Over the years, Derek Sivers has been a musician, circus performer, computer programmer, author, public speaker and entrepreneur. In the 2000s, he sold his business, CD Baby, for $22 million and gave the proceeds to charity. Derek has optimized his life “for creating and learning” and spends as much of his time as he can (often 12 hours a day, 6 days a week) passionately pursuing his interests. Known for his ability to compress complex ideas into succinct insights, Derek has written four books and is currently working on his fifth. This conversation was so much fun that Derek immediately asked to return for a sequel, which we will be releasing this Thursday (26 October). Stay tuned! Important Links: - Website - https://sive.rs - Twitter - https://twitter.com/sivers?s=21&t=r5Rw1ujHLmOB6xEJqeaV6g - There’s No Speed Limit - http://sive.rs/kimo - Ideas Are Just A Multiplier Of Execution - https://sive.rs/multiply - The Thinker and The Prover - https://thinkerandprover.com - Keep It Simple, Stupid - https://newsletter.osv.llc/p/keep-it-simple-stupid?r=lqj4e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web (Infinite Loops Substack) Show Notes: 0:00:00 Intro 0:01:24 Main podcast 0:04:41 Don’t Be AC/DC. Be Miles Davis. 0:07:15 Does It Have To Be This Way? 0:15:57 Rebranding Laziness 0:21:17 Time Is A Multiplier 0:27:36 From Idea To Execution 0:40:16 Useful Not True 0:49:46 When Simple Gets Hard 1:03:52 How Derek Found Found Agency By Accepting Blame 1:12:56 Cultivating Insatiable Curiosity 1:20:35 Video outro Books Mentioned: - Anything You Want; by Derek Sivers - Hell Yeah Or No; by Derek Sivers - How To Live; by Derek Sivers - Your Music And People; by Derek Sivers - Tao Te Ching; by Lao Tzu - The Two Cultures; by C.P. Snow - Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There; by Lewis Carroll - The Cosmic Trigger trilogy; by Robert Anton Wilson - The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life; by Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd - Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics; by Tim Marshall - Au Contraire!: Figuring Out the French; by Gilles Asselin and Ruth Mastron - Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour; by Kate Fox
The inimitable Derek Sivers returns for Part Two of our conversation. Important Links: - Part One - Website - https://sive.rs - Twitter - https://twitter.com/sivers?s=21&t=r5Rw1ujHLmOB6xEJqeaV6g - Still Too Soon to Tell & Other Songs - https://sive.rs/music - Tech Independence - https://sive.rs/ti Show Notes: 0:00:00 Video intro 0:00:45 Main podcast 0:02:29 Curiosity Starts With Dissatisfaction 0:11:13 Defining Things By Their Opposites 0:17:29 Counterbalancing Our Biases 0:25:07 How To Reframe Your Problems 0:36:07 Still Too Soon To Tell 0:40:32 Alternate Pasts & Alternate Futures 0:51:34 The Choice You Commit To Is The Best Choice 0:58:03 Just Do The Thing 1:17:07 What Next? 1:23:41 Derek As Emperor Of The World 1:27:28 End screen Books Mentioned: - Anything You Want; by Derek Sivers - Hell Yeah Or No; by Derek Sivers - How To Live; by Derek Sivers - Your Music And People; by Derek Sivers - William Blake vs the World; by John Higgs - The God Problem: How a Godless Cosmos Creates; by Howard Bloom - The Selfish Gene; by Richard Dawkins - Awaken The Giant Within: How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Life; by Tony Robbins - The Enlightenment Trilogy; by Jed McKenna - What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies; by Tim Urban
"[Hollywood actors are] not a special breed. They're not a different type. They are just like you. They just took the chance and showed up to the gig... They did the thing instead of watching TV, and that's all the difference it took." -- Derek Sivers
"What seems true is actually just one possible perspective, and it's probably not the best one. So force yourself to think of other perspectives.” -- Derek Sivers
"Physical, observable things are true. Everything else is just a perspective that you can choose to take." -- Derek Sivers
"So, all of these things that I think I'm better than average in right now, I think it's just safe to assume that I'm not. In fact, I'm going to choose to counterbalance our human nature, and so, I will deliberately choose to assume that I'm below average." -- Derek Sivers