4 ms·

First of all, they are not "random", they are the same thing he suggests professors spend their time on and publish for free: "pages or chapterettes or even ent

by froo 17y ago

First of all, they are not "random", they are the same thing he suggests professors spend their time on and publish for free: "pages or chapterettes or even entire chapters on topics that matter to them". Umm, he writes "They are incredibly impractical. Not just in terms of the lessons taught, but in terms of being a reference book for years down the road....The solution seems simple to me. Professors should be spending their time devising pages or chapterettes or even entire chapters on topics that matter to them, then publishing them for free online. (it's part of their job, remember?) When you have a class to teach, assemble 100 of the best pieces, put them in a pdf or on a kindle or a website (or even in a looseleaf notebook) and there, you're done." That explicitly states, instead of writing a text book - professors should publish their content for free, online. Are you saying that selling books is inherently hypocritical? You've missed my argument... I'm saying that arguing that he doesn't practise what he's preaching, which makes him a hypocrite. He plainly states (which I have quoted for you, verbatim since you can't seem to see it) that text books are impractical and that instead of writing a text book, those professors should put their content online for free. You mentioned that there is nothing stopping professors publishing books, which I agree - there is not, yet Seth is saying that they shouldn't publish, instead give away their content online, for free as it's part of their job. Yet, despite that, Seth is doing the complete opposite of what he's saying. The vast majority of his content isn't free - it's in a book that you buy, seminars that you attend or you can purchase his time in the form of consulting. The fact that he occasionally blogs snippets of information is irrelevant, since you also agree that he uses the blog only as a marketing channel. Are you saying that selling books is inherently hypocritical? No, I think you perhaps don't quite understand the meaning of the word hypocrite. I'll paste a definition in for you. Hypocrite - a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, esp. a person whose actions belie stated beliefs. There, by definition, a person who's actions belie states beliefs. Seth believes that professors (who's job it is to impart knowledge) should give their content away online for free instead of writing a book is a hypocritical statement given part of his job is the imparting of knowledge. He does not give away all of his content online, for free, instead, it can be purchased in one of the many books he has for sale. The fact that he's made this assertion that that content should be available online for free, instead of being purchased in a book is especially humorous when you see the adverts for his book just to the left of that exact same statement.

yungchin 17y ago
There's one essential difference between him and professors, noted subtly in the "it's part of their job, remember?" - he doesn't receive a teaching salary. Whether receiving public money should automatically mean that your writings should be freely available for all of the public is another discussion - the point is you can't really conclude he's a hypocrite. The other point that's being made is that textbooks mostly consist of old knowledge, established long ago by other scholars. Godin sees a difference between selling new ideas and recycling old ideas. I'm not sure I completely agree with this train of thought - sometimes translating complicated academical concepts to make them accessible for students is quite an effort in its own right, and thus worth money - but I don't completely disagree either.
froo 17y ago
@yungchin - but teaching IS part of Seth's job, he gets paid to speak and to do consulting, just because the job title is different, doesn't necessarily mean aspects of the jobs are any different. As for some textbooks being out of date, that is really a matter of context. For example, textbooks on marketing or other such fields that move fast there are definite advantages to having material that is up to date. However, let's look at the flipside, textbooks on renaissance period art. There really isn't much that hasn't already been written on the subject, so there really is little point in having "up to date" materials when there are probably many definitive works on the subject. I agree that there's little point in paying inordinate amounts for out of date text books that are assigned to you - but that being said, suggesting that those same people who write these books should distribute the same materials for free is also preposterous, given Seth himself doesn't do it. If Seth gave away his books and focussed on making money from his speaking/workshop/consulting gigs, sure - I wouldn't have batted an eyelid, but the fact is he doesn't, so that part of his argument reeks of hypocrisy.
- yungchin 17y ago
  1. I see your point about it coming down to his job definition - the question then is, is there a difference between consulting and being tenured? 2. I think it's not about books being out of date, it's about the ideas not originating from the authors. After giving that one some more thought, I think I disagree (if this is what Godin meant at all) that that makes a difference.

by froo 17y ago

yungchin 17y ago

There's one essential difference between him and professors, noted subtly in the "it's part of their job, remember?" - he doesn't receive a teaching salary. Whether receiving public money should automatically mean that your writings should be freely available for all of the public is another discussion - the point is you can't really conclude he's a hypocrite. The other point that's being made is that textbooks mostly consist of old knowledge, established long ago by other scholars. Godin sees a difference between selling new ideas and recycling old ideas. I'm not sure I completely agree with this train of thought - sometimes translating complicated academical concepts to make them accessible for students is quite an effort in its own right, and thus worth money - but I don't completely disagree either.

froo 17y ago

@yungchin - but teaching IS part of Seth's job, he gets paid to speak and to do consulting, just because the job title is different, doesn't necessarily mean aspects of the jobs are any different. As for some textbooks being out of date, that is really a matter of context. For example, textbooks on marketing or other such fields that move fast there are definite advantages to having material that is up to date. However, let's look at the flipside, textbooks on renaissance period art. There really isn't much that hasn't already been written on the subject, so there really is little point in having "up to date" materials when there are probably many definitive works on the subject. I agree that there's little point in paying inordinate amounts for out of date text books that are assigned to you - but that being said, suggesting that those same people who write these books should distribute the same materials for free is also preposterous, given Seth himself doesn't do it. If Seth gave away his books and focussed on making money from his speaking/workshop/consulting gigs, sure - I wouldn't have batted an eyelid, but the fact is he doesn't, so that part of his argument reeks of hypocrisy.

yungchin 17y ago
1. I see your point about it coming down to his job definition - the question then is, is there a difference between consulting and being tenured? 2. I think it's not about books being out of date, it's about the ideas not originating from the authors. After giving that one some more thought, I think I disagree (if this is what Godin meant at all) that that makes a difference.