It does ring a bit empty, doesn't it.

Bad move overall, imho. I've lost some respect for Seth Godin because of that letter. A more normal rejection letter would have been more appropriate. This letter makes him sound a bit too kitsch.

The letter looks very much like all of his blog posts, not sure why anyone would expect anything different from him. I'm assuming most of the people that applied to this program are frequent readers of his blog, and so hopefully the style of the letter didn't seem inappropriate to them.

I've read a couple of Godin's book recently, this is pretty much just his tone. It sounds silly in a single example like this, but it works OK as he builds it up over a book. I suppose anyone applying to a position is pretty familiar with his works.

Oh, and Tribes needed way more than one sentence in the acknowledgements mentioning Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky. I'd just reread HCE before I picked up Tribes and I kept waiting to see something like "So, every example in the last three chapters and next two chapters came from this excellent book... "

Despite familiarity with Godin's work, I'm still unsure how I feel about this particular response. It'd be great as an individual rejection (we love you, but just don't have the space!), but as a boilerplate reply requires a little suspension of disbelief.

Or maybe that's just because I got this reply not half an hour after sending in my app. :) Zing!

>> It reads like a load of over-dramatized crap.

All of Godin's work is over-dramatized crap. That's his shtick.

Having worked with Seth on Squidoo, I can tell you that he is a pretty genuine guy. That is just his writing style.

My only problem with this letter is it is not clear if it was personal or sent to everyone rejected.

Getting a personal "you are amazing" is very different from "you are amazing" sent to few hundred people. This is a bad choice of words IMO.

I think that would be key. If they were all individual, wow, that is sincere. If not - then its really just his writing style and you need to translate that into what it really means.

I know a few people whose business is to write ebooks and sales letters to sell the ebooks. They prey on desperate folks. And make a killing writing in a style very similar to this email.

This was totally miscalibrated for the audience, UNLESS the overall audience really did find "joy" from it and we're just exceptions.

From what I can tell you spend 6 months with him, don't get paid, primarily work on his projects, learn buzzwords and "get" to work on your own personal projects in your spare time. Am I missing something?

There is much to be gained from working in the same room as someone who groks what you want to grok.

Great - more Seth Godins.

I'm sure he got a million applications so I can see the canned response but it was a bit over the top. Maybe it's just his way and it is only one instance. Plus, let's face it, he's in the driver's seat as far as this is concerned.

It is kinda crap, but I wouldn't be insulted. It's not really any worse than more restrained form letters.