Godin's V is for Vulnerable
What are the ABCs of creating art, or shipping product? Is there such a thing? Should there be, and if not why not?
Perusing my bookshelf recently, I came to some conclusions: 1. I will almost surely not read every book I own, even if I exclude reference material (math & technology); 2. It would be good to read or reread more of what I already have.
At the very bottom of one of my sapiens, a very thin, bright magenta colored volume caught my eye. This colorful little alphabet book - V is for Vulnerable - from Seth Godin, with Hugh MacLeod illustrations, seemed a sensible place to start.
V is for Vulnerable is short, A to Z as it should be.
The main point of the book is to inspire you, the reader, to create, or ship, or deliver impact in whatever manner appropriate to your situation. Godin speaks directly to the notion of Art in the abstract, that thing you do rather than insisting on the fine arts. While the fine arts are by no means excluding, those in the fine arts must ship.
No ship, no art.
Shipping is emotionally risky, that’s the point. Godin insists that art must have an audience larger than the artist, hence the risk. The book will not tell you what to create or how to ship, it’s not an execution manual. It’s an emotion management manual. MacLeod’s clever cartoons help you find and maintain a mindset for reliably shipping your thing, whatever your thing is.
For me, where I am in my life right now, shipping is really important and V is for Vulnerable directly addresses how shipping exposes one to criticism. My production quality needs to be high, even very high, but that quality needs to be assessed against impacts and timeliness.
Writing this review is a recursive exercise into what Godin is attempting to communicate. I applied the “Main Learning” template to create this book review.