Derek Sivers

本頁 50 篇

• Bangalore India hospital flow

  I just spent many days in a hospital in India.

  2026/9/3 08:00https://sive.rs/inflow

• Reflections and Moral Maxims - by François duc de La Rochefoucauld

  Entertaining for the first few minutes, then you catch on to the formula of his little stupid sayings based on opposites. Then you notice his deeply misanthropic disgust of all people, especially women. Also this book has a weirdly verbose preface by the translator, almost as long as the contents.

  2026/9/2 08:00https://sive.rs/book/Rochefoucauld

• Building without predicting

  On a href="/2024-10-ferriss"a podcast/a, I briefly mentioned that I’m strongbuilding my dream house without predicting/strong - by living in a bare cabin in the woods, then strongadding only what I find I actually need/strong.

  2026/8/18 08:00https://sive.rs/fit

• Turkey - Culture Smart - by Charlotte McPherson

  Türkiye history and cultural understanding. One of the better books in this series. The history helps explain today’s secular/religious balance or divisions. Then manners and travel tips.

  2026/8/11 08:00https://sive.rs/book/TurkeyCS

• On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes - by Alexandra Horowitz

  Author walks around the city - usually her New York City neighborhood - with 11 different experts in different fields. Geologist, artist, sound designer, physician, child, dog, and a blind woman. Each pointing out what she hadn’t noticed. You’ll learn lots of trivia from this, but it’s fun, and makes you want to walk around a city again to try to notice these things.

  2026/7/28 08:00https://sive.rs/book/OnLooking

• Private Revolutions - by Yuan Yang

  Non-fiction story of four real women in current China, following their lives from childhood in the 1990s until 2023 when the book was published. I love her direct writing style, and the stories were pretty fascinating. A great 3rd or 4th book to help understand contemporary Chinese culture.

  2026/6/15 08:00https://sive.rs/book/ChinaFourWomen

• Writing for Emotional Impact - by Karl Iglesias

  About the craft of writing a great film screenplay. A bit tedious (with sloppy repetitive writing) but I always love these books for making me see the craft behind movies I know well, and pointing out how to use this craft to make better stories in any medium.

  2026/5/22 08:00https://sive.rs/book/WritEmotionImpact

• Prepare your “no” and keep it handy

  Someone asks you to do something, and you feel that pressure to answer immediately.

  2026/5/14 08:00https://sive.rs/n0

• My life was changed by four sentences in four books

  Last week someone asked why I prefer books.

  2026/5/12 08:00https://sive.rs/4s4b

• Geography is four-dimensional

  Forty years ago, a family moved from India to Canada, and raised their children with “Indian values”.

  2026/5/5 08:00https://sive.rs/4d

• Cambridge Language Surveys: Chinese - by Jerry Norman

  80’s book about Chinese, helped me understand how simplified Chinese writing came about: not as much top-down as bottom-up formalizing of shorthand and cursive that had been in use for centuries.

  2026/5/3 08:00https://sive.rs/book/ChineseLangJerryNorman

• Netizen

  I can relate to the original meaning of this old term that means to be good citizen of the internet.

  2026/5/3 08:00https://sive.rs/netizen

• You Can Just Do Things - by Cate Hall and Sasha Chapin

  How to be agentic - to take charge and make things happen, no matter how unusual or uncomfortable it may be. Make your world the way you ideally want it to be, instead of normal. Cate Hall embodies this, so it’s great to hear it from someone really living it instead of just writing about it.

  2026/4/26 08:00https://sive.rs/book/YouCanJustDoThings

• Travelling While Black - by Nanjala Nyabola

  Thoughts on human rights, race, gender, travel, inequality, tribe, home, visas, poverty, Kenya, Africa, and Bessie Head.

  2026/4/20 08:00https://sive.rs/book/TravellingWhileBlack

• Tribal - by Michael Morris

  I love cultural psychology. Great insights here, and examples of how change happens, on the personal level, cultural level, and even institutional level. American, but lived in Hong Kong for years and I appreciated his example of Singapore.

