How to Live: 27 conflicting answers and one weird conclusion

by Derek Sivers

Go to new extremes. Try new ideas. Visit undiscovered cultures. Show what can be done.

Make great adventures, but tell greater stories. Pursue massive media attention, not for vanity or ego, but so your stories can open minds, spark imaginations, and lead to further explorations.

First, make a stage name. Create a company with the same name, and have it own all the rights to everything you do. Never reveal your real name. This is to manage the trappings of your upcoming fame.

Give away everything you haven’t used in a week. Ownership binds you to the past. Don’t get invested in any one thing. Stay immersed only in what’s coming next.

Places that resist change have no vision, only memories. Yesterday is gone for good. The past is dead. Resurrecting it makes ghosts and zombies.

Here’s how to live: Value only what has endured.

The longer something lasts, the longer it will probably last. Something that’s been around for a year will probably be around for another year.

New things have some benefits but deeper downsides like addiction, pollution, scattered focus, or wasted time.

Ignore all marketing and advertising. Nobody is pushing what really matters. Friendships, nature, family, learning, community. The best things in life aren’t things.

When people ask you about current news, proudly have no opinion. Admit you’ve given it no thought at all — and don’t plan to — because it’s not important.

Speaking, writing, gardening, accounting, persuasion, and survival skills.

The best way to live is to value only what has endured.

You get healthy by learning healthy habits. You get wealthy by learning valuable skills. You build a great interpersonal life by learning people skills. Most misery comes from not learning these things.

If you’re not embarrassed by what you thought last year, you need to learn more and faster.

Learning leaves a trail of little deaths.

You learn better when you’re having fun.

Put it in your own words without looking up or referencing what others said. If you can’t explain it yourself, you don’t know it.

Public speaking tests your writing on a real audience. Great public speaking comes from great private thinking.

Words written by someone long ago and far away can penetrate your mind. Share what you learn so it can be received by others, even when you are long gone.

Learning makes you a better person and makes the world a better place.

As you age, you’ll lose muscle and beauty, but you won’t...

Learning is how ...

Your book is the expert on how to live. It’s helped millions of people. Defer to its wisdom.

You don’t lack direction. You have too many directions. An open mind, like an open mouth, needs to eventually close on something.

Following rules is smart. It’s efficient. You don’t need to stop and re-think every situation.

Don’t follow your heart. Your heart has been hacked.

Discipline means no procrastination. Discipline means now. Choose the pain of discipline, not the pain of regret.

Your self-control is highest in the morning and diminishes during the day, so review your book’s rules every afternoon.

A good life is contribution. A good life is resisting temptation. A good life is being the best you can be. A good life is diligently following your book.

Humor is the spirit of life — a sign of a healthy, vibrant mind and soul.

Humor means using your mind beyond necessity, beyond reality, for both noticing and imagining. That’s why we admire a quick wit.

Observation, creativity, and empathy, all in an instant. What could be a better sign of a healthy mind?

Humor puts distance between an event and yourself. Comedy is tragedy plus time. Time belittles anything by showing it’s not as bad as it seemed. Humor does that instantly.

Humor helps you see the familiar from a surprising new perspective. It reminds you that there is no grand truth. Any belief can be up-ended. Every belief can be mocked. Nobody knows anything.

At every moment in life, choose whatever action or angle amuses you. Laughing at life is how to live.

Do you know what’s behind each mountain of a challenge? More mountains.

Own as little as possible. When you realize you’re dependent on something, get rid of it to prove you don’t need it. The less you have, the less you have to lose.

The only way to change your happiness is to change your beliefs.

Instead of changing the world, just change your reactions.

Detach from the outcome and be OK no matter what happens.

Shallow happy is having a donut. Deep happy is having a fit body.

Fulfillment is more fun than fun.

All of this appreciation is practice for death. When death comes, you’ll treat it with the same indifference as everything else.

Psychologists, philosophers, and religions all agree on one thing. Helping others is a better path to happiness than helping only yourself.

The most miserable people are self-absorbed. So aim to be the opposite.

Be warm, open, and fully present with everyone you encounter. Confidence attracts. Vulnerability endears.

Whenever you’re thinking something nice about someone, tell them.

Imagine if you found out someone was going to die tomorrow. Imagine how much attention, compassion, and generosity you’d give them.

You see yourself as they do: as a smaller character in a bigger picture.

Success in business comes from helping people — bringing the most happiness to the most people.