I would change the format from "Do XYZ" to something like this:

*) If you want to achieve A and
*) operate under conditions B, C and D, then
*) do E.

If A, B, C and D are somewhat quantifiable/measurable, then the book will be great.

Just telling people what to do isn't helpful because different people have different goals and different conditions.

For example, the recommendation "avoid awareness of competitors" may be true for some people, but false for others (e. g. those, who are motivated by the fact that they are competing against many other people).
Great point, Dmitri. Thank you. — Derek

Brilliantly simple. I´ve been waiting for this so long. You link doesnt have "do This" just yet. Let me know if you need help with some books? https://sive.rs/book

Isn't there something sacred about reading and absorbing the entire book in order to glean the tidbit of wisdom you needed? What will we lose by snatching the epiphany without the supporting context??
Yes, of course! I always encourage everyone to read the whole book. So this is for those who will never, ever read the book. Or for those who also just like a succinct summary with a link to more info. — Derek

The percent of time and space dedicated in books, course materials, advertising, etc. to persuading the reader, listener, viewer to take action has got to be somewhere between 80-90% ... with the balance of 10-20% being allocated to your beautifully summarized 'do this' instruction. Everyone wants to know what to do, but we often need convincing the actions to take are truly worth doing. However, as you point out, if trust is already present then there's very little need for lengthy coaxing - just a brief, action-oriented list of beneficial actions, beliefs, philosophys, etc. to implement in our own personal operating systems. Couldn't be more excited to see what you've cooked up Derek!

Lol! 41 years in
The car business and I was accutely aware of my
Competitors. I studied their properties and their inventories both
In
Pricing and car condition
And mileage always prepared for a rebuttal if a customer mentioned a competitors vehicle. All done before internet!!

Hey Derek,I love the idea you have! It's great! Getting right to the point is the best way to learn instead of reading a book of over 400 pages. Don't get me wrong,I love a good book when there is time,but nowadays everybody is in such a hurry that what you have to offer makes a lot of sense! You go Mr. Sivers,Sincerely,Jose L. Ortiz Sr.

Sounds like Cliff notes!

Besides "Hell Yeah" I would also include my family-friendly "whatahey" ...

Peace!

This is a really good idea and I think it will help many people.

I look forward to this book. In the meantime, did you film and upload that 30 minute presentation?
I didn't, no. It was really awful. ☺ — Derek

You know, this just feels like (1) "do this" instead of "help yourself by learning to think this" - one-off compressed advice may not be the most useful long-term solution.

I get a "fast food" feel to this idea that grates a bit. We have enough soundbites and bumper stickers ...

Sorry.
☺ Agreed. — Derek

Derek this is a brilliant concept reading a novel and then writing down the meat of what it said. In this world of handheld divices at least my Grandchildren may get to know Huck Finn! Good luck. I love creating and brainstorming. Call on me any time!

I love the idea, especially considering that, as you said, you have to sift through so many pages to get a few nuggets of wisdom/direction. I think it would be great if you did it as a book categorized under different, common themes. Management, Productivity, etc. so readers can view it in a nonlinear fashion based on what they're up for reading that particular day/week/month.

Great idea Derek. Many of us simply don't have the time to read a good book. I look forward to this.

Hi Derek:
Implementing your insight into the lone nut and the first follower has helped me a lot. Instead of trying to be Mick I am now playing Keith to people who do Mick better than I do, and it's really, really great. So thanks very much for that.

But I'm not sure that I could have gotten that insight from the tagline: "Leadership requires a lone nut AND a first follower--be one and find the other." I think: the story (video in this case) is not the illustration of the point. Rather, the "point" is a description of the story. The story is alive and undeniable. The interpretation is secondary, external, and intellectual (and possibly incorrect, or irrelevant, although in the case of your ted talk I personally got a lot from it).

My point is: I'm not sure it's wise to try to divorce the story from its "meaning," as if the "meaning" is the "message." A person may SAY she wants simpler messages, but that's probably laziness talking, rather than her true spiritual need. And in these days when the rule is bowing one's head 5 (or 50) times a day not toward Mecca but toward the cell phone, I think it's important to take a stand, welcome or not, about the difference between wants and needs.

Whether or not you can sell a book that promises to make life more difficult rather than easier is another matter. But maybe the question needs to be asked, what actually makes life BETTER, rather than what advice can be implemented most efficiently.

