I'm not a fan of Seth Godin either, and my first instinct was to comment that 'Godin linkbait must die'. But I do agree with his points, although as usual the analysis is shallow.

Something that deserves more attention is the fact that the textbook industry in the US runs like a cartel (as alluded to above, with professors requiring a particular book for which they get free copies, and the proceeds from which help to pay their salaries).

In Europe I preferred buying college textbooks to learn programming, because they were cheaper and better value than the commercial offerings, without the fancy graphic design covers and marketing outreach.

I am a grad student. I hate the textbook cartel as much as any other grad student who needs to spend 5%-10% of his salary in expensive textbooks. However, this whole "textbooks must die" is linkbaitish and stupid. They don't have to die. Don't shoot at the books, shoot at the cartels. In any case, I read this post and learned zero. Godin is preaching to whom exactly?

Saying that textbooks must die reminds me of the Nazis burning the books they considered un-German. Textbooks can be wonderful when they're really good, and no Kindle or anything will kill the joy of reading a book in paper. Of course, if one looks at marketing books, it's clear they're mostly junk and I would not mind if they were replaced by e-books at all. However, the same does not apply to math / physics books, which tend to require a lot of effort and time to be written, plus the illustrations, etc. This hard work needs to be paid for, and I am willing to pay for it just as long as it's more like $30 rather than the obscene $150.

Rod is a 2nd class thinker. His shallow and vague comments impress only the gullible. Why would anyone listen to him?

To refrain from committing the same sin, let me explain that Rod's comment does not show why this blogposting by Godin is 'shallow' or 'vague' and uses the fallacy of 'poisoning the well', by connotating 'listenening to him' with 'acting as if he is a God', leaving no room for someone to say: well, this article is pretty decent, but on the whole I think Godin adds little worth reading.

Examples of 1st class thinkers: Knuth, Sussman, Papadimitriou, Tardos, Vazirani, etc. I admire Jobs for his sense of style. I admire Gates for his business acumen.

I used to like reading Seth Godin. He makes some valid points. However, anyone with a functioning brain is capable of arriving at the same conclusions he does. He does not go into depth because there's no depth to go into. His posts are sweet and fluffy but have zero nutritious value. It's a bunch of truisms that add little to anyone's knowledge.