“Everything you’re doing, you’re choosing to do. You need to understand that. Like never forget that you’re choosing to do this, and at any point. You can choose not to. You don’t have to. Just walk away from anything. There might be some consequences; more often, there’s not.”
— DEREK SIVERS
Derek Sivers(@sivers) is a creative thinker who is quite hard to pin down when trying to explain who he is. Here’s a shortlist of what he’s a done musician, producer, circus performer, entrepreneur, TED speaker, and book publisher. If I could sum up who Derek is, I would say he’s a philosopher and introspective person looking to push his thinking in ways he hasn’t explored yet. He won’t hold any belief or assumption too tightly.
Originally a professional musician and circus clown, Derek created CD Baby in 1998. It became the largest seller of independent music online, with $100 million in sales for 150,000 musicians.
In 2008, Derek sold CD Baby for $22 million, giving the proceeds to a charitable trust for music education. He is a frequent speaker at the TED Conference, with more than 5 million views of his talks.
Show Notes:
(00:03:52) Derek's Background
(00:05:57) Life - Intentional and Unintentional Events
(00:07:24) Getting to Speak at TED
(00:08:46) What Did You Do Before TED
(00:10:08) Derek's Writing Process
(00:12:11) Making Life Decisions
(00:14:45) Choosing the Right Tool For The Job
(00:18:37) How Derek Views Creativity
(00:21:29) Erich's Brother's View On Creativity
(00:22:46) Is Creativity An Innate Trait?
(00:25:58) Curiosity is Very Specific and Personal
(00:29:27) You Don't Have To Do Anything
(00:32:23) Skill Acquisition and Skills Across Domains
(00:38:15) Self-Reliance and Accumulating Knowledge
(00:41:58) World Citizen and Being Comfortable With Travel
(00:48:38) Taking the First Step to Travel
(00:54:55) Work Visa Under 30
(00:59:19) Counteract Tribalism
(01:00:23) Don't Confuse Medium With The Message
(01:03:20) Acknowledge Stereotypes
(01:05:27) Separating What You Do From Who You Are
(01:06:53) Gender Stereotypes
(01:10:24) De-exaggerate the Differences
(01:14:57) Within In One Place, The Differences Feel Huge, But When You Compare Big Picture It Is Small
(01:17:26) Thinking Like A Scientist Or A Sports Fan
(01:20:09) Thoughts On Parenting
(01:24:37) Learning to Trust as a Parent
(01:27:03) Giving Advice To Strangers
(01:29:03) Personality Tests
(01:32:05) Time Focuses
(01:34:32) Stoicism and Minimalism
(01:38:42) Don't Buy Into Isms Completely
(01:39:57) Don't Hold Your Beliefs or Assumptions To Tightly
For transcripts and related links go to https://feedingcuriosity.net/podcast