Maybe. I don't know!!

Anyway, below is a an excerpt from a longer passage from SK about making things harder rather than easier. I found it by googling "making life more difficult," but I first read it in Walter Kaufmann's "Existentialism from Dostevski to Sartre." If you don't already know it I think you'll dig it!

Keep it rocking!
Ben

So there I sat and smoked my cigar until I lapsed into thought. Among other thoughts I remember these: “You are going on,” I said to myself, “to become an old man, without being anything, and without really undertaking to do anything. On the other hand, wherever you look about you, in literature and in life, you see the celebrated names and figures, the precious and much heralded men who are coming into prominence and are much talked about, the many benefactors of the age who know how to benefit mankind by making life easier and easier, some by railways, others by omnibuses and steamboats, others by the telegraph, others by easily apprehended compendiums and short recitals of everything worth knowing, and finally the true benefactors of the age who make spiritual existence in virtue of thought easier and easier, yet more and more significant. And what are you doing?”

Here my soliloquy was interrupted, for my cigar was smoked out and a new one had to be lit. So I smoked again, and then suddenly this thought flashed through my mind, “You must do something, but inasmuch as with your limited capacities it will be impossible to make anything easier than it has become, you must, with the same humanitarian enthusiasm as the others, undertake to make something harder.”

This notion pleased me immensely, and at the same time it flattered me to think that I, like the rest of them, would be loved and esteemed by the whole community. For when all combine in every way to make everything easier, there remains only one possible danger, namely, that the ease becomes altogether too great; then there is only one want left, though it is not yet a felt want, when people will want difficulty. Out of love for mankind, and out of despair at my embarrassing situation, seeing that I had accomplished nothing and was unable to make anything easier than it had already been made, and moved by a genuine interest in those who make everything easy, I conceived it as my task to create difficulties everywhere.

Wow! Thanks for the great thoughtful reply, Ben! Great points. — Derek

One more thought. Figure a way to make the high points text messages. Kids will read it that way. Hey Derek this is Mark Twain coming at you. I'd like to introduce you to my good friend Huck Finn. Then Huck sends a text..in his way of speaking. Be very cool to allow the kid an opportunity to ask Huck questions with an algorithm program. There is nothing thought up that cannot be done. How cool would it be to text characters out of books and get a response?

I'm the same way. With recipes. I post them on Facebook so I know where they are. I email them to myself. I print them and stick them in a folder. Then I buy ingredients and forget which recipe it is for or where I put it. I guess Pinterest is the way to go to have everything up at once. Except I never took the time to figure that out. If you do, perhaps you can "pin" those directives. I am interested in them, wherever you choose to display.

This is a great idea. As an entrepreneur, I constantly get recommendations for books to read, which is great, but can also get to the point where instead of reading all of them, I get overwhelmed by the volume of recommendations and read none of them. I think if a trusted source like Derek can give me his concise thoughts on a book, it would increase the chances of me A) Executing the lessons; B) Reading the book. Particularly if he was consistently making those concise recommendations on one blog.

Derek,

I personally think it is a great idea to compress directives. Most people just want the meat and not the bones.

Gerod

Derek,
You have a fine mind and know how to present in a user friendly way! Good job and keep up the good work.
Speaking of sharing good things, please allow me to share something good with your viewing audience:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/KingsXecutioner/347386598788469?sk=app_470868196288052

Rock-n-Roll everyone...

I like the blog format idea! :D

That is a great idea. Once distilled to just action do you see a lot of overlap? Maybe you'll end up with a meta list of actions as supported by more than one book. And finally you'll re-expand this meta list to a full blown book...

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer

Derek, the older I get, the more I want things abbreviated or find myself saying " get to the point, for god's sake " So, yes, I like your direction. My answer to the question about introverts or extroverts would be to say " don't believe your own bullshit ".

Hope that helps ;-)

Derek,

Sounds great. Looking forward to seeing you turn your book notes into notes with more actionable wisdom.

Idea: Start by posting 1 thought per day for 365 days straight? you could send this via email every morning for your audience to read

Idea: Tim Ferris has his 5-bullet friday, perhaps you do something similar and post 5 ideas each Friday? that way your not emailing your audience everyday but they still get the same amount of info.

