http://sivers.org Founder of CD Baby, talking about music, business, life. Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:44:41 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Here I am, thinking, “Just tell me what to do.” My kindred Chris Guillebeau is visiting every country in the world, on a surprisingly small budget. He shares what he's learned in two great e-books: “The Unconventional Guide to Discount Airfare” and “How to Become a Travel Ninja”. They're ... http://sivers.org/semi-expert In the comments to Version 0.1 = Start lo-fi, Larry Rood pointed out that start-up companies who have too much money often blow it. That there's an advantage to being under-funded to keep you from making mistakes. It reminds me of what it was like to have a CD Baby ... http://sivers.org/novc First read “Version ∞” and “Early drafts...”. Here's an example of how I think of “Version 0.1”: A guy at a conference was telling me how he really wanted to build a music recommendation service, but had been trying for a year to raise the $2 million dollars he said ... http://sivers.org/lofi I get so encouraged looking at early drafts of great work, thinking, “I can do that!” In this clip from “Le mystère Picasso”, you watch Picasso start with a simple scribble of a goat, then flesh it out. Not only adding textures, but changing his mind and removing things as ... http://sivers.org/early Over at Hacker News, someone asked if we could recommend any fundamental reading on internet marketing. Here is my reply: To get fundamentals and theory foundation, drop the “internet” part of your requirement. The internet is just another way to connect people. All successful marketing comes down to a fundamental understanding ... http://sivers.org/mktg101 Supply and demand: the more people do something, the less valuable it is. Everyone else is multi-tasking. Learn to single-task. Everyone else is hyper-connected. Learn to turn off your computer. Warren Buffett says one simple rule dictates his stock buying: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others ... http://sivers.org/contrarian This is a transcript of an interview done by Alex Shalman from AlexShalman.com. See his site for an overview, or here for the full version: Alex: Hello Derek Sivers, welcome to the Practical Personal Development podcast. Derek: Thanks. Hi! Alex: I heard an interview with you where you said an artist must be able to ... http://sivers.org/ppdp I love learning something that flips my head upside down. So, let's look at one of the coolest head-flippers I've found: Japanese addresses. Imagine you're standing in Chicago and a Japanese man asks you, “What's the name of this block?” Thinking you've misunderstood the question, you say, “This is Erie Street. ... http://sivers.org/jadr Here's something I'd love to dive deeper into: Why do we get some songs stuck in our head? The book “Made to Stick” analyzed it wonderfully for stories and words. But what about music? There are some songs I haven't heard in 30 years, but I can still play them in my ... http://sivers.org/whystuck For 10 years, Columbia professor Sheena Iyengar has been studying choice. For her research paper, “When Choice is Demotivating”, they ran a great test: They set up a free tasting booth in a grocery store, with six different jams. 40% of the customers stopped to taste. 30% of ... http://sivers.org/jam