We Are All Weird

The Myth of Mass and the End of Compliance

By: Seth Godin

Narrated by: Seth Godin

We Are All Weird is a celebration of choice, of treating different people differently and of embracing the notion that everyone deserves the dignity and respect that comes from being heard. The book calls for the end of "mass" and for the beginning of offering people more choices, more interests, and giving them more authority to operate in ways that reflect their own unique values.

For generations, marketers, industrialists, and politicians have tried to force us into little boxes, complying with their idea of what we should buy, use, or want. And in an industrial, mass-market driven world, this was efficient and it worked. But what we've learned in this new era is that mass limits our choice, because it succeeds through conformity. As Godin has identified, a new era of weirdness is upon us. People with more choices, more interests, and the power to do something about it are stepping forward and insisting that the world work in a different way. By enabling choice, we allow people to survive and thrive.

©2011 Seth Godin (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Must read to understand the myth of niche

Profound. Timely. Relevant to both - small and big business. Let's break the division of them and us and embrace every community's distinctiveness.

Some good concepts here!

Focus on a niche. If you market to everybody you market to nobody. Find your niche--your passion--and pursue it!

Marvelous

A must not only to read, a must to keep and revisited at least every month.

Marketing book without marketing data

I bought this book by accident but enjoyed it for the most part. I'm not in marketing nor am I attracted to it but this was informative about some of the ideas behind it. My only complaint would be that the book seems slightly repetitive.

Some good nuggets

There were some bright spots throughout this book. I loved the way he defined what it means to "be rich" in particular. I didn't enjoy it as much as Seth's other books though, it felt overly long and repetitive this time.

Years ahead of today's marketers

Any additional comments?

At this very moment, most of marketers are starting to understand what Geoffrey Moore said 30 years ago in his Crossing the Chasm book. But in other hand it's funny to see that no one came out with a valid evolution of Geoffrey's "product adoption bell curve" concept.I really expect that we don't need another 30 years to understand the concepts presented in this book, which show a new picture of our society and brings a brand new opportunity for everyone.

Again, I love Seth Godin

This is such an awesome audio book. Love it. Listened to it several times and it has given me so many great ideas.

Another good Seth Godin book

This book was a another great series of ideas by Seth Godin that make you think outside the norm. His storytelling is engaging and energetic, and with him narrating, gives it extra punch. It is inspiring and resonates with my own belief in the value of the individual and the entrepreneurial spirit.

I rated it 4 stars instead of five, not because it wasn't a great book, but it somehow didn't have the same energy and pop that I got with Icarus Deception.

His writing is never a disappointment and is time and money well spent.

(Mis) Judging a Book by its Cover

I bought Seth Godin's "We Are All Weird" (2011) without realizing what I was getting.

The Audible version of the book has a guy with a green dunce cap and matching Indian cotton tunic. He looked, well, pretty weird. The author's first name is "Seth" which makes me think of funny guy actors-writers Seth MacFarlane and Seth Rogan. Since I don't know any Seths personally, I pretty much thought every Seth was funny, just like I still think every Dallas is a meteorologist, and every Barrack is president.

Amusing indicators aside, "We Are All Weird" isn't funny. It's a serious manifesto (Godin's word) about the end of mass marketing and, by extension, the end of mass retailing and mass production of lot of things. Thanks to the Internet, we've gone from cobblers custom making shoes for every person in the 16th Century to everyone wearing the same shoes back to custom shoes. An average individual can afford a custom tailored suit. And music - we can listen to what we want, when we want - without having a whole album shoved down our throat (well, except for U2's "Songs of Innocence" (September 9, 2014) Apple foisted on us, and talk about a mass marketing failure there).

My undergraduate degree's in Business Administration and I had a year of marketing classes, but I didn't keep up with the field. Grodin's theories seem sound, and for those of us old enough to have learned traditional marketing, the theories are new. His discussion and narrative were lively enough to keep me interested in a topic I don't follow. Good marketing, Godin.

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Genius As Usual from Seth

Inspiring manifesto that calls all The Weird to unite in bringing forth everything they are holding back into the weird wide world.