Hi Derek:
You are truly an amazing soul. I just read your updates re: Singapore, NZ, etc.
I really enjoyed the nature and energy of NZ especially South Island. You've done so very much to help the world, and especially by launching CD Baby which has helped so many thousands of independent artists like myself, as recored labels are quickly dissolving. I can't thank you enough for your enterpreneurship and for expanding your horizons in such an adventurous way.
Blessings and love always,
Aeoliah

Hi Derek,
Okay, you asked for this...I like your digest idea, however, even your clip/directive was too long at "So good they can't ignore you". You seem to reiterate the same idea over and over a couple of times. Am I a victim of mutli-tasking / short attention span? I feel as though I got the idea of the book in the first 1/3 of your 'directive'. Hope this helps!

I would buy this book. Seriously. Best idea ever!

Superb idea Derek. I've been wanting this for years. Nugetized advice without all the hyperbole (great as it may be in some cases.) How about a mobile phone app? Something like "word a day" it would dispense a "do this today" each morning. Then it would be there all day long in your pocket, bag or case to remind you. There could be a thumbs up/down feature for the ones that really resonate with you and you could collect this information to find out which pieces of advice people find most compelling.

I thought u just faded away. Glad to see your still thinking . Much respect and admiration is going your way. Keep well. Peace. Martin kenny. Former crybaby client.

Hi Derek, thanks for sharing your new project. Here you have my 2cents.

The capacity of a standard brain to retain "plain data" is pretty reduced. We need some emotions envolved in it, and for that... we need some context. This is why one is able to summarize a book after reading it, because one remembers the stories, and from them, she extracts the lessons. IMHO, reading one advice after the other will not give the opportunity to the reader (if it's a human :p) to retain them, as it lacks of context/emotions.

I think the list "JTMWTD" is and will be of great value for someone that has already read the book and from it will recall the message, put it in context and refresh her mind. On the other hand, it may help to have an overall idea about what a book is about for someone who hasn't read it... but the message will be (often) incomplete...

In conclusion, JTMWTD would be:
- perfect for people who wants to follow some rules without knowing why, and for robots
- excellent for readers that have already read it
- very good for searchers of books to read

Thanks for the huge work, and also for the invaluable list of rated and summarized books!

Hey Derek,
After 27 years in this business I decided to do the same thing. Keep it simple and enjoy. I've published my infomation on Linkedin letting those interested enjoy my experience for free. ebooks to follow. Enjoyed your insights for a lot of years
Jim Bruce
Talent Agent

Wow! Amazing resource.

I would be nice if you also had just the list of books with a link to each page of notes. That way we could scan the list and click on the ones that interest us.

Thanks so much for doing this.

I don't get it? I tired , I read and re-read your proposition ? I'm sure you had some definite point to make in the comparison of extrovert and introverts , but it wasn't obvious to me . Success does not entirely mean fulfillment .

a songwriting axiom - Don't bore us, get to the chorus.

Too much intro. Just start with the examples.

I think it's a prescient idea in an age when we're overwhelmed with information. I myself have been thinking about "How can I condense all the information I have access to into something meaningful." Turning books into directives is a terrific idea that can overflow into other eras of life - photographs, music, articles, etc. One of the biggest challenges of the future is to create meaning in an age of over-information. Nicely done.

Great idea Derek. Stunning actually. Your a 'goer' and I hope this goes well for you....

fiona

You are always innovative Derek. I think one video blog about each. "DO THIS". A book with TO DO topics is also a great way to follow the video blogs.

Then do it!
Sounds like it'll be a great book!
Travis
www.freestyleguitar.com
and Author

Hi Derek -

It has been a lot of years of watching you do your amazing work, since you launched CD Baby. This is a great idea. You are probably aware but, if not, should take a look at Brian Johnson's Philosopher's Notes for a similar model - and another great guy.

On another note, I am collecting some very short video testimonials as part of the WHYMusicCampaign.com. I would love to get one from you - telling a story of how music has been essential to helping you overcome adversity or create a successful and fulfilling life. I can send you a deck to describe the campaign if you would like.
Keep up the inspiring work my brother - the world needs you.
With Respect and Gratitude,

Frank
FrankFitzpatrick.com
Thanks for the reminder, Frank! I'm a fan of Brian's Philosopher Notes. — Derek

I love the whole get to the point with directives idea. Sometimes you have good intentions and really want to do something but when you have to read for an hour to get to the nugget it can be frustrating. One idea at a time is genius!

