“I think that saying ‘good enough’ is a superpower.”
— Derek Sivers
Derek Sivers (@sivers) is an author of philosophy and entrepreneurship, known for his surprising, quotable insights and pithy, succinct writing style. He is a former musician, programmer, TED speaker, and circus clown, who sold his first company, CDBaby for $22 million and gave all the money to charity.
Derek’s books (How to Live, Hell Yeah or No, Your Music and People, Anything You Want) and newest projects are at his website: sive.rs. His upcoming book is Useful Not True.
Please enjoy!
P.S. To follow the exact step-by-step “Tech Independence” instructions from Derek, please visit sive.rs/ti.
#668: Derek Sivers — The Joys of an Un-Optimized Life, Finding Paths Less Traveled, Creating Tech Independence (and Risks of the Cloud), Taking Giant Leaps, and Picking the Right Game of Life
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Want to hear the first time Derek was on the show? Listen to our conversation here, which discussed developing confidence, finding happiness, saying ‘no’ to millions, Derek’s favorite books, and much, much more.
#125: Derek Sivers on Developing Confidence, Finding Happiness, and Saying No to Millions
What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
- Connect with Derek Sivers:
Website | Podcast | Twitter | YouTube
- Useful Not True: Whatever Works for You by Derek Sivers
- How to Live: 27 Conflicting Answers and One Weird Conclusion by Derek Sivers
- Hell Yeah or No: What’s Worth Doing by Derek Sivers
- Your Music and People: Creative and Considerate Fame by Derek Sivers
- Anything You Want: 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur by Derek Sivers
- Tools of Titans: Derek Sivers Distilled | The Tim Ferriss Show #202
- Derek Sivers on Developing Confidence, Finding Happiness, and Saying No to Millions | The Tim Ferriss Show #125
- Derek Sivers Reloaded – On Success Habits and Billionaires with Perfect Abs | The Tim Ferriss Show #128
- Go Go Goa Loose Leaf Gift Cube Chai | T2 Australia
- The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less by Barry Schwartz
- Sartorial Talks | YouTube
- Suits | The House of Michael Browne
- Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier by Kevin Kelly
- Thingvellir National Park | Heart of Iceland
- PADI 5-Star Dive Center Iceland | DIVE.IS
- Wet Suit vs. Dry Suit: What is The Difference? | Boat Safe
- Panic Attack | Better Health Channel
- Wellington | 100{1652eb1ffa4184925f6a63a9c04ea6b421acb7a78117241e7d4325cdca8339fa} Pure New Zealand
- Tech Independence | Derek Sivers
- What is the Cloud? | CNBC Explains
- The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman by Timothy Ferriss
- VPS (Virtual Private Server) Explained | IBM
- The Everywhere Cloud | Vultr
- Lenovo ThinkPad T400 6475 Notebook | Amazon
- A Free, Multi-Platform 4.4BSD-Based Unix-Like Operating System | OpenBSD
- What is an SSH Key? | SSH
- Helping You Feel Close | Marco Polo
- Register Domain Names | BookMyName.com
- Domain Name, Web Hosting, Email and SSL Certificate | Netim
- An Oddly Satisfying Experience | Porkbun
- Language Opens Worlds | Klingon Language Institute
- Free and Open-Source CalDAV and CardDAV Server | Radicale
- Rsync | Wikipedia
- Continuous File Synchronization | Syncthing
- Blog Tool, Publishing Platform, and CMS | WordPress
- Secure E-mail for Private and Business Customers | Mailbox.org
- We Respect Your Privacy and Put You in Control | Fastmail
- Transactional Email API Service For Developers | Mailgun
- Email Delivery, API, Marketing Service | SendGrid
- Create Your Online Store Today | Shopify
- Compress the Complexity of Modern Web Apps | Ruby on Rails
- Apr. 24–Apr. 26, Atlanta | RailsConf 2023
- Marylebone: The Underdog Terminus | Jago Hazzard
- Wicked the Musical | London
- Do ‘Maximisers’ or ‘Satisficers’ Make Better Decisions? | BBC Worklife
- Hey Jude by The Beatles | YouTube
- Patrick House on Consciousness | EconTalk
- The Incredible Reason Why Richard Branson Started Virgin Atlantic | Travel + Leisure
- Not Disappointing Myself | Bookbear Express
- Moral Relativism | Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Sam Harris: Science Can Answer Moral Questions | TED Talk
- The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values by Sam Harris | Amazon
- What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions, From One of the America’s Leading Experts by John L. Esposito
- The History of Utilitarianism | Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want by Sonja Lyubomirsky
- A Simulation Role-Playing Video Game | Stardew Valley
- Somebody That I Used To Know (Feat. Kimbra) by Gotye | YouTube
- How to Get Rich: One of the World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets by Felix Dennis
- The Art of Learning: A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence by Josh Waitzkin
- Papaoutai by Stromae | YouTube
SHOW NOTES
Editor’s Note: Timestamps will be added shortly.
- The Derek Sivers School of Enough.
- Scuba diving in Iceland.
- Categories we apply to ourselves and others.
- Derek’s people compass.
- How to secure your tech independence.
- The un-optimized life.
- The meaning of Derek’s upcoming book, Useful Not True.
- The problem with moral relativism and other -isms.
- Giant leaps.
- Finding and asking mentors for help.
- Games.
- The wisdom of quitting when you’re ahead.
- Why would Derek — never in need of external validation — seek fame?
- What makes Derek so darned interesting?
- Has Derek always been a satisficer?
- Living on the edge case.
- The real question behind “What would you tell your younger self?”
- Giving directions in Antarctica.
- How do you teach an 11-year-old to act like a 16-year-old?
- Parting thoughts.
MORE DEREK SIVERS QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW
“If you wonder why I’m so happy, why I’m thriving, why I seem to be doing well, a lot of my happiness comes from this worldview that is radical doubt. It’s skepticism. I’m going to give this the shorthand of calling it ‘Useful Not True.’”
— Derek Sivers
“If you set up your business to serve the people that you love being around, even if it makes less money, you’re going to be much happier.”
— Derek Sivers
“I think that saying ‘good enough’ is a superpower.”
— Derek Sivers
“We spend the first half of our life deferring to authority and thinking that authority has power over us. And at a certain point, you realize that you’re free. You’re liberated from that as long as you don’t break the law.”
— Derek Sivers
“The temptation to keep playing, even though the rewards are done, isn’t that the definition of addiction? Continuing a behavior even though it’s not rewarding you anymore?”
— Derek Sivers
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Related and Recommended
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