Derek Sivers
Who’s Derek Sivers?
Entrepreneur, writer, musician, programmer. People know me most for founding CD Baby, but more recently for my TED talks and articles at sivers.org. I’m a passionate learner and experimenter, driven to understand life better, and share what I learn. I judge myself by how much useful stuff I’ve created.
Do you have a personal Brand?
The word “brand” comes from that hot iron that owners of animals burn into their animals to indicate ownership. I don’t want the world to do that to me. I don’t want to feel confined to certiain expectations. Besides, I’m semi-retired and not looking to get more successful, so I really don’t care to be known that much more.
What does your typical day look like?
Up early. Write and read all day. Go on a long bike ride. Dinner with my wife. More writing or reading until bed. I spend most of my time in creative solitude, and love it.
What do you do in your free time?
All of my time is my own. It’s all free (as in free will). I haven’t had a job since 1992.
Current favorite apps?
urxvt, vim, xpdf and Firefox are the only things I use. I spend all day in a terminal unless I need a browser or need to read a PDF (usually programming books from pragprog.com).
What OS do you prefer?
Arch Linux! I love it! I’ve experimented with many, from OpenBSD to FreeBSD to Ubuntu Linux to Mac OS X back to Ubuntu. But they always felt too bloated full of candy (Mac and Ubuntu) or so minimal that nothing worked (OpenBSD). When I found Arch Linux, I finally felt at home. A barebones Linux that comes with nothing, but stays cutting-edge with daily pre-packaged versions of any software you want to install.
I use the RatPoison window manager, because it does nothing. No desktop, no taskbars. Everything is full-screen, and requires no mouse.
I’m in O.S. heaven. My servers all run FreeBSD, still, and that’s still my favorite server OS.
Small picture for your Workplace?
I don’t have one. Anywhere I sit.
Favorite: Food, Word, Color, Language?
Black beans, Anomie, Purple, Mandarin
Name something that has inspired you recently?
Ruby’s ability for a method to redefine itself.
class Foo def bar puts "first time you'll see this" def bar puts "every other time you'll see this" end end end
What do you prefer (and why)? Freelance work or full time employment?
Neither. No boss at all. I quit my last job in 1992 and have only been the boss/founder/head of my own ventures since. No partners, either. That means I’ve never really done anything I don’t want to do since 1992.
Retirement is also nice. I used to think “retired” just meant “only plays golf”, but now I see it means doing anything interesting and/or useful to others, but not having to worry whether it makes money or not.
Once you eliminate the need to make money, you can do all kinds of useful things! I’m trying to share everything I’ve learned before I die, in hopes it’s helpful to others.
What are your personal projects and goals for 2010?
Master Ruby on Rails, have a conversation in Mandarin, and go on a two-week bicycle trip.
One key point is that you don’t have to save millions and wait decades before you can semi-retire (most of us won’t achieve Derek’s level of success). You can live on a fairly low income especially if you’re expenses are low, in my case I paid off my house and have no debts. Move to a small town and you can buy houses fairly cheaply. Some people even rent small mini-homes or trailers in a nearby area and the rent is pretty cheap.
Helping is others is probably the most important thing you can do since most of us are just trying to survive, and you can do it while you are still working. I do lots of free guitar lessons and I focus on the fact that I am helping people and their gratefulness for the lessons, rather than the money, otherwise most would stop doing something that doesn’t ‘sell’.
Nice to know more about the person, who inspires people like me a lot!
Arch linux ftw. Although I prefer stumpwm to ratpoison. Tiling wm’s are the best. It’s hard to go back and use someone else’s desktop where windows get lost behind one another. The cognitive load is too much for some reason.
Curious to know how you got to your “retired” state. Do you think other people can do it too or did it happen mostly by serendipity?
@j_king: Started my company in 1998, but by 2002 made it so it didn’t need me to run profitably, so that felt semi-retired. Then I sold the company in 2008, and set up a trust that’ll pay me out a little income stream for life.
It was mostly just luck and persistence, but anybody can do it if they focus on setting up a system, instead of requiring their hands-on labor for income.
“Once you eliminate the need to make money, you can do all kinds of useful things!”
Love it! What a great inspiration to unsigned musicians.
@Will
Anybody can do the same as Derek and maybe even better.
Intresting article.. I enjoy helping people in need too!!! I drive a regular car, help people who are struggling, do good deeds! and good deeds come back to you!!..