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, he 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
• Twitter
• There’s No Speed Limit
• Ideas Are Just A Multiplier Of Execution
• The Thinker and The Prover
• Keep It Simple, Stupid (Infinite Loops Substack)

Show Notes:

• Don’t Be AC/DC. Be Miles Davis.
• Does It Have To Be This Way?
• Rebranding Laziness
• Time Is A Multiplier
• From Idea To Execution
• Useful Not True
• When Simple Gets Hard
• How Derek Found Agency By Accepting Blame
• Cultivating Insatiable Curiosity
• More!

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