Link: https://fs.blog/knowledge-project/derek-sivers/
Notes: https://podcastnotes.org/knowledge-project/derek-sivers-on-the-knowledge-project-with-shane-parrish/
About Derek: Musician, speaker, writer and entrepreneur
Allocating Time
- Hell Yeah rule: If an activity doesn’t feel like a hell yeah for you, then don’t take it.
(However, don’t use the Hell Yes rule when you’re just starting out in your career. In the beginning, try to say yes to every opportunity.)
- “Strategically, it’s better to do 5 bigs things with your life instead of 500 half-assed things”.
Me: I’ve seen this advice from Josh Waitzkin and Marc Andreesen as well
- On curation and deciding what to read:
A lot of books are much longer than they need to be. Derek doesn’t want to read a 400-page book about diet, he wants to read one page on what to eat and what to avoid.
“If you trust the source, you don’t need all of the supporting evidence”
Me: This is a case I’ve made for curating your info sources carefully. Being thoughtful about your inputs takes effort but saves you time in the long run. This is the idea behind my post Build Your Own Cabinet
Delegation
“You know you’re a true business owner when you could leave your business for a year and come back a year later and find that it’s doing better than when you left. That’s when you’re no longer self-employed, you’re a business owner.”
The short term pain of training and delegating is acceptable if you take the long view.
Me: This is a critical point if you ever want to sell your business at a multiple. It’s a strategy that complements what potential acquisition funds look for. For example Brent Beshore’s Permanent Equity fund lists “Healthy Layer of Non-owner Management” as a one of its investment criteria.
Ideas Without Execution Are Dime A Dozen
Ideas multiplied by execution will tell you how much a company is worth.
Motivating Employees
Let employees own projects
When you offer small tweaks or suggestions to an employee who is taking initiative on an idea or project you steal some of their thunder. They lose a sense of ownership. The resultant loss of motivation is always larger than the value of the tweak. Resist the urge to make a suggestion.
A convenient development is the project usually ends up incorporating your suggestion organically as the work starts getting done and the direction becomes more clear.
Derek Has A Pragmatic, Even Post-Modern Approach To Life
“Whatever makes you take the necessary actions is the perspective that helps you. I’m never aiming for reality. I’m trying to make decisions usually based on finding the perspective that helps me take actions.”
Thinking From First Principles Is Thinking For Yourself
“To me, the world feels unnecessarily ceremonial, like people imitate others without questioning it enough, but I don’t want to learn their ways. I don’t want to be like them”
Me: I’m a big believer in the wisdom of markets, the wisdom of Lindy and that which has endured, and the value of thinking by analogy. But I think this type of thinking makes the most sense when it comes to tactics and strategy. But when it comes to choosing what you want to do with your time on Earth this is an obvious place to think from first principles. Don’t live someone else’s script.
An example of why I think this is my own experience with education where I generalized too much from the school environment to the life environment. I wrote about that in We Don’t Need No Education
The Inverted Recipe For Happiness
Inspired by Charlie Munger’s adulation of mathematician Carl Jacobi’s advice “invert, always invert”, Derek has a list called:
How To Stop Being Rich & Happy
1) Prioritize lifestyle design
Make all your dreams come true and follow your immediate gratification
2) Chase that comparison moment
Always buy that the new thing
3) Buy, not rent
Buy the house, boat, etc.
4) Internalize your new status
Celebrate your new status and relax
5) Be a connoisseur
Insist on only having the finest foods, drinks, etc.
6) Get to know your possessions
Spend more time learning about more possessions and getting them just right
7) Acclimatize to comfort
Eliminate all discomfort and blame others when life seems hard
(note: for more of a true summary of the pod you can read this version from Podcast Notes)
Finally here’s 2 short ideas from Sivers:
- How To Start A Movement (Link)
The insights he draws from this wacky little vid are tight.
1. See how “the first follower turns the lone nut into a leader”
2. Leaders should de-emphasize themselves by treating followers as equals.
- Keep Your Goals To Yourself (Link)
This short talk goes against the conventional wisdom that announcing your intentions creates motivating pressure for you to follow through.