How to Live

27 Conflicting Answers and One Weird Conclusion

By: Derek Sivers

Narrated by: Derek Sivers

Length: 3 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Not quite non-fiction, not quite self-help. It’s a work of art about conflicting philosophies.

Many books believe they know how you should live. But each book disagrees with the next. In How to Live, each chapter believes it knows how you should live. And each chapter disagrees with the next.

One chapter makes a compelling argument for why you should be completely independent, keeping all options open. The next chapter argues why you should commit to one career, one place, and one person.

One chapter persuades you to be fully present, and experience each moment. The next, to delay gratification and invest for the future.

Which one is right? Which does the author believe? All of them. It's a philosophy of conflicting philosophies.

A very unique and thought-provoking book. Meant for reflection as much as instruction.

An incredibly succinct audiobook of profound insights. No philosophers are quoted. No -isms are named. Only actionable directives. The end result feels more like poetry than prose.

©2021 Sivers Inc (P)2021 Sivers Inc

Loved it

Love how Derek Sivers puts everything in a concise and elegant way. Loved the last chapter especially!

if you get it you get it

everything in this book is a contradiction and that's the point. great presentation of the ends of a bell curve that is called life

Mark Manson brought me here

Very much enjoyed. Lots of food for thought! Derek does at great narration, it's almost like you are having an actual conversation rather than just the basic audio book vibe.

A fan of Derek but not this book

Honestly, I feel like I wasted my time. Each answer to how to live is obviously flawed. I expected his personal final take on how to combine the good in every answer.

Odd, but interesting

I found several ideas interesting. But the many contradictions made me think it was just an odd book. This might be exactly what the author was trying to achieve. Life is full of contradictions.

Tonic for a polarised world, where nuance is out of fashion

Read this. Read this. Read this.

Honestly just read the book - brilliantly executed . Thought provoking without being condescending.

This one is wierd

I'm a huge Derek Sivers fan, but this book is pretty bizarre. A lot of the advice is great, and some is contradictory, and some is just weird.

Most people will not appreciate this

A lot of our conditioning (especially in the Western world) doesn't allow advice and inspirational/self help books to have a nuanced delivery.

Most books with self help themes are commodities of polarization and lots of people are unable to digest books on thought collections like this one. I surmised that you see lots of low ratings on this book because of this fact. We are even schooled into thinking that writing opposite ideas in one sentence, without overtly explaining that's what you are doing, is bad.

But, if you understand the author's purpose in explaining the nuances and complexity of what it means to live holistically human, you'll get his point and actually enjoy it.

The only thing I was uneasy with is his narration style. I love this author and followed much of what he's written over the years, and I understand his passion and style because of that, I think. But I can see how his deep breaths and creepy sounding forcefulness with certain phrases would be off-putting and weird for lots of folks....and for that reason I wished someone else would have narrated it.

For those of us sick of the same old thing in the books we read with how to live better as a theme, this is a nice reprieve as it includes every possible truth very clearly and the author makes you the driver of when in your life to use each piece of truth.

That's why I liked it.

Interesting way of looking at things

This is not the applicable type of advice, where you would literally do what he tells you to. It can be helpful more by affecting your perception and how you think.

Not my cup of tea

I had to stop listening after hearing “have more than one romantic partner, or none”