  2026/4/16 08:00https://sive.rs/book/Tribal

• Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness - by Patrick House

  Using the story of Anna - the patient who laughed when the surgeon stimulated parts of her brain - the author looks at the subject of consciousness from 19 different angles, writing in slightly different styles. He used the format of another book I have notes on here, titled “Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei”. Some beautiful poetic writing here.

  2026/4/8 08:00https://sive.rs/book/Conscious19

• Elephant in the Brain - by Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson

  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.

  2026/3/30 08:00https://sive.rs/book/BrainMotives

• China in Ten Words - by Yu Hua 余华

  Famous fiction author. I loved the movie from his book “To Live”. Memoir of growing up in China filtered through ten topics. Sometimes it’s cultural insights, but sometimes just his personal stories. Deep insights on “copycat” and “bamboozle”. Note those words are rough English translations of the real Chinese words he’s discussing.

  2026/3/14 08:00https://sive.rs/book/China10Words

• “Purpose” and “passion” are words we use when we’re not working.

  “Purpose” and “passion” are words we use when we’re not working.

  2026/3/13 11:22https://sive.rs/d

• I was inconsiderate but now I’m everywhere

  When I was in the music business, there was a record producer who lived in New Jersey, but refused to come into New York City.

  2026/3/12 08:00https://sive.rs/socials

• About my book notes

  At a href="/book"sive.rs/book/a I have a collection of my notes from the 420+ books I’ve read since 2007.

  2026/3/6 08:00https://sive.rs/bfaq

• Offline 23 hours a day

  Last month, I moved into my new home in the woods.

  2026/3/3 08:00https://sive.rs/off23

• Maintenance of Everything, part one - by Stewart Brand

  Because I loved his book “How Buildings Learn”, I expected a more philosophical look at maintenance, but it’s mostly a deep dive into a few specific examples of boats, guns, and cars.

  2026/3/3 08:00https://sive.rs/book/Maintenance1

• You’re Not Listening - by Kate Murphy

  Being a great listener when people speak. Deep insights about understanding, connection, helping people express themselves, overcoming assumptions, the ethics of gossip, and more. Specific techniques for the support response, encouraging elaboration, and keeping it balanced. You can’t be ethical without being a good listener. When people say, “I can’t talk right now,” what they really mean is “I can’t listen right now.”

  2026/2/25 08:00https://sive.rs/book/NotListening

• You Will Not Stampede Me - by Bryan Caplan

  Tiny blog posts about non-conformity. I love his writing in general, but these were topics that I’d already read his writing on before, or too out of my realm (like academic life) to be interesting to me.

  2026/2/17 08:00https://sive.rs/book/StampedeMe

• What next?

  I have so much more to say on this subject, but this book is done now because I believe short books are useful.

  2026/2/9 08:00https://sive.rs/u60

• Reframing death

  For the last three years, my boy and I have had a pet mouse.

  2026/2/8 08:00https://sive.rs/u59

• You are what you pretend to be

  Your outside doesn’t need to match your inside.

  2026/2/7 08:00https://sive.rs/u58

• Keep tuning and adjusting

  When I got my first guitar, the nice man at the shop put on new strings and tuned it.

  2026/2/6 08:00https://sive.rs/u57

• Take the first step immediately

  I spent basically my whole life in America, and had no desire to travel or be anywhere else.

  2026/2/5 08:00https://sive.rs/u56

• Why your choice is wrong

  No matter what choice you make, someone will tell you it’s wrong.

  2026/2/4 08:00https://sive.rs/u55

• Talk with friends to solidify it

  After you privately internalize a belief, talk about it with friends.

  2026/2/3 08:00https://sive.rs/u54

• Private journal to internalize it

  Once you find a viewpoint you want to adopt, a great tool to internalize it is a private journal.

  2026/2/2 08:00https://sive.rs/u53

• No new instructions for the computer

  You load the program into the computer, and it begins its calculations.

