How to Tell a Problem From a Situation: Seth Godin

IDEO has built a business around solving difficult problems. But problems and situations are not the same thing, argues Seth Godin. And correctly telling them apart is critical. Get it wrong, and you'll spend months pushing on something that was never going to move.

In this conversation, Seth and Mina dig into themes from Seth’s new book The Knot: how to tell a problem from a situation, why naming a problem correctly is a much higher bar than most of us set, and how systems—inside a company, a family, or a culture—work to outlast the people trying to change them.

Related Resources

Seth’s newest book, The Knot: https://seths.blog/theknot

Seth's blog: https://seths.blog

Seth Godin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethgodin/

Human-Centered Systems Thinking, an IDEO U 5-week cohort course: https://ideou.com/products/human-centered-systems-thinking

In This Episode

Timestamps are approximate due to ad breaks.

(00:00) The story of the Gordian knot

(02:27) Seth Godin: 20+ books, the internet's most-read blog, and the book he almost didn't write

(05:05) The book that never sold, Survival Is Not Enough — and why it's still his favorite