I admit – I don’t really follow Seth Godin, but it’s hard not to bump into someone re-tweeting, re-posting or waving the Godin flag online. I can understand why so many latch onto an author that speaks with such clarity.

But I honestly am beginning to think that he has amassed such a following simply because he supports both sides of any idea. Granted, Godin always presents a clearly defined side each time… but here’s the latest that I saw, just the other day:

February 9, 2011 Godin posted Autarky is dead. A very concise post that states:

All our productivity, leverage and insight comes from being part of a community, not apart from it. The goal, I think, is to figure out how to become more dependent, not less.

Just two months earlier on December 8, 2010 he posted about his Domino Project, where very logically he outlines eight reasons why he’s going solo in publishing his next book, cutting out publishers, bookstores, “middle men”, etc. It seems all that community was getting in his way.

Isn’t that hundreds-of-years-old ecosystem the kind of community he’s plugging this month? Or to Godin is a community simply a streamlined process between his customers and himself?

I fail to see the communal in one man cranking out a series of books to his flock of followers. That seems to be more of an echo chamber than a community. It seems that if the goal is to build a better product, then you need the expertise every step of the way.

Now, having said all of that, I totally get what he’s doing with the Domino Project. If you’ve read this blog before, you know that I have no problems with new platforms, leveraging new technology and adding effiencies to the publishing system.

This is really just about Godin’s ping-pong of a message and how it often leaves me confused. Am I being unfair?