Archive for the ‘Conscious Marketing’ Category

Critical review of Linchpin by Seth Godin

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

History is gifted with great thinkers who have produced prolific works of thought and depth. When Kant published a book, a flurry of talk and excitement rushed across Europe. Every thinker in the world wanted to understand, discuss, and critique Kant’s ideas and thought processes. The ideas were tested, holes were found, but respect for the work remains. It is the very act of critiquing, probing, and stressing the ideas of the book that shows it respect. If Kant had been read but not analyzed, it would be an insult to his ideas.

Seth Godin has recently “shipped” Linchpin and has created a sensation around the world. There has been a lot of buzz and praise of the book. In order to pay respect to the book, we must understand it, pick it apart, and analyze the ideas presented in it. This analysis might uncover holes, inconsistencies, and problems in the book. This is to be expected. Even Plato is not free from inconsistent thinking, yet he remains well-respected. (more…)

Overdosing on Awesome

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Overdose of Yellow

I know what you are thinking, “those pain medications are really getting to his head.” Unfortunately I’m not talking about narcotic pain medication in the title.  I was going over some (un)conscious marketing blogs today, and I started noticing a theme in the rhetoric of the authors. Almost each and every one of them rants and raves about how everything is “awesome.” When rhetorically analyzing a text, it is important to explore what words the text uses, and how those words contribute directly to the text’s persuasiveness.  It didn’t take long for me to build an initial hypothesis about how and why such a flood of “awesome” positivity exists in this subculture: it’s all in the hype. (more…)

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What is Beyond Growth?

Beyond Growth is a collaborative blogging project focused on critiquing and expanding the personal development field. Noting a lack of critical discourse in personal development, Duff McDuffee and Eric Schiller founded Beyond Growth in the hopes of using it as a platform to foster growth and responsibility. We touch on a wide variety of topics, mostly centered around whatever we are interested in at the time.
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