Derek Sivers podcast

Here’s how to live: Make memories. You recently had a day, or even a month, that you can’t remember. If I asked what you did then, you couldn’t say. There was nothing unusual about it. What if you have many more of those? What if, when you’re older, you can’t recall entire years? If you can’t remember something, it’s like it never happened. You could have a long healthy life, but if you can’t reme...

Here’s how to live: Intertwine with the world. We’re all cousins. Everybody on Earth, no matter how far apart, has a surprisingly recent common ancestor. Go meet your family in the Middle East, in Asia, in Africa, in the Americas, and in Europe. Understand that there is no “them”. It’s just “us”. Feel those connections. You have kindreds scattered around the world. People who are weird like you ar...

Here’s how to live: Think super-long-term. In 1790, Benjamin Franklin gifted £2000 to the cities of Philadelphia and Boston by putting it into a 200-year trust, and by 1990 it was worth over $7 million. If you put $2000 into the stock market for 200 years at the average 8% return, it will be worth over $9 billion. If you can do $100,000, it will be worth over $483 billion. Live like this. Serve th...

Here’s how to live: Do nothing. The ten commandments said what not to do. Most of being a good person is not doing bad. Don’t be cruel or selfish. Don’t lie or steal. Just do no harm. People always think they need to do something. One action creates a problem, fixed by another action, so they react and counter-act, creating more problems to fix. All of this can be avoided. All actions are optional...

Here’s how to live: Fill your senses. See it all. Touch it all. Hear it all. Taste it all. Do it all. Appreciate this wonderful physical world. If you knew you’d go blind tomorrow, how intensely would you look at the world today? If you knew you’d go deaf tomorrow, how intensely would you listen? Fill your senses as if this was your last day on Earth. One day that will be true. Maximize your input...

Here’s how to live: Commit. If you’ve ever been confused or distracted, with too many options… If you don’t finish what you start… If you’re not with a person you love… … then you’ve felt the problem. The problem is a lack of commitment. You’ve been looking for the best person, place, or career. But seeking the best is the problem. No choice is inherently the best. What makes something the best ch...

Here’s how to live: Be independent. All misery comes from dependency. If you weren’t dependent on income, people, or technology, you would be truly free. The only way to be deeply happy is to break all dependencies. Most problems are interpersonal. To be part of society is to lose a part of yourself. Cut ties with society. Don’t engage. Don’t even rebel, because that’s reacting. Instead, do what y...

I love having my own store so I can make things the way I think they should be. For example, I disagree with the usual pricing of books. If I buy a book in one format, it doesn’t seem fair to pay full price to get it in another format. That would be paying twice for the same content. Let’s separate these two things: Contents : the words in a book Delivery : the ways to get the words into your brai...

I used to have too many pets. Each time I adopted one, I was fully in love. I was enamored with the potential. Each new pet was meant to be my constant companion. So I would take it home, and love it. But eventually I would discover a new pet, and the process would repeat. My house was overflowing. But it didn’t feel that way at the time. In each moment, I was giving just one pet my full attention...

2023 UPDATE: see “ $575K of books sold. $575K to save lives. ” Six weeks ago I emailed my private email list with a secret link to buy my new books. They’re not even officially released yet, but they’ve already sold over $250,000. I made 5000 limited edition hardcover copies of each, but those have sold out now. I’ll admit, it made me ridiculously happy to make $250,000. I was expecting way less t...

A new day begins when I wake up, not at midnight. Midnight means nothing to me. It’s not a turning point. Nothing changes at that moment. A new year begins when there’s a memorable change in my life. Not January 1st. Nothing changes on January 1st. I can understand using moments like midnight and January 1st as coordinators, so cultures and computers can agree on how to reference time. But shouldn...

One approach to music is to do whatever you want. Absolutely anything goes. But to me, that’s too free. It’s anti-inspiring because having infinite options is overwhelming. Another approach to music is to follow tradition. You stay within the guidelines of a genre or style. But to me, that’s too strict and sad. It was someone else’s innovation. To imitate it now with rules and recipes is just nost...

