Whatcha Gonna Do with That Duck?: Summary
A thick, browsable collection of the best of Seth Godin's daily blog from 2006 to 2012, picking up where his earlier collection Small Is the New Big left off. The short pieces circle the ideas of those years: shipping the work, the resistance, tribes, being remarkable and making yourself indispensable. The title post makes the point the rest keep returning to: getting your ducks in a row matters far less than deciding what you will do with the duck.
- Seth Godin
- 2012
- 8 min read
- 8 key takeaways
- 8 ways to apply it
Key takeaways from Whatcha Gonna Do with That Duck?
The ideas readers on HourLife upvote the most, in order.
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1
Getting your ducks in a row matters far less than deciding what to do with the duck.
The title post is aimed at the people forever preparing, waiting for the right moment. Preparation feels like progress and is safe because it cannot fail. The question that matters is what you will actually do.
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2
Ship: work that never leaves the building does not count.
Godin returns again and again to shipping, finishing and putting the work in front of people. A project at 95 percent is worth nothing to anyone else. Set a date, and let the date win.
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3
The voice telling you to stop is loudest just before you finish.
Godin calls it the resistance, the lizard brain that prefers safety to change. It shows up as one more round of polish or one more meeting. Hearing it is often a sign you are close to something worth shipping.
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4
Nobody is going to pick you, so pick yourself.
Waiting for an editor, a boss or a gatekeeper to give permission is a choice. The tools to publish, build and start are cheap now. Choosing yourself is the first move, not the last.
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5
Remarkable means worth making a remark about.
Ordinary work is invisible because nobody bothers to talk about it. Godin's test is whether people would tell a friend. If the honest answer is no, make it stranger, smaller or better until it is yes.
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6
A small group of people who care beats a huge crowd who don't.
Tribes are a recurring theme: lead the few who want what you make rather than chasing everyone. A smallest viable audience is easier to serve and more likely to spread the word. Know who they are by name.
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7
The safe choice is often the risky one, because average is easy to replace.
Doing exactly what you are told makes you interchangeable. The posts on being a linchpin argue that the real security is in work only you would do. Take one small risk this week that average would not.
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8
Read it one post at a time: one provocation, one action, then close the book.
The collection is meant to be dipped into, not read straight through. Its value is the nudge, not the page count. Take one post, decide what you will do with it, and stop reading until you have.
How to apply Whatcha Gonna Do with That Duck?
Turn the ideas into something you can do this week.
Pick one duck
Write down one idea or project you have been organizing instead of doing. That is your duck for this month.
Set a ship date
Choose a date within thirty days when the duck goes out into the world, and tell one person what and when.
Name your smallest viable audience
Write the names, or a precise description, of the ten people your duck is really for.
Write the one-sentence pitch
Describe what you are shipping in a sentence someone would repeat to a friend. If nobody would, rework the idea, not the sentence.
Delete one getting-ready task
Find one task on your list that only prepares to prepare, and cross it out for good.
Ship something small every week
Each week, put one finished thing in front of someone: a post, a draft, a prototype or an offer.
Read one post, do one thing
When you read a short provocation, Godin's or anyone's, write the one action it prompts before you read the next.
Log the resistance
When you notice the urge to polish, wait or ask permission, write it down with the date. Then ship anyway.
Stop lining them up. Pick one duck and do something with it before Friday.
