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2026-03-09

Derek Sivers

2026-08-31 Notes from Bangalore, India, where I spent most of two weeks in a hospital, and the rest with friends: sive.rs/met/at-15
2026-08-18 Building without predicting. (The story of how I built my perfect home.) sive.rs/fit
2026-07-27 I write to see what I can write. I code to see what I can code.
2026-07-03 17 conversations in Jakarta, Indonesia: sive.rs/met/at-14
2026-06-30 16 conversations in super-multicultural Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur: sive.rs/met/at-13
2026-06-12 India tech friends: I just bought my ticket to IndiaFOSS in BLR Sept 26-27: fossunited.org/indiafoss/2026 Want to meet? Email me: sive.rs/contact
2026-05-21 Fight Club: I liked it the first time years ago, but watching a second time when you already know the end reveal? Elevates it from good to great. So many brilliant details in the screenplay. What else in life is better the second time?
2026-05-14 Prepare your “no” and keep it handy: sive.rs/n0
2026-05-13 My life was changed by four sentences in four books : sive.rs/4s4b
2026-05-06 Geography is four-dimensional: sive.rs/4d
2026-05-04 1993 communal internet shaped me: sive.rs/netizen
2026-04-29 I’m not autistic, but my heroes are.
2026-04-27 Since we moved from city to rural land, to a house where the bathroom and kitchen are outside, my boy observed: “This year there are way more full moons.”
2026-04-27 My favorite LLM prompt: “List the top cities in {COUNTRY}, and anthropomorphize each one, listing the good-natured stereotypes and jokes that other people in {COUNTRY} say about people in this city.”
2026-04-25 Good book on cultural psychology: Tribal. Great insights and examples of how change happens on the personal, cultural, and institutional level. My notes at sive.rs/book/Tribal
2026-04-23 Fascinating book: Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness - sive.rs/book/Conscious19 - uses one true story, 19 times, of the laughing brain patient - sive.rs/u12 - in the format of Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei - sive.rs/book/WangWei - to explore the subject.
2026-04-22 Great book: Elephant in the Brain: sive.rs/book/BrainMotives You have hidden motives and subconscious incentives. Two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason. Instititutions do this too: wasteful because they’re serving hidden purposes no one acknowledges. Great insights throughout.
2026-03-25 People of India! My OCI + Airtel + HDFC has culminated in a massive achievement and rite of initiation. I have made my first UPI payment. I’m now unstoppable.
2026-03-13 “Purpose” and “passion” are words we use when we’re not working.
2026-03-11 I was inconsiderate but now I’m everywhere: sive.rs/socials
2026-03-10 I love people. I love when they’re not around.
2026-03-08 Great book: “You’re Not Listening” by Kate Murphy. My notes: sive.rs/book/NotListening
2026-03-05 I highly recommend the book "Factfulness" by Hans Roling. My notes: sive.rs/book/Factfulness
2026-03-03 I’ve been offline 23 hours a day: sive.rs/off23
2026-02-26 Got my own ActivityPub server running at sive.rs/d though still super basic and testing
2023-07-20 The past is not true : sive.rs/pnt
2023-06-30 dashing dog, searching for purpose : sive.rs/pdog
2023-05-18 $575K of books sold. $575K to save lives. sive.rs/575k
2023-04-21 The joy and freedom of harmlessly upsetting social norms : sive.rs/nor
2023-04-20 Why I let go of my U.S. citizenship : sive.rs/xus
2023-04-15 the Michael Browne suits : sive.rs/suits
2023-03-08 Aim off-center to counter a bias : sive.rs/aim
2023-03-07 Thinking something nice about somebody? Tell them. sive.rs/nice
2023-03-02 50 conversations in Bangalore and Chennai : sive.rs/meet-chbg
2023-02-09 Explorers are bad leaders : sive.rs/exled
2023-02-06 Travelling just for the people : sive.rs/travp
