Book Review: Poke the Box

Since Poke The Box has made and continues to make best-selling business book lists, I was initially very wary. Even in the face of such overt skepticism, Poke The Box began to wear me down, for two chief reasons. One, Seth Godin does not mince words. He says what he means, and moves on. He feels no need to delude himself by masquerading as a Hemingway or Fitzgerald, as many non-fiction writers attempt to do. Heck, I too experience these delusions of literary grandeur after what I perceive to be an artfully crafted sentence. But back to poking. The second way that Godin won me over is that he said the same thing again and again. Wait, wasn't I just praising him for being pithy? To explain myself I offer a story. Growing up, the majority of my mathematical questions regarding my homework were directed at my dad (despite my mother having the exact same education). Often times, his explanations made no sense at all. This wasn't because of a lack of clarity in his explanations, rather an inability of my mind to grasp the concept via the way he explained it. So what did he do? He explained it another way. And another. And another. Until I got it. Do you know how hard that is? Try teaching someone algebra sometime, five different ways. Explain why the area of a trapezoid is the average of the two parallel sides times the height. Now say it another way. It's supremely difficult and one of the principal reasons I regard my dad's teaching ability so highly. Godin does the same thing, albeit in a non-technical field. He explains what it means to Poke The Box, and in case that didn't spur you to any kind of meaningful action, he says it again on the next page using different words and different examples. Spending an hour reading his book is much more worthwhile than devoting multiple hours to the 4-Hour Workweek, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Made to Stick, Good to Great, or the other mindless drivel posing as original business advice.