Derek Sivers
Founded CD Baby in 1998 and sold it in 2008, giving the proceeds to a charitable trust for music education. Since then a writer and speaker: five books, 550+ articles, and a site at sive.rs he hand-codes and keeps free of advertising.
Derek Sivers did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Their wordsWe’re used to using price as an indicator of quality, so our instinct says that the $20,000 surgery in Switzerland is better than the $2000 surgery in India, but the rule of volume disagrees.
↗Bangalore India hospital flowsive.rs 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsIt’s not orderly. But neither is water flowing in a stream. It flows around obstacles. Everything is opportunistic, selfishly taking the effective path, exploiting available gaps. It’s natural.
↗Bangalore India hospital flowsive.rs 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 4 months earlier
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Our reading
Not monetizing what you put online now reads as strange behaviour that has to be explained.
Their wordsSlowly the culture around me changed, so now it seems I need to explain my strange behavior — why I don't monetize everything like everyone else.
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Their wordsLike picking up trash where you walk, even if the rest of the world is full of litter. You keep doing what you can to make things better.
- 7 weeks earlier
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Their wordsMy own site is the master source of everything I make. But now it's also shared everywhere, so we can meet in your city instead of my little town.
↗I was inconsiderate but now I'm everywheresive.rs 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 9 days earlier
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Their wordsMedia silence creates a vacuum, which your own thoughts expand to fill.
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Their wordsMy brain feels stronger because I work through the problem instead of prompting it away.
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Their wordsEvery day or two, I bring my laptop into town to get online for an hour. The time limit keeps me super-focused.
- 6 weeks earlier
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Their wordsEmotion decides. Facts rationalize. You'll find whatever truth is useful.
↗What is “the truth” really for?sive.rs 1st of 3 in this piece
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Our reading
Facts deployed as weapons in an argument can win the exchange without settling the disagreement.
Their wordsFacts can win a battle but not a war.
↗What is “the truth” really for?sive.rs 1st of 3 in this piece
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Our reading
One good story outweighs a mountain of evidence, because most emotions cannot be argued with.
Their wordsYou'll ignore a mountain of evidence if you hear one good story against it or just feel yourself leaning the other way.
↗What is “the truth” really for?sive.rs 2nd of 3 in this piece
- 2 weeks earlier
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Their wordsWhenever someone says, “I believe …”, then whatever they say next is not true.
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Our reading
No belief is true: the moment something is proven it stops being a belief and becomes a fact.
Their wordsNo beliefs are true. If a belief was proven true, it would no longer be a belief.
- 8 months earlier
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Our reading
When something repulses you, steer into it to learn more about it instead of avoiding it.
Their wordsIf you notice that something repulses you and you have like a revulsion response to something, steer into it to learn more about it instead of avoiding it.
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Their wordsSo the idea is when you start a business, you get to make all the rules now. You can, like in this little part of the world, you get to decide how things should work. You don't have to follow norms.
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Their wordsAs much as possible, try to not predict what the future may hold, but just wait as long as possible for that future to become the present and show you what it actually needs.
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Their wordsI love changing my mind. If I stop flip-flopping, that means I'm a dead fish. Changing my mind is life.
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Their wordsthe tool is used when you are overwhelmed with too many options. You've said yes to too many things, and you need to raise the bar all the way up so that almost everything doesn't pass the bar. It's a tool for a certain situation so I rarely use it. I would not call it a approach to life that everyone should use all the time.
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Their wordsBut it's a great reminder that our kids have their own life, that we should not try to apply our rules to them.
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Their wordsYour actual biological age is really moot. Anybody over the age of, I don't know, 17 that has a pretty adult mind, all the way up until you're senile and getting Alzheimer's or dementia, anything between there, we're all pretty much equal.
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Their wordsThe point is that if you think that money is the only thing holding you back from what you want to do, you're not thinking very clearly. There's always a way around it.
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Their wordsHow you present something to somebody completely changes their experience of it, their enjoyment of it, or even how often they're going to use it.
- 5 months earlier
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Their wordsI'm trying to thoroughly write my thought processes, values, and worldview, so that you can remember it, re-create it and improve upon it.
↗Come and get me (both you and AI)sive.rs 1st of 2 in this piece
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Their wordsA personal website is an autobiography. I wish everyone had one. The more we share, the better.
↗Come and get me (both you and AI)sive.rs 2nd of 2 in this piece
- 2 months earlier
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Their wordsOnce you have some, the easiest way to increase your wealth is to decrease your needs.
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Their wordsMaking money depends on other people, so it's harder. It's not entirely under your control. It's an outer game.
- 17 months earlier
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Our reading
Removing your own ability to retreat is how you make yourself follow through on a hard change.
Their wordsI forbid myself from anything too tempting or addicting. I keep no cookies in my home. To prevent myself from falling off the wagon, I strap myself to the mast.
↗Why I let go of my U.S. citizenshipsive.rs 1st of 2 in this piece
- 10 months earlier
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Our reading
Writing one sentence per line, for your own eyes, improves prose more than any other habit.
Their wordsI've been doing it for twenty years, and it improved my writing more than anything else.
↗Writing one sentence per linesive.rs 1st of 3 in this piece
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Their wordsDelete any sentence not worthy of its own line.
↗Writing one sentence per linesive.rs 2nd of 3 in this piece
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Our reading
Weak openings like “I think” should be cut, and a sentence started on its subject and verb.
Their wordsChop the weak beginnings, like “I think” and “Whether or not”. Start with powerful subjects and verbs.
↗Writing one sentence per linesive.rs 3rd of 3 in this piece