenix’s extensive canal system.
- An iPhone in the City:  a look at the ways the iPhone is enabling people to interact with cities in new ways.
- Challenge Yourself to Create Better Relationships… Offline: a look at the need for balancing online, large group and one-one social interactions.
![Recommend [YuriArtibise]](http://s3.amazonaws.com/arkayne-media/img/badge/logo-recommend-badge-large.png){kind=icon}
Yelp
SlideShare
Picasa
Last
FriendFeed
brightkite
MyBlogLog
Twitter
LinkedIn
StumbleUpon
Myspace
Facebook
Digg
Delicious
Youtube
Reddit
Flickr
Plaxo
Posterous
Recent Comments