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 and 550+ articles, published first at sive.rs, which they hand-code and keep free of advertising.
Derek Sivers did not write this page. What is this?
It collects the places they publish and what they have said there, each linked to the source. They have no account here. Is this you? Claim it, correct it, or ask us to remove it from ppll.
Where they publish
sive.rsSite The master source. Everything they make appears here first.
Hand-coded, no advertising, no tracking, and the first place everything lands — articles, their tweets, the books, notes on 430+ books they have read, and the NowNowNow and Tech Independence projects. Their own line for it: “Everything I do is here on this site.”
Link verified 3 Sept 2026.
sive.rs/blogBlog Their articles: short, heavily edited, usually under two minutes to read.
550+ articles since 2007 on deciding what to do, saying no, money, travel, programming and owning your own tools — plus the chapter-a-day serialisations of their books. Their own description of the feed is “my best edited short writing”. Has an Atom feed.
Recent
- Building without predicting 18 Aug 2026
- Prepare your “no” and keep it handy 14 May 2026
- My life was changed by four sentences in four books 12 May 2026
Show 17 more
- Geography is four-dimensional 5 May 2026
- Netizen 3 May 2026
- I was inconsiderate but now I’m everywhere 12 Mar 2026
- About my book notes 6 Mar 2026
- Offline 23 hours a day 3 Mar 2026
- What next? 9 Feb 2026
- Reframing death 8 Feb 2026
- You are what you pretend to be 7 Feb 2026
- Keep tuning and adjusting 6 Feb 2026
- Take the first step immediately 5 Feb 2026
- Why your choice is wrong 4 Feb 2026
- Talk with friends to solidify it 3 Feb 2026
- Private journal to internalize it 2 Feb 2026
- No new instructions for the computer 1 Feb 2026
- From explorer to self-leader 31 Jan 2026
- How to decide and make the best choice 30 Jan 2026
- An awesome collection of great questions 29 Jan 2026
Link verified 3 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
@siversx.com Short posts, syndicated from their own site rather than written here.
The short-form feed: a line or two, usually pointing at something new on their site. Since 2026 they mirror everything outward deliberately — the article explaining why is “I was inconsiderate but now I'm everywhere”.
Link verified 3 Sept 2026.
@d@sive.rsMastodon The same short posts, served from their own domain over ActivityPub.
Their fediverse account is hosted on their own site rather than on somebody's instance, so the handle and the archive both survive any server going away. The web version of it is the tweets page at sive.rs/d.
Link verified 3 Sept 2026.
@dereksiversYouTube Their own channel: articles and book chapters read aloud, and their talks.
Their own reading of their articles and of the chapters of Useful Not True, alongside the stage talks. Not the TED uploads, which are on TED's channel and are not theirs to publish.
Recent
- Memories are not accurate — Useful Not True (13/60) 5 Feb 2026
- That was about you, not them — Useful Not True (19/60) 5 Feb 2026
- Your first thought is an obstacle — Useful Not True (27/60) 5 Feb 2026
Show 12 more
- Five tiny tales of reframing — Useful Not True (48/60) 5 Feb 2026
- Beliefs → emotions → actions — Useful Not True (31/60) 5 Feb 2026
- Hanging inherited paintings — Useful Not True (23/60) 5 Feb 2026
- What time is it? — Useful Not True (2/60) 5 Feb 2026
- Why your choice is wrong — Useful Not True (55/60) 5 Feb 2026
- The more emotional the belief, the less likely it’s true — (26/60) 5 Feb 2026
- You are what you pretend to be — Useful Not True (58/60) 5 Feb 2026
- Which perspective empowers you? — Useful Not True (36/60) 5 Feb 2026
- Religion is action, not belief — Useful Not True (33/60) 5 Feb 2026
- People share perspectives, not facts — Useful Not True (5/60) 5 Feb 2026
- A daily run and imagination — Useful Not True (30/60) 5 Feb 2026
- Take the first step immediately — Useful Not True (56/60) 5 Feb 2026
Link verified 3 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
Derek SiversPodcast Their articles read aloud by them, one or two minutes each.
Their own voice reading their own articles — 387 episodes, most of them under two minutes. Distinct from the interviews channel below, which is other people's shows.
