In One Sentence

This is a coffee-table book with lots of great wisdom about creative work and what (not) to do in life.

Top 3 Takeaways

1. Hell Yeah or No: Every time you are asked to do something or think about starting something new, notice how you feel about this new thing. If you’re not feeling «hell yeah!» then say no.
   This starts to free your time and mind. Then when you find something you’re actually excited about, you’ll have the space in your life to give it your full attention.
   Also, saying no to things you feel half-heartedly about makes your “yes” more powerful.
   You can apply this concept to your hobbies, to your career, to people (!), to your projects, to social-media platforms, and much more.
   To figure out what is worth doing, Derek Sivers suggests asking yourself these three questions:
   • What do you hate NOT doing?
   • What scares you the most?
   • What would you be doing if you were satiated with attention, praise and money?
2. Obvious to me, amazing to others: Nowadays we have unlimited access to amazing content from all over the world. You can see all these unbelievably talented and creative people either as inspiring or as demotivating. You can think that you would never produce such amazing things because everything you do is lame and obvious. But, as Derek Sivers claims, everybody’s ideas seem obvious to them! What you think is obvious can be amazing and really helpful to other people.
   Put your idea and creations out into the world and let others decide if they see value in what you do. Even if you “only” remix an idea of someone else, it’s still valuable because it has your own unique twist and viewpoint on the matter.
   Try to think about things that you are holding back that seem to obvious to share.
   Share them!
3. Learning without doing is wasted: Sometimes, when I am “learning” something, it’s just sophisticated procrastination. I learn and read and hear all kinds of sources (books, podcasts, videos, etc.) because it makes me feel smart and I hope that it will help me in some way.
   But as long as I do not take action, this is all useless.
   I shouldn’t spend so much time getting ready and planning and learning everything for what I want to do.
   I have to start somewhere and do something.

Who Should Read This Book?

This is mostly an inspirational and motivational book. If you do any kind of creative work, this is a great book to get off the bookshelf from time to time and read a few chapters. Each chapter is a tiny wisdom written in only 1-2 pages. It helps to get a quick creativity boost.

How The Book Impacted Me

It helped me to share more things with the world and don’t care too much what people think about it. I (like many other Swiss people) think too much about how others judge the things I put online and how I am perceived by people I (barely) know.
Also I got more conscious about procrastinating by “learning”. I now try to either fully enjoy myself guilt-free or to actually learn things by actively writing down the insights I generate. Before, I would consume/learn and then forget everything again.

Best Quotes

Know why you’re doing what you’re doing. Most people don’t know and just go with the flow. Social norms are powerful. The inputs that influence you are powerful. A great talk, book, or video can instantly change how you think. Don’t pursue what someone else said you should be pursuing.

Every business wants to get you addicted to their infinite updates, pings, chats, messages, and news. But if what you want out of life is to create, then those are your obstacles.

Most people overestimate what they can do in one year, and underestimate what they can do in ten years.

Many people are so worried about looking good that they never do anything great. Many people are so worried about doing something great that they never do anything.

Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety (out of fear and need for defense) and risk (for the sake of progress and growth). Make the growth choice a dozen times a day.

Abraham Maslow

Summary & Notes

DISCLAIMER:
The following notes are my raw notes for each chapter in the book. Read them as a quick overview and not as fully fleshed-out and thought-out sentences.

1 – Updating Identity

• What would you do if you didn’t need money or attention?
• Actions, not words, reveal our real values
  • You say you want to be/do something, but you are not (doing) it -> you don’t actually want it
  • If you really wanted to do it, you would do it
  • No matter what you say, your actions reveal the truth. Your actions show what you actually want
  • Two reactions to this principle:
    1. Stop lying to yourself, and admit your real priorities
    2. Start doing what you say you want to do, and see if it’s really true
• Why are you doing?
  • Know why you’re doing what you’re doing. Most people don’t know and just go with the flow.
  • Social norms are powerful. The inputs that influence you are powerful. A great talk, book, or video can instantly change how you think. Don’t pursue what someone else said you should be pursuing.
• Are you present-focused or future-focused?
  • Idea from “The Time Paradox” by Phil Zimbardo:
    • Some people are mostly focused on the present moment. They live for today and do what feels good right now.
    • Some people are mostly focused on the future. They use today as a stepping stone and do what’s best for their future selves.
  • Present-focused people:
    • Pursue pleasure, excitement and novelty
    • Focus on immediate gratification
    • Especially appreciate life, nature and the people around them
    • Are playful, impulsive, and sensual
    • Avoid anything boring, difficult, or repetitive
    • Get fully immersed in the moment and lose track of time
    • Are more likely to use drugs and alcohol
    • Are better at helping others than helping themselves
  • Future-focused people:
    • Delay gratification
    • Are driven with self-discipline because they vividly see their future goals
    • Tend to live in their minds, picturing other selves, scenarios, and possible futures
    • Especially love their work
    • Exercise, invest, and go for preventative health exams
    • Are better at helping themselves, but worse at helping others
    • Are more likely to be successful in their careers, but often at the expense of personal relationships, which require a present focus
  • Both mindsets are necessary
    • Present-focus is needed to enjoy life
    • Too much present-focus can prevent the deeper happiness of achievement
      • Shallow vs. deep happiness
    • Once again, it’s all about balance

2 – Saying No

• If you’re not feeling «hell yeah!» then say no
  • Most of us have lives filled with mediocrity. We said yes to things that we felt half-heartedly about.
  • Say no to almost everything. This starts to free your time and mind. Then when you find something you’re actually excited about, you’ll have the space in your life to give it your full attention. Saying no makes your yes more powerful.
  • Fully commit to a few things instead of half-assing a lot of things.
  • What is worth doing:
    • What do you hate NOT doing?
    • What scares you the most?
    • What would you do if you were satiated with attention, praise and money?
• Art is useless, and so am I
  • Art is useless by definition. If it was useful, it would be a tool.
  • If you are obsessed with being useful and always thinking «How can I be the most useful to the most people today?», you have no room for art and playing and doing things just for yourself.