I don’t usually talk about money, but a friend asked me what it was like to get rich, and he wanted to know specifics, so I told him my story. I had a day job in midtown Manhattan paying $20K per year — about minimum wage. On weekends I would earn $150 per day performing circus shows for kids, though I’d spend about $50 in bus fare to get to the gigs. I was sharing a three-bedroom apartment with t...

If you’re in doubt about something that’s not in your life, try it . Things are so different in practice versus in theory. The only way to know is to experience it yourself. Try it examples: Pursuing a new interest? Moving somewhere very different? Quitting your job to go freelance? Err on the side of yes. Try it. If it was a mistake, at least you’ll know first-hand, instead of always wondering. …...

When someone becomes an expert at something, you know what else they become? Annoying. At a restaurant, your designer friend complains about the font on the menu, your musician friend complains about the background music, and your manager friend complains about the service. Why? The problem is that their expertise makes them annoyed. They’re trained to spot errors. They’re so aware of what’s wrong...

I wanted to learn about the world, so I went travelling. People in the east are so graceful, I felt like an inconsiderate pig. People up north are so serious, I felt like a lightweight clown. People down south are so laid-back, I had to escape north again. The way we define ourself is all relative to our surroundings, right? However we differ from the people in our home town is how we define ourse...

First, see my previous article about PostgreSQL functions at sive.rs/pg . That article gave tiny examples, but no finished working code. This week, I wrote a shopping cart to sell my books directly from my own site. So I took a couple extra hours today to put my code into public view, so anyone can play around with it. See github.com/sivers/store , to browse, download, and try it. It’s a working s...

Here’s an idea: Create a little school somewhere remote. School of what? School of mastery. A place for anyone who wants go focus on a skill of their choice, surrounded by other people doing the same, and a few coaches — experts on the craft of mastery — to offer help and guidance. This uses Salman Khan’s proposal to “flip the classroom” so that the core of learning is done in independent study, u...

Here’s an idea: Every month, pick something you hate or know nothing about, and get to know it well. Spend a few hours per week, for an entire month, just learning about that subject. Why? The idea is inspired by a very successful friend of mine who is regrettably closed-minded. She hates everything that isn’t European, sophisticated, and familiar. Culture of India? Hates it. Chinese opera? Hates...

My “daily” blog was silent the last four days, because I took my kid on a spontaneous trip to another country. No phone . No computer. I gave him my full attention every day from when he woke me in the morning to when we fell asleep together at night. It was great. I thought for a minute about the importance of my commitment to post here daily. But nope, being with him is more important than writi...

I have three mentors. When I’m stuck on a problem and need their help, I take the time to write a good description of my dilemma, before reaching out to them. I summarize the context, the problem, my options, and thoughts on each. I make it as succinct as possible so as not to waste their time. Before sending it, I try to predict what they’ll say. Then I go back and update what I wrote to address...

Someone asked me today why I don’t charge money for the things I do. Why don’t I have ads on my site? Why don’t I exploit my assets and pursue some profitable things? I already did that . I made more than I’ll ever be able to spend. What do you do when you win a game? You stop playing, and go do something else.

You couldn’t just roll down the street leaving huge piles of garbage everywhere you go, making life slower for everyone as they climb over your mountains of junk, just to get on with their life. You’d feel bad about it, right? That’s how I feel about the digital things we put out into the world: websites, apps, and files. I prefer coding everything by hand, because I don’t like the huge piles of g...

This is my advice to anyone writing something for the public — especially a talk on stage. People listen to a talk, or read an article, because they want to learn something new. They want a little “oh wow” moment. “I never thought of it that way before.” People only really learn when they’re surprised. If they’re not surprised, then what you told them just fits in with what they already know. No m...

People often ask me how they can get over their fears. For example, they are scared to quit their job and start a business. They want me to say something to make their fears go away. My advice is the opposite. Pay attention to your fear. It often has good reason. Don’t get over it. Get under it. Instead of ignoring fears, address them. Look deeper into what’s inside them. Address and mitigate the...