Derek Sivers podcast

Latest Episodes:

globe — **What you learn by travelling** Oct 26, 2019
Show notes

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 ourself. That’s where we shape our self-identity, growing up. Those are our defining traits.
But when we go to a different place, the relative comparisons collapse. Traits like speed, ambition, independence, bravery, and humor — they’re all relative.
Back home I’m considered quiet. Here I’m considered loud.
Back home I’m a slacker. Here I’m a workaholic.
Back home I’m normal. Here I’m strange. Or vice-versa. So how do I define myself now?
I always want to know *why* a culture is this way. What’s the difference? What are the core beliefs? So I ask questions and observe.
On the surface and from a distance, I see their actions. But deeply and closely, I see my reactions.
I want to learn about the world, so I keep travelling.
About the world, I learn a bit. About myself, I learn a lot.

PostgreSQL example of self-contained stored procedures Oct 25, 2019

Show notes

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 self-contained shopping cart / store. It’s a very concrete example of using stored procedures to keep all the data logic together in one place. You can use it from JavaScript, Python, Ruby, or any language you want, since all the functionality is in the database itself. It works.

If you have any questions, or want to tell me how stupid I am for doing this, email me.

**Mastery school** Oct 24, 2019
Show notes

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, using online materials**.
Since the teachers are all online, the local coaches just help guide each student’s path to mastery. There are many great books on this subject, like…

Talent Code

Mastery

Atomic Habits

Art of Learning

Peak Performance

Talent is Overrated

Overachivement

and Peak.

So you can see how the general skill of guiding and coaching talent, in any field, could be the best focus of the on-site staff.
The school should be located somewhere that fits with the story we tell ourselves about going away to focus. Somewhere that’s a desirable location, yet still somewhere with income inequality, where a school bringing a little business and fast fiber internet to a remote location would be appreciated. All the staff except the coaches could come from the local community.
Some shared resources like a good camera and microphone, a few computers, a video library to save bandwidth, and a chef making meals for everyone.
I imagine this could be as small and simple as a big house in the country, or a few cabins nearby.

Why attend?

To get away somewhere you can focus without distraction — a show of dedication and focus
To be around other serious focused learners, inspiring eachother
To have the help of coaches that are great at helping anyone learn anything. They are experts in the skill of practice, learning, and mastery.
So, you go there to work on your thing, whatever it is.
You learn from online materials, books, and whatever it takes.
You practice and create as much as possible.
You're surrounded by kindreds and assistance.

expanding arrows — **Monthly self-expansion project** Oct 23, 2019
Show notes

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 it. West African music? Hates it. Any mention of any of these things, and she completely shuts down. Appreciating them is not an option. I tried to play her my favorite Indian music, and West African music, but nope. Just a few seconds into it, she asks me to shut it off.
It made me realize that **some of the greatest joys in my life** are the things I used to hate, or know nothing about, and now have grown to love. Read my post “Loving what I used to hate” for my story about that.
So I thought: Instead of letting it happen accidently or randomly, why not be deliberate about it? Some ideas of things to study for a month would be…

civil engineering

Tolstoy

archery

Bollywood

dog training

Dungeons and Dragons

chess

Zanzibar

cryptography

emergency medical training

anything The Great Courses has a course about

anything Very Short Introductions has a mini-book about

If it’s learning a skill, read Josh Kaufman’s First 20 Hours and use that approach.
While you might lean towards things you’ve always wanted to learn about, I think it’s more interesting to ask yourself, “What do I have absolutely no interest in?” or “What sounds repulsive to me?”, then aim to understand one of those things. Start with a kind of music you hate, or a part of the world that sounds unappealing to you. That’s where the real self-expansion happens.
**Whenever we learn about something, we learn to appreciate it.** So it’s most rewarding if it’s something you previously had no appreciation for.
I like this idea a lot, and plan to do it soon.

pyramid of values — **Living according to your hierarchy of values** Oct 22, 2019
Show notes

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 writing**.
Upon returning, I considered heading off by myself on a 10-day trip, balancing writing and exploring another culture. But after sleeping on it, I realized that no, **writing is more important than exploring**.
Once you realize that one value is more important to you than another, **you have to ask yourself if you’re living accordingly**.
What’s ultimately more important to you?
Learning? Or creating?
Money? Or time?
Expanding? Or focusing?
(… etc.)
Once you know which takes top place, consider taking it to an extreme, to its logical conclusion, and **optimizing your entire life around that top priority, letting go of almost everything else**.
If the idea sounds unfulfilling, try re-ordering your priorities, and do the thought experiment again.
*(That’s the subject of my next book, “How to Live”, which is my top writing priority right now, and so much fun!)* ☺

thinking statue — **How to ask your mentors for help** Oct 17, 2019
Show notes

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 these obvious points in advance. Finally, I try again to predict what they’ll say to this, based on what they’ve said in the past and what I know of their philosophy.
Then, after this whole process, I realize I don’t need to bother them because the answer is now clear.
If anything, I might email to thank them for their continued inspiration.
Truth is, I’ve hardly talked with my mentors in years. None of them know they are my mentors. And one doesn’t know I exist.

board game — **When you win the game, you stop playing** Oct 16, 2019
Show notes

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.

Digital pollution Oct 15, 2019

Show notes

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 garbage that the automated generators create. These programs that generate a website, app, or file for you spit out thousands of lines of unnecessary junk when really only 10 lines are needed. Then people wonder why their site is so slow, and they think it’s their phone or connection’s fault.

Yesterday I needed to make a little vector logo. Two lines and two triangles. I tried to use a couple different vector drawing programs but they saved it as hundreds of lines. I knew it could be simpler, so I read up on SVG and made exactly what I wanted:


<svg height="54" width="54">
<defs><style type="text/css"><![CDATA[line,polygon{stroke:black;stroke-width:4} polygon{fill:black}]]></style></defs>
<line x1="2" y1="2" x2="2" y2="52" />
<line x1="52" y1="2" x2="52" y2="52" />
<polygon points="2,2 27,27 2,27" />
<polygon points="52,2 27,27 52,27" />
</svg>

Much better! 95% smaller file size, and the joy of making something by hand instead of having it done for me. But I think my biggest joy is eliminating the digital pollution that the auto-generated one created. It makes everything faster, easier, and cleaner for anyone involved. 95% less junk over the wires.

Same thing with the EPUB file for my new book. Today I spent the day creating the EPUB’s XML and XHTML by hand, instead of using a generator. I love the manual control and again - 90% smaller file size.

This makes me unreasonably happy. It feels like cleaning up the neighborhood. Or at least my yard.

(And I love it when people notice how fast my site loads.)