Hi Derek,
Great idea! I don't know the numbers but there are millions of people out there with a version of ADD / ADHD
that "get stuck" and whatever it is that's in our path , no matter how basic or simple becomes like driving in Tokyo for someone who doesn't drive or read Japanese. I used to work with Michael Nesmith (excuse the name drop) and in the heat of some creative effort he would go "and the short answer is?" A couple of years ago my wife saw that I was stuck (I was writing a song) and she said "when you don't know what to do, do what's in front of you" which I used as a lyric and finished the song. One more example is a song by a guy I used to play guitar for back in the day, his song was called "Direct Me" and if I can find a version of either my song or his I will send you the mp3 (if it's okay). I think you have a major hit on your hands. As I think about it, the possibilities are vast.
I am truly excited for you, good work!

Love this idea, Derek. I've always enjoyed your book recommendations and insights.

Fascinating! I do this, too, but with two variations: 1, I principally do this for quantitative tasks, like recipes for food; 2, I do it across a topic, with advice from many different sources compressed into one *consensus* document.

Bravo and well done. Your voice continues to get my attention over decades of knowing one another.

I love it. Having followed your many projects since the launch of CDbaby, I can honestly say I think you're on to something that will help my generation and the many behind me learn how to DO. That's one thing that all the reading in the world won't help with if you don't step back and look at it the way you are here. I'm in the middle of launching a startup and just reading what's on this page has stimulated a way of thinking and perspective that often times I forget about when I'm immersed in a new project. Thanks!

Thanks Derek, I'm always reading 2 or 3 books at the same time anyway, so I can appreciate an 'abridged' version of an interesting book.
You're phenomenal!

Hi Derek,

I've been your fan for long.

I think this new project has a big weakness. In fact, it may be futile if your goal is to "make change in people".

Here's why.

Everybody knows "how to" aspect of something but they FAIL to do it.

The reason is not "lack of knowledge" BUT "lack of conviction".

And, "directives" CANNOT create conviction.

An example. I read a great book on D3 by Jeff T Bowles. I started mega dosage of D3 and at 52 I felt better (more energetic, healthier) than in my 20s. I gave high dosage of vitamins to my parents and my 2 children--everybody got unexpected good results.

I told about D3 to several friends. But, hardly anyone tried.

Another example, I read Linus Pauling's book in 1989. He suggested at least 3 g of vitamin C, preferably 6g /day or even 10g/ day. But, I started taking only 1g (RDA was 40mg).
I go this realization only in the past year that I was unwilling to "fully trust" Linus Pauling and follow his advice. I had to tweak it.

So, to create CONVICTION, a lot of facts and stories have to be given and in the process the reader has to invest many hours or even days to digest the information and build conviction without which "there will be no action".

I now at this age feel, what you are planning to do will make people sound smarter at discussion, but will not compel or motivate enough to take even small actions.

Raj
Great point! — Derek

I really like the idea. I agree it would be useful to have sort of a MED a la Tim Ferriss for a lot of books etc. I've ended up often creating my own One-Pager for the books with really good ideas that I want to remember. However, there's always the danger that the inherent wisdom of an idea has surrounding context which is important and maybe you can only acquire if you read the whole thing. Often, I'll remember surrounding examples, anecdotes, or case-studies in reference to the heuristic I've acquired. Often it's the story that contains the wisdom that is really sticky from a memory standpoint.

That said, I think something like this would be really useful. There are definitely times when I just want the cheat-sheet and don't want to have to read a whole text just to get the salient points. I would trust someone like yourself to be able to synthesize something like this for the rest of us.

Great idea. I've been doing that for years. I call them book summaries. I read with a highlighter and when I'm done the book I go back and transfer the highlights to a Word doc. Usually one or two pagers. I lost many of them when I switched computers but I have 20 I could donate to your collection if you thought it might help.

