The Icarus Deception

February 4, 2013
The latest of Godin's cheerleaderly books is written in bumper sticker fashion, urging readers to overcome "brainwashing" and release the artist within. Unfortunately, this means Godin (Poke the Box) doesn't offer anything that hasn't been espoused by every generation since Socrates: "Art is what we do when we are truly alive." "Fly closer to the sun." "Art has no right answer." "We don't need more stuff; we need more humanity." Art is about breaking out of the box, not being a cog in the system; it's standing up to authority. But only once does Godin mention that this might result in a lack of ability to pay the rent. In that case, art should be arrived at in little steps. He gives tips to becoming an artist: notice, don't be afraid of humiliation, and "when art fails, make better art." Perhaps smarting from comments on previous books, he warns against critics: "Shun the nonbelievers." He pushes readers to connect with the world, to be human; at the same time he suggests that they are above the masses and need to follow their own paths. The truth is that artists don't need a book to tell them what to do; they are already doing it.

December 1, 2012
Popular business writer Godin (Whatcha Gonna Do with that Duck?: And Other Provocations, 2006-2012, 2012, etc.) offers a self-help guide to surviving and thriving in the new, postindustrial economy. "We are all artists now," writes the author. Making art is not the purview of a select few, but rather a defining act of being human: "Anyone who cares and acts on it is performing art." Entrepreneurs and freelancers are as much artists as painters or writers. Further, making art is no longer a choice but a necessity. The new connection economy rewards the risk-taker, the rebel, the person who understands that success now lies in "creating ideas that spread and connecting the disconnected...." Yet many are intimidated and fearful of this new world, which has few rules or sure rewards. We have, however, been brainwashed to fear making art. The "ruling class" of the now-waning industrial age taught us "to dream about security and the benefits of compliance." We are expected to fit in, not stand out, and defying such conformity creates fear and internal resistance. Still, conformity no longer rewards, and the fear we face can be acknowledged while still understanding it as learned behavior. This is a worthy yet not wholly original message--Norman Vincent Peale, Tony Robbins and many others have preached the same self-help mantra. Occasionally, readers may feel they have walked into a movie that's already started, as explanation too often gives way to appealing aphorisms and banal bromides ripe for Dilbert parody--e.g., "Seek out questions, not answers"; "Who is the self in self-control?"; "shame is a choice." Enjoyable, if not particularly enlightening, take on the new economy.

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