Recent
- What next? 9 Feb 2026
- Reframing death 8 Feb 2026
- You are what you pretend to be 7 Feb 2026
Show 17 more
- Keep tuning and adjusting 6 Feb 2026
- Take the first step immediately 5 Feb 2026
- Why your choice is wrong 4 Feb 2026
- Talk with friends to solidify it 3 Feb 2026
- Private journal to internalize it 2 Feb 2026
- No new instructions for the computer 1 Feb 2026
- From explorer to self-leader 31 Jan 2026
- How to decide and make the best choice 30 Jan 2026
- An awesome collection of great questions 29 Jan 2026
- Five tiny tales of reframing 28 Jan 2026
- Traits of useful perspectives 27 Jan 2026
- Expand your repertoire 26 Jan 2026
- Diamond in the trash 25 Jan 2026
- Answer great questions 24 Jan 2026
- Who chooses your (next) thoughts? 23 Jan 2026
- The most useful part of this book 22 Jan 2026
- Philosophies are instruments 21 Jan 2026
Link verified 3 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
sive.rs/iInterviews 250+ interviews where they were the guest, each with audio and a full transcript.
Conversations they chose to sit for, kept raw and unedited on their own site — “I keep a raw unedited copy for authentication and sharing here” — so the words can be checked against the recording rather than against someone's write-up. Every episode has a transcript.
Link verified 3 Sept 2026.
sivers.comBooks Five books, sold directly by them; all profits go to charity.
Their own bookshop, which is also where the linen and autographed hardcovers exist at all. Each book has its own page on sive.rs with the full text of many chapters posted as articles.
The books
- Useful Not True 1 Jan 2024
- How to Live 1 Jan 2021
- Hell Yeah or No 1 Jan 2020
- Your Music and People 1 Jan 2020
- Anything You Want 1 Jan 2011
Link verified 3 Sept 2026.
Beliefs
What they believeKorrents 12 beliefs, 2 changed minds — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
Contributing to the internet without monetizing it is still the right way to be online, even after the surrounding culture stopped doing it.
Like 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.
Netizen Said 3 May 2026
Solving a problem yourself, without searching or prompting, is a form of exercise -- the help makes you weaker.
My brain feels stronger because I work through the problem instead of prompting it away.
Offline 23 hours a day Said 3 Mar 2026
Long stretches of being disconnected -- no internet, no phone, no people -- are what make creative work possible.
Media silence creates a vacuum, which your own thoughts expand to fill.
Offline 23 hours a day Said 3 Mar 2026
Show 9 more
Nobody actually decides on the facts -- emotion decides and facts rationalise, so you find whatever truth is useful to you.
Emotion decides. Facts rationalize. You'll find whatever truth is useful.
What is “the truth” really for? Said 20 Jan 2026
No belief is true: the moment something is proven it stops being a belief and becomes a fact.
No beliefs are true. If a belief was proven true, it would no longer be a belief.
Beliefs are not facts Said 5 Jan 2026
Writing your thinking down in public is a form of life after death -- for human readers and for the language models that will read it too.
I'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) Said 6 Dec 2024
Wealth is what you have divided by what you want, so the reliable way to become wealthier is to want less.
Once you have some, the easiest way to increase your wealth is to decrease your needs.
Wealth = Have ÷ Want Said 27 Sept 2024
Writing one sentence per line, for your own eyes, improves prose more than any other habit.
I've been doing it for twenty years, and it improved my writing more than anything else.
Writing one sentence per line Said 20 Jun 2022
Everything you write that matters belongs in plain text files, because they are the only format that stays portable, non-commercial and readable for a lifetime.
That's why I only use plain text files. They are the most reliable, flexible, and long-lasting option.
Write plain text files Said 2 Mar 2022
Storing your own writing in a company's proprietary format is a mistake, because you will outlive the company.
You will outlive these companies. Your writing should outlive you. Depending on companies is not an option.
Write plain text files Said 2 Mar 2022
Code and files generated by tools are pollution: hand-writing them is worth the effort because the bloat slows everything down for everyone.
I prefer coding everything by hand, because I don't like the huge piles of garbage that the automated generators create.
