Icarus is a mythological character with incredible staying power. Everyone knows his story — his dad made him wings to help him escape the minotaur’s labyrinth, and warned him not to fly too close to the sun lest his wings melt. Amazed to be flying, however, Icarus didn’t listen and tumbled into the ocean. It’s the classic tale of hubris.

In his new book, The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?, marketing master Seth Godin shares why he thinks this story is manipulative — because it’s all about obedience and reminding us of the dangers of getting too big for our britches. But Godin asks: why should our most valuable skill be our ability to follow orders? And why shouldn’t we fly really high? In The Icarus Deception, Godin calls for us to think and act boldly. He asks us to go about our work as if it were art — with the idea of “good enough” far from our minds.

As one Amazon reviewer puts it, “It’s not a book that you lay back with in the recliner and ponder, but never act on. Far from it: It’s more like a philosophical splash in the face, guaranteed to wake you up and get you moving.”

Over the years, Seth Godin has given many a TED Talk. After the jump, watch four great talks from Godin, on topics ranging from education to mass media.

[ted id=28 width=560 height=315]Despite the old saying, when sliced bread arrived on the market, it went unnoticed for years. In this talk from TED2003, Godin shares what it is that makes some ideas get attention while many others — often good ones — fail to get noticed.

In this talk from TEDxYouth@BFS, Godin asks a bold question: what is school for? He worries that it’s about teaching kids obedience and how to hold back. In this talk, Godin calls for education that is about more than Scantron sheets.

[ted id=538 width=560 height=315]Believe it or not, mass media is over. At TED2009, Godin shares how the sheer number of sources available to us is forming us into tribes — groups that band together based on shared values. What does this mean? That tribe leaders have a lot of influence.

In this hilarious talk from the Gel Conference, Godin explains why so many things are broken.