  2026/2/1 08:00https://sive.rs/u52

• From explorer to self-leader

  Picture the stereotype of an explorer, hundreds of years ago, on an expedition to uncharted lands.

  2026/1/31 08:00https://sive.rs/u51

• How to decide and make the best choice

  You can do anything.

  2026/1/30 08:00https://sive.rs/u50

• An awesome collection of great questions

  This is where I would share powerful questions that you can answer for big insights and change.

  2026/1/29 08:00https://sive.rs/u49

• Five tiny tales of reframing

  On the Olympic podium stood the winners of the gold, silver, and bronze medal.

  2026/1/28 08:00https://sive.rs/u48

• Kingdom of Characters - by Jing Tsu

  Since I’m learning to read and write Chinese, I thought this was going to go more into the history of the characters themselves, but it was about the technological innovations that enabled their adoption and distribution.

  2026/1/27 08:00https://sive.rs/book/KingCharacters

• Traits of useful perspectives

  To list all the beliefs I’ve found useful would fill a whole book.

  2026/1/27 08:00https://sive.rs/u47

• Expand your repertoire

  To change, reach past what comes naturally.

  2026/1/26 08:00https://sive.rs/u46

• Diamond in the trash

  When things aren’t going well, you’re in a bad state of mind.

  2026/1/25 08:00https://sive.rs/u45

• Existentialism: A Beginner’s Guide - by Thomas Wartenberg

  Light introduction to Existentialism. Points to some more important works, and gives some context. Good information and insights but written in a style that was hard for me to parse. Happy to now have my notes here after much editing.

  2026/1/5 08:00https://sive.rs/book/Existentialism

• At the Existentialist Café - by Sarah Bakewell

  More like a memoir of her re-discovery of existentialist writers. Interesting but because of it, less educational than I wanted.

  2026/1/5 08:00https://sive.rs/book/ExistentialistCafe

• Argumentative Indian - by Amartya Sen

  Famous analysis of India’s intellectual and political heritage, quite against Hindu nationalism. I learned a lot. I’d happily read ten more books like this.

  2025/12/25 08:00https://sive.rs/book/ArgumentativeIndian

• Factfulness - by Hans Rosling

  What a great man. Empathy and charity embodied. I love his worldview. Written as he was dying. Its main message is to help us see the world more accurately - to see how much it’s improved. Shows why we tend towards us-versus-them stories, the difference between frightening versus dangerous, focusing on the system.

  2025/12/12 08:00https://sive.rs/book/Factfulness

• Art of Spending Money - by Morgan Housel

  Philosophical thoughts on what to do with your money, which then relates to happiness, independence, envy, scarcity, and more. Putting money into savings is like buying independence. Imagine a 5-star chef cooks the most amazing meals for you 3× a day, every day. You’d lose the joy of a great meal since it’s no longer scarce. Implications for life?

  2025/12/5 08:00https://sive.rs/book/SpendingMoney

• Charisma Myth - by Olivia Fox Cabane

  Your body language, mannerisms, speaking habits, listening habits, all affect how you’re perceived. Many tips in here sound manipulative (to convey power, take up more space) - but are ultimately about helping your outside match your inside, for the desired effect including helping people feel more comfortable around you, more seen and understood. Empathetic advice like making sure you’re sitting at a 90° angle instead of directly across from someone, and making sure their back is not to an open

  2025/12/1 08:00https://sive.rs/book/CharismaMyth

• Rule Makers, Rule Breakers - by Michele Gelfand

  Asks the question I love: Why are different cultures that way? Focuses particularly on strict versus loose cultures, hence the title. Some of its answers were insightful, but others feel dead wrong and easy to disprove. Still, a worthy read for the good bits. I liked that they used New Zealand as a frequent example.

  2025/11/30 08:00https://sive.rs/book/RuleMakersBreakers

• How to Know a Person - by David Brooks

  First part was great - so empathetic - about how and why to really get to know someone. I skipped the middle part about difficult conversations in the Culture Wars. Last part was great, about what it is to be wise.

  2025/11/26 08:00https://sive.rs/book/KnowPerson