An inimitable feature binding every Seth Godin book is the unravelling of intractable problems using startlingly simple solutions and fundamental ideas. The Knot: problems can be solved (the knot) is no exception to the norm. There are numerous occasions in life where we find ourselves in a frustrating bind unable to decide amongst competing choices and contradictory alternatives. How do we then extricate ourselves from such entanglements?

Godin’s slim book (has there ever been a Godin book that is otherwise?) begins with a riveting story involving Alexander the Great (before he became great that is). Riding into a small city in Central Turkey, Alexander is intrigued by the sight of an ox tied to a post with a complicated knot. Apocrypha held that many tried, but in vain to untie the knot. Whoever succeeded would become great, according to a prevailing legend. Alexander approached the rope and completely ignoring the knot, pulled out a pin at the centre, and instantly understanding the entanglements. From then on, the matter of untying the knot became a rudimentary chore.

We also get entwined in many an entanglement in both our personal life and professional endeavours. We are unable to see the “pin” that has us trapped. The art of solving problems is more likely than not the art of seeing the obstacle. Paraphrasing Godin, “name the baggage, drop the baggage, ship the work.” Godin asserts that, more likely than not, while working with people, we tend to inherently get lured by two kinds of compromises, the compromise of commitment, and the compromise of average. While commitment forces us to concentrate on a core audience and solve issues, the endemic average seeks to convert people who are entrenched in the dogma of status quo. Average is ‘but’ masquerading as ‘and.’

When Jackson Pollock, after attaining great fame and fortune, experimented with a radically new technique, critics savaged him mercilessly. Pollock’s dilemma was trying to walk an impossible tightrope. Having found the right audience he wanted to both please them and make them converts to what he felt was a new and ingenious art form. This impasse led Pollock towards depression, substance abuse, and an absolutely untimely tragic death. “Every hour we spend fighting a situation we cannot change is an hour we’re not spending on a problem we can solve.”

The key according to Godin is to never let go of this tenet: We Live with Situations. We (Try to) Solve Problems. “Gravity is a situation. Flying to the moon is a problem.” There are a few guidelines to identify problems that are worth solving or addressing. In order for a problem to be amenable for solving:

• It has to be about something that matters.
• It clearly articulates a gap between the current state and the ideal state.
• It contains variables that can be understood.
• It remains neutral about cause and solution.
• Is it small enough to tackle?

Recurring problems are often the outputs and outcomes of intransigent systems. Hiding behind the convenient veil of culture, systems usually develop strong and almost unshakeable roots to maintain a presence in perpetuity. Rewarding people maintaining such systems with status and affiliation, systems try to keep users at a predetermined state, a state in which “just doing the job” means a great deal, irrespective of the discomfort caused and injustice created in the process.

New frameworks need to be built if systems need to undergo a transformation. One innovative way lies in using the very system to change it! For example, Dunkerque metro in France made bus usage free for their approximately 200,000 inhabitants. Car ownership since then is down 10%, parking is no longer a headache, there is a thriving city centre and downtown. A plebiscite following the institution of this rule revealed that 99% of the population claimed that the free buses constituted the most important government service.

the knot is a timely help in a world offering a deluge of opportunities and choices on the one hand, while on the other constraining those very opportunities by incorporating systems that bind down users in a vice like grip putting paid to ingenuity, optimism, and inventiveness.

“The knot: problems can be solved”, by Seth Godin is published by Authors Equity and will be available on sale beginning September 22, 2026.

Thank You, Net Galley for the Advance Reviewer Copy.