Digital pollution Said 15 Oct 2019
Say no to anything that is not an enthusiastic yes, because a life full of half-hearted commitments leaves no room for the things worth doing.
If you're not feeling “Hell yeah, that would be awesome!” about something, say no.
If you're not feeling “hell yeah!” then say no Said 3 Jun 2018
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Latest
Full feed →Everything, newest firstFeed Posts, changes of mind, videos, appearances and beliefs from the cards above, in one stream.
Filter & sortAll sources · condensed
- Building without predicting 18 Aug
- Prepare your “no” and keep it handy 14 May
- My life was changed by four sentences in four books 12 May
- Geography is four-dimensional 5 May
- Netizen 3 May
-
Publishing only on your own site, and making people come to it, is the considerate way to share your work.
12 Mar
On changing their mindI was acting like the record producer in New Jersey, making everyone come to my website. It was inconsiderate.
Show 44 more
- I was inconsiderate but now I’m everywhere 12 Mar
- About my book notes 6 Mar
-
Long stretches of being disconnected -- no internet, no phone, no people -- are what make creative work possible.
3 Mar
WasAll the best, happiest, and most creatively productive times in my life have something in common: being disconnected.
NowMedia silence creates a vacuum, which your own thoughts expand to fill.
- Offline 23 hours a day 3 Mar
- What next? 9 Feb
- Reframing death 8 Feb
- You are what you pretend to be 7 Feb
- Keep tuning and adjusting 6 Feb
- Memories are not accurate — Useful Not True (13/60) 5 Feb
- That was about you, not them — Useful Not True (19/60) 5 Feb
- Your first thought is an obstacle — Useful Not True (27/60) 5 Feb
- Five tiny tales of reframing — Useful Not True (48/60) 5 Feb
- Beliefs → emotions → actions — Useful Not True (31/60) 5 Feb
- Hanging inherited paintings — Useful Not True (23/60) 5 Feb
- What time is it? — Useful Not True (2/60) 5 Feb
- Why your choice is wrong — Useful Not True (55/60) 5 Feb
- The more emotional the belief, the less likely it’s true — (26/60) 5 Feb
- You are what you pretend to be — Useful Not True (58/60) 5 Feb
- Religion is action, not belief — Useful Not True (33/60) 5 Feb
- Which perspective empowers you? — Useful Not True (36/60) 5 Feb
- People share perspectives, not facts — Useful Not True (5/60) 5 Feb
- Take the first step immediately — Useful Not True (56/60) 5 Feb
- A daily run and imagination — Useful Not True (30/60) 5 Feb
- Take the first step immediately 5 Feb
- Why your choice is wrong 4 Feb
- Talk with friends to solidify it 3 Feb
- Five tiny tales of reframing 28 Jan
- Traits of useful perspectives 27 Jan
- Expand your repertoire 26 Jan
- Diamond in the trash 25 Jan
- Answer great questions 24 Jan
- Who chooses your (next) thoughts? 23 Jan
- The most useful part of this book 22 Jan
- Philosophies are instruments 21 Jan
- Nobody actually decides on the facts -- emotion decides and facts rationalise, so you find whatever truth is useful to you. 20 Jan
- No belief is true: the moment something is proven it stops being a belief and becomes a fact. 5 Jan
- Writing your thinking down in public is a form of life after death -- for human readers and for the language models that will read it too. 6 Dec 2024
- Wealth is what you have divided by what you want, so the reliable way to become wealthier is to want less. 27 Sept 2024
-
Burning your bridges to force yourself forward is worth what it costs.
20 Apr 2023
On changing their mindThere's always a chance I might never see my family again. Because of that, I often regret it. It's usually best to keep options open.
- Writing one sentence per line, for your own eyes, improves prose more than any other habit. 20 Jun 2022
- Storing your own writing in a company's proprietary format is a mistake, because you will outlive the company. 2 Mar 2022
- Everything you write that matters belongs in plain text files, because they are the only format that stays portable, non-commercial and readable for a lifetime. 2 Mar 2022
- Code and files generated by tools are pollution: hand-writing them is worth the effort because the bloat slows everything down for everyone. 15 Oct 2019
- Say no to anything that is not an enthusiastic yes, because a life full of half-hearted commitments leaves no room for the things worth doing. 3 Jun 2018