3 – Making Things Happen

• Disconnect
  • The best, happiest, and most creatively productive times in my life have something in common: being disconnected.
    • No internet. No TV. No phone. No people. Long uninterrupted solitude. No updates. No news. No pings. No chats. No surfing.
  • Silence is a great canvas for your thoughts. That vacuum helps turn all of your inputs into output. That lack of interruption helps you to get into flow.
  • Every business wants to get you addicted to their infinite updates, pings, chats, messages, and news. But if what you want out of life is to create, then those are your obstacles.
  • Disconnect. Even if just for a few hours. Unplug. Turn off your phone and Wi-Fi. Focus. Write. Practice. Create. That’s what’s rare and valuable these days.
  • You get no competitive edge (or Unfair Advantage) from consuming the same stuff everyone else is consuming. It’s rare, now, to focus. And it gives such better rewards.
• Imagining lots of tedious steps? Or one fun step?
  • If we hate doing something, we think of it as hard. We picture it having many annoying steps.
  • If we love doing something, it seems simple. We think of it as one fun step.
  • Even if you say you want to do something, if you catch yourself thinking about it in many tedious steps, maybe you don’t really want to do it.
  • With each new project you start, think «How many steps am I picturing?»
• Don’t be a donkey
  • “Buridan’s donkey” is standing halfway between a pile of hay and a bucket of water. It keeps looking left and right, trying to decide between hay and water. Unable to decide, it eventually dies of hunger and thirst.
  • If you are trying to pursue many different directions at once you can get frustrated because the world wants you to pick one thing, but you still want to do them all.
  • The problem is that you are thinking short term, assuming that if you don’t do all the things now, they won’t happen.
  • The solution is to think long-term. Do just one thing for a few years, then another for a few years, then another.
  • Most people overestimate what they can do in one year, and underestimate what they can do in ten years.
  • Don’t be short sighted. Don’t be a donkey that gets stuck between the hay and the water.

4 – Changing Perspective

• I assume I’m below average
  • To assume you’re below average is to admit you’re still learning. You focus on what you need to improve, not your past accomplishments. –> growth mindset
  • Many people are so worried about looking good that they never do anything great. Many people are so worried about doing something great that they never do anything.
  • You destroy that paralysis when you think of yourself as just a student, and your current actions as just practice.

5 – What’s Worth Doing?

• Obvious to me. Amazing to others.
  • You experience someone else’s innovative work. It’s beautiful, brilliant, breath-taking. You’re stunned. Their ideas are unexpected and surprising, but perfect. You think, «I never would have thought of that. How do they even come up with that? It’s genius!». «My ideas are so obvious. I’ll never be as inventive as that.»
  • But: Everybody’s ideas seem obvious to them. So maybe what’s obvious to me is amazing to someone else?
  • We are clearly bad judges or our own creations. We should just put them out there and let the world decide.
  • Are you holding back something that seems too obvious to share?
• You don’t need confidence, just contribution.
  • Learning without doing is wasted. How horrible to waste those hundreds of hours I spent learning, and not turn it into action. Like throwing good food in the trash, it’s morally wrong.
  • This isn’t about me. How I feel in this moment doesn’t matter – it will pass. Nobody’s judging me because nobody’s thinking of me. They’re just looking for ways to improve their own lives. The public me is not the real me anyway, so if they judge my public persona, that’s fine.
  • The work is the point, and my work is unique. If I can do something that people find useful, then I should. It doesn’t matter if it’s a masterpiece or not, as long as I enjoy it. I’ve got my own weird angle on things that’s a useful counter-melody in the big orchestra of life.

6 – Fixing Faulty Thinking

• The mirror: it’s about you, not them.
  • If you see a gorgeous painting that fascinates you, does it matter if you find out the artist didn’t pay her taxes? Would you stop enjoying the painting?
  • If there’s a picture of the author on the book cover, Derek Sivers rips off and trashes the cover. Don’t care who the author is. All that matters are the ideas inside the book and what you do with them.
  • The act of reading a book is really about you and what you get from it.

7 – Saying Yes

• Seeking inspiration?
  • The word «inspiration» usually means «something that mentally stimulates you». But inspiration also means to breathe in.
  • Think of yourself breathing in thoughts, filling your body with ideas. But don’t forget to breathe out.
  • People surf the web, reading pithy articles, looking for inspiration. People listen to hours of podcasts, looking for inspiration. Musicians, writers, artists, and everyone else, all scouring the world for inspiration. Breathing in, and in, and in, and in.
  • But nothing is truly inspiring unless you apply it to your work! Inspiration is not receiving information. Inspiration is applying what you’ve received.
  • Don’t only consume. Pause the input for a while and focus on your output. Breathe in, and breathe out.
• If you think you haven’t found your passion…
  • «But I haven’t found my true passion yet!» –> It’s dangerous to think in terms of «passion» and «purpose» because they sound like such huge overwhelming things.
  • Notice what excites you and what scares you on a small moment-to-moment level. If you keep thinking about doing something big, and you find that idea both terrifies and intrigues you, it’s probably a worthy endeavor for you.
  • You grow by doing what excites you and what scares you.
• Whatever scares you, go do it
  • Abraham Maslow: «Life is an ongoing process of choosing between safety (out of fear and need for defense) and risk (for the sake of progress and growth). Make the growth choice a dozen times a day.»