Jun 282008
 

I’m re-reading Godin’s The Dip again now.  For whatever reason, this book popped up on the table.  One could argue a variety of ways that I might or might not be in a dip right now (with my company, my job @ my company, or my kid’s behavior, just to name a few…), so it’s interesting reading.  Though “quitting” on my kid isn’t really an option, these terrible three’s are just something we’re gonna have to power through…

Anyway, looking on Godin’s site for follow up information was kind of interesting. There’s one guy that critique’s the book, but it’s one of those backhanded critiques which is really a compliment.  When a critique is reposted and linked to by the author, it is bound to be a little backhanded, ain’t it?

My little complaint about the book would be on page 15.  I did enjoy the drawing on page 13 though.  I dogeared page 15 though. So it was one page, during my second reading, that I was eager to re-read. And as I re-read the page, I got offended by the comment at the top, but kept reading, figuring the good thing was going to come later on the page.

But no good thing came.  When I was done with the page and the next page, I realized I dogeared it because I didn’t agree with the way Godin was trying to make a point…and I probably was gonna dogear other pages I didn’t agree with.  Positive sign – there were no other dogeared pages.

The point he was making was when he quoted a common test taking technique.  Read through the questions quickly, answer the ones you know right away, skip the ones you don’t.  And then he goes on to say that this is horrible advice and that the superstars are the people that focus on the questions they don’t know.

So – I agree with the last part – people that pursue things they don’t know, they’re usually smarter.  But I disagree with the tie-in with test taking.  I mean, he didn’t even quote the whole test taking advice bit completely.  Because after you’ve gone through the entire test, you go back and work on the answers you didn’t know at first.  This is to avoid spending 30 minutes on a problem in the beginning of the test and running out of time and not being able to answer the 15 questions later in the test that you did know and could answer quickly.  It’s not so common, common sense.

Test taking and gaining life knowledge are very different domains and have very different requirements and approaches.  In life, it’s fine to spend a lot of time solving problems you don’t know the answer to.  I did a bit of that in grad school.  And continue to do it in certain areas. But just like in test taking, there are some times that are better suited for that solution exploration than others.

Still, for that to be my only nagging issue about the book, it is not so bad.  I didn’t find myself being so argumentative while reading the rest of the book, nothing else is dogeared, and in some ways, I’m re-energized towards some of my dips…and the others, well, I’m just trying to figure out if they are dips or cliffs.  (Wii tennis – dip.  Brain game on facebook – cliff…others, TBD).

As I wrote that last paragraph, I guess the other comment one could make about the book is that there’s not guidance on how to decide if something is a dip or cliff earlier.  Which, is reasonable, given that the future is hard to predict. So the book is more about inspiring for something bigger.

Kinda what the doctor ordered for me right now…

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