Seth Godin Does Not Have to Read Your App

I've been reading through a bunch of apps, and most have been way too wordy. Several of the finished lenses were clocking in around 2,500 words, and one lens had over 3,000 words. That's too much.

I wasn't even able to finish them and I was only reading a dozen. Seth has to read hundreds...

Realistically, the only way to get an interview is if Seth likes your app enough to read the whole thing. So how do you do that? Easy.

1) Make the first sentence good enough that Seth reads the second sentence.

2) Make the first module good enough that Seth reads the second module.

So in the context of your application, what makes a good sentence? What makes a good module?

"You'll really enjoy working with me." <-- Don't say this.

Anyone can say this, and when anyone can say something it says nothing about you. Instead, say something worth saying about something worth saying something about.[2]

"The goal isn't to be creative in applying, it's to have a life that's shown creativity and insight already."

You want your application to say something about you, but you don't want to write about yourself. How do you do this? By writing insightful. Not insightfully. Because insightful isn't a style of writing, it's a type of idea.

In other words, demonstrate a life of creativity and insights by writing about an insight you've created. Specifically, creative insights that say something about yourself, the type of person you are, and the type of person you want to become.

[2] How to Write a Paragraph

The Oxford American Dictionary defines insight as "the capacity to gain an accurate and deep intuitive understanding of a person or thing." If we accept this definition, then insights seem to be tools of sorts. Very special tools that help us make sense of the world by illuminating the patterns and relationships between things.

And as tools, insights have the same properties as a hammer or a hacksaw. Let's brainstorm some ways of writing about tools that would create value for the reader:

We can give readers a new tool.
We can teach them how to use an existing tool more effectively.
We can teach them when and when not to use a tool.
We can replace an old tool with a better tool.
We can replace a complicated tool with a simpler tool that still does the same job.

And so on.

Each insight is like a new tool. And just like a table saw, we must first make the reader aware of this tool, and then teach them how to use it, when to use it, why to use it, what to use it for, etc.

So how do we do this? Through the creation and manipulation of schemas.

Like insights, schemas are models for helping us comprehend phenomena. However, not all writing that deals with schemas is insightful. For example, when we see a pen we know that it is a tool for writing on paper. We know this because we have a schema that connects pen with paper for the act of writing. However, there is nothing insightful here because we are simply using an old schema. Insightful writing is only that which creates value by offering new schemas or helping us better understand existing schemas.

An insight is a new-or-improved mental model of the way something works, the way something could work, or the way something has worked previously. (For sufficiently large definitions of something.)

Choose an insight or two to structure your app around, and then use each question as a chance to flesh out that insight. In 250 words or less.

From the blog of former Squidoo intern Charlie Hoehn:

Here are some things you can do to GREATLY improve your odds of getting into the program:

1. Apply early. Turn in all your stuff as soon as you possibly can. If you wait until the last day, you'll have missed out. Seth rewards those who show up first.

2. Have a compelling story. Seth always talks about how we live in a story-driven world. Take this into account when you're creating your application.

3. Demonstrate that you can, have, and will continue to lead. Prove that you're ready to change the world.

Don't waste your time trying to be uber-creative and thinking of different ways to stand out. Just do those three things and you'll have a much better shot.

Also, don't apply to this if you can't fully commit. Seriously.

Products spread faster than processes.

If Nintendo releases a new videogame system they'll sell millions the first day, and yet 2/3 of American children still don't get their daily RDI of calcium.

Why is this a problem? Because processes are much more important than products in terms of quality of life, health care, child development, business, education, etc. And while technological progress is increasing exponentially, the rate of best-practice adoption remains flat.

It seems like the American dream is being able to purchase the solution to any one of life's problems in a big f*ing box at Wal-Mart for less than 200 bucks. Consumers are already really well trained at this, and we need to figure out a way to leverage this behavior to get them to adopt new processes. The problem here is threefold:

1) People don't know about best practices

2) They know about a best practice but they aren't sold on it

3) They're sold on it but it's too hard

So far as I can see it, the only way for America to remain competitive with the rest of the world is to make the adoption of best practices an order of magnitude easier. The reality is that we live in a society where doctors don't wash their hands before surgery, where shoddy farm practices cause excessive soil erosion, where pregnant women eat fish high in mercury and PCBs, etc.

It would be nice if Americans ate healthier and exercised more, but I don't even wish for that. That's hard and it's painful and it takes time.

But what I wish for - and what we need - is to find the best practices that can be made easy and then make them easy.

Then you should want to be wrong. Because in the end this isn't about Seth, it's about you.

After all, Seth Godin does not even have to read your app.