2023-02-03 Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery. sive.rs/anon
2023-01-31 I want to lose every debate: sive.rs/led
2023-01-29 Conversations with Tyler Cowen: sive.rs/tyler
2023-01-27 Reading the Bible, start to finish: sive.rs/bible
2023-01-22 Who should I meet in Chennai and Bengaluru? sive.rs/meet-chbg
2022-10-31 My podcast is live again! Season 3. Very short episodes. sive.rs/podcast
2022-10-30 make believe : sive.rs/mb
2022-10-28 a daily run, part two : sive.rs/run2
2022-10-08 Static HTML comments: sive.rs/shc
2022-09-28 a daily run, part one : sive.rs/run
2022-09-20 Doubt explanations : sive.rs/confab
2022-09-14 shortest date, and ketchup : sive.rs/ketchup
2022-09-13 Added some GREAT new books to my book notes page: sive.rs/book (click “newest”, up top)
2022-09-08 New release: full-length videobook for “YOUR MUSIC AND PEOPLE”: sive.rs/ymap
2022-08-03 interesting that the population of China, India, and Africa are each about 1.4 billion
2022-06-20 Try writing one sentence per line : sive.rs/1s
2022-06-19 The joke that changed my life : sive.rs/joke
2022-06-08 Find a good available .com domain: sive.rs/com
2022-05-09 Travel is best with young children : sive.rs/tk
2022-05-08 Short URLs: why and how : sive.rs/su
2022-04-14 Updated all four of my book pages, starting at the home page with the stack of books: sive.rs/
2022-04-13 Built a web app to help people translate my books. Used by over 300 translators, editors, and reviewers, to translate my books into 30 languages. Now it has a name: https://inchword.com/
2022-03-09 Why I left America : sive.rs/left
2022-03-02 Write plain text files : sive.rs/plaintext
2022-03-01 Database triggers to clean text inputs : sive.rs/clean1
2022-03-01 Generate unique random values directly in the database : sive.rs/rand1
2022-02-28 Database functions to wrap logic and SQL queries : sive.rs/api01
2022-02-28 Database trigger recalculates totals, for data integrity : sive.rs/recalc
2022-01-26 The best ideas I've found in the last 320+ books I've read: sive.rs/book
2021-10-27 Considerate book pricing: sive.rs/bp
2021-10-24 Parents of young (age 5-10) readers: We just finished reading the “HILO” comic books - which my boy’s librarian recommended - and it’s the best we’ve ever found. GREAT writing/story/twists/everything. https://www.juddspillowfort.com/hilo/ If you know another this good, please let me know.
2021-09-14 My newest and best book, “HOW TO LIVE - 27 conflicting answers and one weird conclusion”, is officially released and shipping worldwide now, exclusively through me: sive.rs/h
2021-08-13 How many pets do you have? sive.rs/pets
2021-06-16 Now that I’m done writing “How to Live”, I’m listening to music again! Starting with Ted Gioia’s great “Hundred Best Albums of 2020”: https://www.tedgioia.com/bestalbumsof2020.html — buying them all on Bandcamp.
2021-03-29 If you do what most people do, you'll get what most people get.
2021-03-26 Nobody cares what you’re bad at, and neither should you.
2021-02-19 I'm a fan of: Ravel Boléro, Erika Lemay, Debussy, Black bean burrito, Ruby, PostgreSQL, OpenBSD, Vim, Blackcurrant black tea, New Zealand, silence.
2021-02-02 Just added twelve new book notes to my site: sive.rs/book
2020-12-07 Open-sourced all the code and contents of my sive.rs site: https://git.sr.ht/~sivers/sive.rs
2020-11-24 The Art of Living with Less Stress: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amS0u15AL14 - from sive.rs/relax
2020-10-20 My limited-edition signed hardcover book “YOUR MUSIC AND PEOPLE” finally arrived from the printer today! Shipping next week. https://m.sive.rs/YMaP-4x.mp4 (All thanks to https://saeah.com/ who produced it!)
2020-10-16 “Your feelings are justified!” ← this is what everyone wants to hear
2020-09-12 Real question: What's the difference between feminism and anti-sexism?
