Directives [Derek Sivers]

<p>Full podcast: <a href="https://tim.blog/2015/12/14/derek-sivers-on-developing-confidence-finding-happiness-and-saying-no-to-millions/">https://tim.blog/2015/12/14/derek-sivers-on-developing-confidence-finding-happiness-and-saying-no-to-millions/</a> (1h30min in)<br>Transcript: <a href="https://tim.blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/125-derek-sivers.pdf">https://tim.blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/125-derek-sivers.pdf</a> (page 34 on)</p><p>So, I’ve got to tell you, so we haven’t really talked about this yet,<br>but this is so up your alley, up your listeners’ alley, people who are<br>into books will appreciate this. So, a lot of my friends – actually, I<br>don’t think any of my friends are as into reading as I am. Okay, a<br>couple are, but most aren’t.<br>And so, whenever I tell them about some amazing book I’ve read,<br>the gist I get from my friends is, just tell me what to do.<br>Tim Ferriss: Give me the index card, yeah.<br>Derek Sivers: It’s like, yeah, like they don’t wanna read the book. So, my friend<br>Jeff, he’s a smart guy, he’s a lawyer, he’s smart. But, he just looks<br>at me with these tired eyes, and is just like, I’m not gonna read the<br>book, dude. You can stop pushing it on me, it’s never gonna<br>happen. He said, just tell me what to do, he said, I trust you. I like<br>you, you know me, so tell me what to do.<br>And, I realized that, if you trust the source, you don’t need the<br>arguments. That so much of a book is arguing its point, but often,<br>you don’t need the argument. If you trust the source, you can just<br>get the point. So, after reading, taking detailed notes on 220 books,<br>on my site, I realized that distilling wisdom into directives is so<br>valuable, but it’s so rarely done.<br>In fact, the only time I can think of that it was done was Michael<br>Pollan, with his three books in a row, about food, each one getting<br>shorter and shorter. I think the first one was, was it Omnivore’s<br>Dilemma?<br>Tim Ferriss: Omnivore’s Dilemma. Yeah.<br>Which was big, so I know you’