Dangerously Irrelevant | @mcleod

Seth Godin said:

Useful modern education is not the work of rote. When you tell someone the answer and then give them a test to see if they remember what you told them, that’s not education, it’s incented memorization.

via https://seths.blog/2018/09/the-trick-question

Seth Godin said:

most of the stuff that goes wrong, much of the organizational breakdown, the unfixed problems and the help not given, ends up happening because the system lets it happen. It happens because a boss isn’t focusing, or priorities are confused, or people in a meeting somewhere couldn’t find the guts to challenge the status quo.

What we choose not to do matters.

via http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2016/05/the-other-kind-of-evi.html

Seth Godin said:

The opportunity is freedom.

The freedom to connect, to reach out to just about anyone in the world.

The freedom to create, to sing and write and invent and share widely.

The freedom to lead, to stand up and say, “follow me.”

The freedom to learn, to take almost any course on any topic and to put that learning to work.

The freedom to choose your next project, the information you consume, and the people you associate with.

…

Now, more than ever, more of us have the freedom to care, the freedom to connect, the freedom to choose, the freedom to initiate, the freedom to do what matters.

If we choose.

What To Do When It’s Your Turn, p. 14

Is your school helping students learn how to exercise these freedoms?

Seth Godin says:

If you’re eager for change, every bit of information and every event represents an opportunity to learn, to grow and to change for the better. You hear some advice and you listen to it, consider it (possibly reject it), iterate on it and actually do something different in response.

On the other hand, if you’re afraid of change or in love with the path you’re on or focused obsessively on your GTD list, then incoming represents a distraction and a risk. So you process it with the narrative, “how can this input be used to further what I’ve already decided to do?” At worst, you ignore it. At best, you use a tiny percentage of it to your advantage.

via http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2013/11/your-incoming-process.html

FedEx Day: a 24-hour hackathon in which individuals or teams work on new ideas and new projects. Participants must work on something that’s not part of their daily work and, most importantly, they have to deliver something in 24 hours (in the words of Seth Godin, “they need to ship“).

Here are some resources on FedEx Days generally and for schools specifically. Happy innovating!

General resources and information

• What it takes to do new things at work, overnight
• Atlassian ShipIt Days: FAQs and past events
• How to deliver innovation overnight
• Lighting corporate passion: Everything you need to know about FedEx Day
• 10 reasons why you should organize a FedEx day
• Six Feet Up’s fifth FedEx Day yields 13 successful projects
• ShipIt: A little pamphlet for people who can

For schools

• What is possible? FedEx Days in Bosque’s Middle School invite innovation and good work
• Reflection: The FedEx project
• The best resources for applying “FedEx Days” to schools

Transformational leaders don’t start by denying the world around them. Instead, they describe a future they’d like to create instead.

Seth Godin via http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/10/denying-facts-you-dont-like-doesnt-make-them-not-facts.html