I agree with my friend Eric Myers’s sentiments that this book is basically a 70-page blog post by Seth Godin.

That aside, I see this book as being useful for someone who wants or needs a career change. The book forces you to question which pursuits you should continue. It also forces you to think about the ugly inverse of continuing—quitting. If you’re not on your way to being #1 for your pursuit, is it even worth continuing?

I’m actually glad that I’ve been forced to ask those questions of myself. It helps bring things into perspective.

I ultimately recommend this book. Bonus that it’s a short one!

Very quick read, I consumed this in less than half an hour while browsing at the bookstore. The main premise of this book is – what creates a scarcity of masters/experts/etc in anything is the fact that there is a “dip” in everything – a period when you feel you’re not progressing, when everything is too hard, and things are getting boring, and you’re thinking of giving up. And most people do give up. The people who do get through the Dip become extremely valuable because they’ve pushed through and managed to gain the knowledge/experience/market share that allows them to be #1.

So basically this is a cheerleading book with Seth Godin carrying a pair of pom-poms telling you to ganbatte. But he adds a word of warning: you have to be wise about what to push through the dip with. Don’t keep banging your head against a brick wall. Only go through with it if you’re confident you can come out the other side. Which is good advice, but it hardly tells you how to tell the metaphorical brick wall apart from one made of straw.

Still, quite an inspirational book. You’ll probably find yourself going through your list of “maybe” projects and trying to figure out whether to break through the dip with each one, or stop trying.

i’m halfway through and i’ll say it’s confusing me. it’s yes – and no – and yes – and no – i don’t know what to do.