[Themaintainers] Fwd: Seth's Blog : Maintainers

[Mike Roy]

Hi Fellow Maintainers,

I'm not sure if many of you follow the blogging of Seth Godin. He is a
marketing/internet kind of guy who writes about the new economy and how to
get ahead in it. When I read his writings, I often think of what Kant had
to say about Hume: "He awakened me from my dogmatic slumbers." I disagree
with nearly everything Godin has to say, but I find it helpful to confront
these ideas on a regular basis, and to grapple with exactly why it is that
I find his suggestions so toxic.

With that as preamble, below is his latest posting, where he encourages us
to be disruptors, not maintainers.

My response to this:

Dear Seth, I got your blog post. It arrived in my inbox just like it does
every day. How did it make it there? Via the work of maintainers. The folks
who keep the operating system on your computer working. The folks at your
ISP who keep the internet running. The folks running the servers where you
store your blog posts.Ditto for the system you use to send out these email
blasts. And of course the same is true as your thoughts made their way to
me via my ISP and onto my phone. All of this incredible infrastructure only
works because people show up day in and day out and keep it working. The
folks doing this work probably aren't "dancing with infinity" on a daily
basis, but I assure you that the binary you've set up between maintainers
and disruptors is WAY more complicated than your post suggests. Check out
http://themaintainers.org/ to learn more.

Mike



---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Seth Godin <notify at sethgodin.com>
Date: Sun, Nov 10, 2019 at 4:47 AM
Subject: Seth's Blog : Maintainers
To: roymichaeldonald <roymichaeldonald at gmail.com>


School trains people to work as maintainers. “The sculptures are all here
in the gallery, make sure they are still here at the end of the shift… The
floor is clean when you start, make sure it's clean when you finish… The
policy manual has seven ...

Maintainers
<https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/609077766/0/sethsblog/posts~Maintainers/>

School trains people to work as maintainers. “The sculptures are all here
in the gallery, make sure they are still here at the end of the shift… The
floor is clean when you start, make sure it’s clean when you finish… The
policy manual has seven rules in it, please don’t break them… The next ten
patients are going to need allergy tests…” There are customers to be
served, standards to be maintained, work to be done. Important work, no
doubt, but not thrilling.

A few people somehow avoid these lessons and become instigators,
impresarios and disruptors instead. They’re not only dancing with infinity
but completely unsure what’s going to work, and yet they are hooked on
leaping forward.

I think it’s possible to switch from one posture to the other. I know that
it’s incredibly difficult, though.

Choose wisely.
<https://feeds.feedblitz.com/_/2/609077766/sethsblog/posts>
<https://feeds.feedblitz.com/_/16/609077766/sethsblog/posts>
<https://feeds.feedblitz.com/_/24/609077766/sethsblog/posts>

…
You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog. Don't
want to get this email anymore? Click the link below to unsubscribe.
------------------------------
*Safely Unsubscribe
<https://app.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?EmailRemove=_29939461%7c1081591%7c1bde56d3d74d06d97e592e8615b65d29%7c6720525_>
• Archives
<https://archive.feedblitz.com/1081591&subscriberid=29939461&validate=d2cda6edb49762f63ed2ff0da092c37f&portal=1081591>
• Preferences
<https://app.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?UpdatePrefs=1081591&subscriberid=29939461&validate=e8376a3be47d47d3d00d8401887e4a16&portal=1081591>
• Contact <https://app.feedblitz.com/f/?NewsContact=1081591> • Subscribe
<https://app.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?Sub=1081591> • Privacy
<https://www.feedblitz.com/Privacy>*
------------------------------
Email subscriptions powered by FeedBlitz <https://www.feedblitz.com>, LLC • 365
Boston Post Rd, Suite 123 • Sudbury, MA 01776, USA
<https://www.feedblitz.com/contact/>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.stevens.edu/pipermail/themaintainers/attachments/20191110/ed93ee04/attachment.html>