2020-09-01 One of the best (and funniest) things I ever did was produce this album by “Captain T” : https://captaint.com/ + sive.rs/capt
2020-08-28 An open mind, like an open mouth, must eventually close on something.
2020-08-27 Sincere question: What non-obvious ways do you find or make BALANCE in your world?
2020-08-06 $250K books sold. $250K to save lives. sive.rs/250k
2020-08-05 Changed sivers.org to sive.rs because it's shorter. (No other reason. “.org” felt like unnecessary noise.)
2020-07-28 Fun interview with @shaneaparrish https://fs.blog/knowledge-project/derek-sivers/ I've been a fan (and subscriber) of his for years, so it was an honor to finally talk.
2020-07-22 “HELL YEAH OR NO”, my newest book, is available now at sive.rs/n
2020-07-22 “YOUR MUSIC AND PEOPLE”, my new book, is available now at sive.rs/m
2020-07-04 Moved back to New Zealand for good, today.
2020-04-28 8 years ago I spent the day in Singapore with my hero Kevin Kelly, then at the end he told me it was his 60th birthday. Today he posted this must-read gem: https://kk.org/thetechnium/68-bits-of-unsolicited-advice/
2020-04-20 If you haven’t heard “Tango Til They’re Sore” by Tom Waits (from Rain Dogs) in a while, now’s a good time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmRzZX4dRSw
2020-04-10 Season 2 of my podcast is in full swing. Completely different than Season 1, it’s me being interviewed by many different hosts. Listen at sive.rs/podcast
2020-03-23 Sometimes the winds of change are a hurricane.
2020-03-21 I’ve answered 2100 emails in the last 48 hours. 4000 left. This is intense, but I’m thankful for the connection.
2020-01-20 My #1 most-gifted book is “The Third Ear” by Joachim-Ernst Berendt. Forever changes how you think of sound. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0805020071
2019-12-30 Time is personal. Your year changes when your life changes. : sive.rs/mny
2019-12-03 I performed at Nara Dreamland with my circus for two weeks in 1992. Then it became this… https://metro.co.uk/2018/09/01/haunting-photos-capture-abandoned-nara-dreamland-theme-park-in-japan-7903779/
2019-11-17 How I became Ryuichi Sakamoto's guitarist (now on podcast) : sive.rs/sakamoto + sive.rs/podcast
2019-11-15 Now on podcast : Sammy Cahn said thank you : sive.rs/sammy-cahn : sive.rs/podcast
2019-11-14 Posted to podcast : “Human Intervention as a Competitive Advantage” : sive.rs/hi || sive.rs/podcast
2019-11-07 Experiments in music and life : sive.rs/eml
2019-11-04 podcast now also on YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcE0XVmYoKM8gcT6nHNHDiK0rSjm8X6eb
2019-11-02 My podcast is launched : sive.rs/podcast (Each episode is VERY short, of course. You know how I am.)
2019-11-01 Writing daily, but posting when ready : sive.rs/nod
2019-10-30 How I got rich on the other hand : sive.rs/richand
2019-10-29 Podcast RSS generator in Ruby : https://gist.github.com/sivers/e3a90a742cfc0802ede9dbf553339174
2019-10-28 When in doubt, try the difference : sive.rs/trd
2019-10-27 Why experts are annoying : sive.rs/exan
2019-10-26 What you learn by travelling : sive.rs/trav1
2019-10-25 PostgreSQL example of self-contained stored procedures : sive.rs/pg2
2019-10-24 Mastery school : sive.rs/masch
2019-10-23 Monthly self-expansion project : sive.rs/exex
2019-10-22 Living according to your hierarchy of values : sive.rs/vls1
2019-10-17 How to ask your mentors for help : sive.rs/ment
2019-10-16 sive.rs/random jumps to a different random article on my site every time. (Thanks to Dan Maldonado for the idea.)
