Derek Sivers — Finding Paths Less Traveled, Taking Giant Leaps, and Picking the Right “Game of Life”

Vultr Cloud Compute

Vultr

“the first thing you need is to get your own server, which is as simple as $5 a month. Go to a company I recommend called vultr.com”— Derek Sivers

Lenovo ThinkPad T400 series

Lenovo

“find an old used Lenovo ThinkPad, ideally from the T400 series. You can get these for under $200 now and they're great”— Derek Sivers

OpenBSD

OpenBSD Project (inferred)

“the operating system I'm going to recommend, the one I use is called OpenBSD”— Derek Sivers

BookMyName

BookMyName (inferred)

“My recommended place to get a domain name is a wonderfully nerdy, non-commercial site called BookMyName.com”— Derek Sivers

NETIM

NETIM (inferred)

“As a backup, I use NETIM.com. Both of these are French companies”— Derek Sivers

Porkbun

Porkbun (inferred)

“a third one in Portland, Oregon that I like called Porkbun.com. All three of these are really good, reputable places ... I recommend them”— Derek Sivers

Radicale

Radicale (inferred)

“you can set up it's called Radicale. The website is Radicale.org. It's absolutely free. Open source.”— Derek Sivers

rsync

“Every computer has this dead simple little program built into it called rsync. Macs have it built in.”— Derek Sivers

Syncthing

Syncthing (inferred)

“if you're a fan of Dropbox, there is a free replacement for Dropbox called Syncthing. Syncthing.net. It's totally free open source.”— Derek Sivers

Mailbox.org

Mailbox.org (inferred)

“The simplest, cutest little one I've found is Mailbox.org in Germany. For $1 a month they do nothing but host your email”— Derek Sivers

Fastmail

Fastmail (inferred)

“If you want the luxury full premium suite of like the best email client on earth, you go to Fastmail.com. Fastmail.com is amazing.”— Derek Sivers

Ruby programming language

“So I love the Ruby programming language. And before there was Ruby on Rails, I learned Ruby in a cabin in Sweden”— Derek Sivers

Stumbling on Happiness

Daniel Gilbert (inferred)

“After I read Stumbling on Happiness, I went, "Ooh, that was good. That was a good book."”— Derek Sivers

The Moral Landscape

Sam Harris

“go search for Sam Harris. Moral Landscape. The best TED talk I've ever seen. Ever.”— Derek Sivers

What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam

John L. Esposito (inferred)

“I recently read a book I can recommend for anybody called What Everyone [Needs to] Know About Islam. And it was really good.”— Derek Sivers

A Guide to the Good Life

William Irvine

“finally in 2010, I read A Guide to the Good Life ... Whoa! Oh, my God ... This is the way I've been thinking”— Derek Sivers

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

Dale Carnegie

“It's a great book, by the way, folks. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie.”— Tim Ferriss

The Work

Byron Katie

“There's something called "The Work" by Byron Katie, which is very much this. And I found personally very useful. Super, super useful.”— Tim Ferriss

Stardew Valley

ConcernedApe (inferred)

“If you want to play a great game that is also non-greedy ... Stardew Valley is wonderful.”— Derek Sivers

How to Get Rich

Felix Dennis

“Felix Dennis's book called How to Get Rich ... the audio book is exceptional ... I love that book.”— Tim Ferriss

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

Jack Weatherford (inferred)

“I read Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World ... Great book ... Especially the first half or so, is really exceptional.”— Tim Ferriss

Helvetica

“It wasn't Helvetica, which is a great documentary about type font typefaces and fonts and so on. Really cool doc.”— Tim Ferriss

The Art of Learning

Josh Waitzkin

“I loved his book, The Art of Learning. And I've listened to his interviews, and I really admire him.”— Derek Sivers

Saga

Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (inferred)

“He's read the Saga comic books ... Highly recommended, by the way. Saga. Best graphic novel.”— Derek Sivers

Papaoutai

Stromae

“If you guys have ever seen or go see the song "Papaoutai" by the Belgian musician Stromae ... there's a great music video for it”— Derek Sivers

The Paradox of Choice

Barry Schwartz

“if you have not read The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz, he talks about maximizers and satisficers”— Tim Ferriss

Sartorial Talks

“So I looked at Sartorial Talks — an interesting YouTube channel diving deep into like the the craft of fine clothing”— Derek Sivers

Excellent Advice for Living

Kevin Kelly

“Kevin Kelly in his new book, called Excellent Advice for Living, said, "You know how you have that bad pen? Throw out the bad pen."”— Tim Ferriss

Mailgun

Mailgun (inferred)

“for sending I actually use a service called Mailgun that just handles the sending so they take care of all the deliverability”— Derek Sivers

SendGrid

SendGrid (inferred)

“I think SendGrid does handle some of this as well ... SendGrid. Those guys have done such a good job”— Tim Ferriss

Ruby on Rails

David Heinemeier Hansson (inferred)

“there was this guy named David in Denmark who was doing something with websites and Ruby ... then Rails came out about eight months later”— Derek Sivers

Shopify

Shopify (inferred)

“I was thrilled later to find out that Tobi's little e-commerce thing was Shopify”— Derek Sivers

Wicked

“we found ourselves right in front of the West End musical, Wicked ... Yeah, let's do it. Let's go see Wicked.”— Derek Sivers

Think and Grow Rich

Napoleon Hill

“Napoleon Hill talked about the mastermind. Imagine Abraham Lincoln is there. What would Abraham Lincoln say to you?”— Derek Sivers

Somebody That I Used to Know

Gotye

“Gotye. (singing) "You didn't have to cut me out. Now you're just somebody that I used to know."”— Derek Sivers

There's Something About Mary

“I suddenly, after watching There's Something About Mary with my kid, I said, "I wonder what ever happened to her."”— Derek Sivers

The Last Emperor

“What is at the end of the movie The Last Emperor. This guy has been through this big giant arc.”— Derek Sivers

John Wick: Chapter 4

“We took him to see John Wick: Chapter 4.”— Derek Sivers