Obvious

I have recently read a post by Seth Godin, whom I like very much. I thought it was good so I dropped a link to a friend of mine. In response, my friend told me that in his opinion the post was "nice, but obvious".

Indeed, some, or you could say most of Seth's posts are rather obvious, this is true however, somehow he manages to put things in the right words, that simplify some thinking you do about them later. You could say that also about his books. Obviously, you should only make products that are remarkable and quit when your career is really stuck, of course you should. Isn't this obvious?

In my childhood, books of Dale Carnegie were very popular. He gave some very useful advice too. For example: "always tell people what they want to hear". Ah, OK, I will. Wait, but what if I need to tell them something they don't want to hear. I guess I have a problem then. Or, "always prepare for your lectures, know your material". No shit.

Despite the fact that those books and ideas are mostly rather obvious I sometimes find them cool for their entertainment and motivational value.

When I read "The Dip", I was very excited. I was in the middle of some career moves in my life, so I felt inclined to apply some of the preachings that appear in it to myself. I had, however, hard time explaining the value of this book to my parents who thought that it was obvious that you had to overcome hardships in order to get somewhere and if you quit in the middle you get nothing but wasted time. It was plain obvious to them. After all, it's not that the book tells you how to distinguish between the times when you are hopelessly stuck in your job and should quit as soon as possible, and the times when you should just bite your lip and push like crazy. This you have to figure out all by yourself. Obviously.