2019-10-16 When you win the game, you stop playing : sive.rs/wtg
2019-10-15 Digital pollution : sive.rs/polut
2019-10-14 Cut out everything that’s not surprising : sive.rs/d22
2019-10-13 Heed your fears : sive.rs/gofear
2019-10-12 Daydreaming is my favorite pastime : sive.rs/daydream
2019-10-11 Anti-chameleon : sive.rs/antic
2019-10-10 Where we do and don’t want automation : sive.rs/autom
2019-10-09 Human nature to focus on the one bad thing : sive.rs/negz
2019-10-08 Back and forth between super-hot and super-cold : sive.rs/sauna
2019-10-07 Err on the side of action, to test theories : sive.rs/erra
2019-10-06 Blowing off work to play : sive.rs/hooky
2019-10-05 The joy and strategic wisdom of ignoring plans : sive.rs/ldn
2019-10-04 Tour -isms : sive.rs/isms
2019-10-03 To me, this is the most beautiful bike frame: https://surlybikes.com/bikes/straggler I love a horizontal top tube, and for the top, seat, and down tubes to be same thickness. Simple symmetry.
2019-10-03 Meta-considerate : sive.rs/metac
2019-10-02 Daydreaming the downside, for once : sive.rs/ddown
2019-10-01 Where to find the hours to make it happen : sive.rs/uncomf
2019-09-30 Your heroes show which way you’re facing : sive.rs/hf
2019-09-29 I'm hard to impress when it comes to tea, but “Singapore Breakfast” tea from T2 is the best tea I've had in YEARS. Get it if you can. https://www.t2tea.com/
2019-09-29 Don’t quote. Make it yours and say it yourself. sive.rs/dq
2019-09-28 Have a private email account : sive.rs/pe
2019-09-27 Future posthumous autobiography : sive.rs/abio
2019-09-27 Cross the world four times : sive.rs/4
2019-09-26 What I did belies why : sive.rs/ww
2019-09-25 Would you make your art if you were the last person on earth? : sive.rs/tp3
2019-09-24 Travel without social praise : sive.rs/tp2
2019-09-23 Travel without a phone to be in the moment : sive.rs/tp1
2019-07-31 My old clothes don’t fit : sive.rs/clothes
2019-07-18 Hearing Arvo Pärt “Für Alina” for the first time and loving it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%BCr_Alina (Took 2+ listens to slow down my inner clock and appreciate.) Thanks to https://joellaviolette.com/ for the tip.
2019-07-01 I’ve answered 811 emails in the last 5 days. This might be unsustainable.
2019-07-01 doors and windows and what’s real : sive.rs/dw
2019-06-25 I’ve often been with someone and wished I was alone. I’ve never been alone and wished I was not.
2019-06-25 Instead of many hours nudging things with a mouse in Pro Tools or Cubase, I wrote a little Ruby script to use sox to programmatically generate it. So much better: https://gist.github.com/sivers/b900bf4004e148b32a5ddf3fffbe3a1c
2019-06-11 Just finished recording the audiobook for “Hell Yeah or No”. It's really good. I'm excited. sive.rs/n
2019-06-10 Looked up origin of the word “seesaw”. It’s imitating French “ci-ça”, meaning “this-that”. ♥ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seesaw
2019-06-03 I just finished my next book: “Hell Yeah or No”. sive.rs/n Get on my private email list if interested: sive.rs/list
2019-04-25 Loving with your head is like running with your hands.
2019-04-12 New notes from two books on Artificial Intelligence. One good, one great. sive.rs/book/SurvivingAI + sive.rs/book/Life30
2019-03-08 I’ve moved from New Zealand to Oxford England : sive.rs/ox1 (Email me if you want to meet up anywhere in Europe.)
2019-03-05 Settling in to Oxford, England : sive.rs/now
2019-01-28 Benefits of a daily diary and topic journals : sive.rs/dj
2019-01-07 Must-read book for those over 60. Should-read for those over 40: sive.rs/book/BrainRulesAging
2019-01-01 Three new book notes, including the great “Atomic Habits” : sive.rs/book

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