Sounds interesting. I would buy that book. I have a constant need for learning and knowledge but less and less time to accomplish that. And what I want to learn more about covers a broad range.
On another note, how are ya hon?
Are you doing any music these days?
Hope all is lovely in your world..
Hugs

Were I you, and I am not, I would take the morsels of wisdom I have gleaned from books (and why stop there) life's lessons, and I would merely write a book title "And This I Now Know" (or something you think up) and have chapters titled by the particular book - and write what made you read it, anything that happened whilst reading it, pepper it with excerpts that you loved (or hated) and tell us why it meant something to you. You are a good writer (I wrote you a fan letter about your copywriting at CD Baby) and I think it could be a short book, with short chapters, that would be a provocative read. I would be curious to turn to a chapter (i.e titled "Tipping Point") and see what parts impacted you as opposed to what I thought important. Some people would read your book to remember there own experiences and others to simply cull from yours. Since I am also a writer, you can't be surprised that I just re-wrote you.
Best of luck with this. I will give it a read, whatever it ends up to be (if it's less than 250 pages).
Cheers,
Kristi Kane
Thanks Kristi. That is essentially the idea. — Derek

Forget directives. Forget the books. Love your family and friends. Maximize the time with them and enrich their lives as much as you can. If today was your last day, what would matter the most?

Let's make an app 'Do This'!

I love this and can't wait to really get into it bro…

to your point of knowing the competition, I say it good not to know, I've had so many people that get bogged down in a life of comparison of others, when they were doing great when they were unaware.I've had students that gave up on a good path because they saw someone that was already ahead of them and it caused them to feel they would never catch up.
not everyone is this way, but it is true in a lot of cases, "What you don't know can help you".
Go for it bro…

I'm digging it. This is DEFINITELY something that will be useful to me. I'm always struggling to simplify and remove the filler.

Many books I've read, especially self-help books, left me with the impression that these books
should have been pamphlets.

I like the concept. "Do This" as a title has no call to action or indication of the books intent. Try:
Easy Grip Advice
Boiled Down Words
Deflate and Focus
Readable Advice
Mnemonic Advice
The idea itself is great!

Dear Derek, I too get bored by too much detail. Get to the point. However, I will come across a book or speaker able to easily hold my attention past three minutes. It comes down to if the subject clicks.

Derek, You're a great musician! And with heart being more important than intellect, why not sing your one liners? We can then remember them, too! I'm not suggesting making haiku's or anything that fits into an existing format. Just sing your line. A Derek:), folks will call it!
"Friend, have you heard the new Derek 24?" "Yes, yes, but so far, nothing has surpassed the Derek 16 for me!" (sung: avoid awareness of competitors... avoidavoidavoid.... sixteeen!(out).
Most folks can memorize a treasured melody, especially it if turns their life around for the better!
Well, that's just one suggestion among your 1000's of eager repliers!
Thanks for all the great thinking, reading, writing, creating, musicing, earning, giving and giving back you have done for complete strangers and friends for decades now! Jane

Way to go derek keep up this good work you're obviously progressing dont give up there's more miracles on the way

Wow what a great idea Derek

Hi Derek,
Great stuff.
I read about a book a week...pen in hand.
Love your idea!
How could it be different from Book Abstracts. I like the concept of THREE.

1. What is the point of the author?
2. What does it mean for you?
3. Now DO this:

Another approach might be what I call: Look (observe) Learn (interpret) and Live! (action)

Hope this helps.
Rock on!
Adam Christing
Author of Your Life is a Joke

Listen to your heart. EAT AIR. Go raw.
Food is an illusion. If the BUDDAH can do it, so can I.. We are One Soul . There is no right or wrong. Everything is knowledge. Nothing is chance. Follow your heart which leads to the rainbow.

Keeping up with so much information online, TV, magazines, news...then to sit down and read a book of 300 pages is daunting and I'm an information junkie! (I just skimmed your intro...)
I tend to read bits and pieces of information but focus on my own projects first... / So your condenced version idea is a good one.

...and let me know if you want to collaborate! i'm pretty fast at these ...already singing the Derek 16!

It's hard I think because the context is sometimes necessary for the full effect to happen. Depends on what your goals are. Most people receiving the most to-dos? Or deep effective influence with each to do, no matter how many people it reaches.

Different goals will lead you to different approaches.

An app that showed one directive a day would be something I would love. One could spend the day absorbing and applying the content.

It's a great idea for people like me that don't have a good memory. I don't read many books, mostly articles or just the chapter I'm trying to learn on a subject. Have a good week Derek. Dave

I am excited about this idea -- I constantly dismay about the fact that 99% of authors don't write like you and Seth Godin (succinctness = impact).

That said, I also like the first commenter here, this sounds like an app, to be browsable. Enter a condition and objective, and get the relevant advices. The other nice thing about is that it can be expanded any time, and perhaps be open to contributions from others. It's a web site!

I am a big fan of this idea, mostly because life's pace has changed tremendously in the past decade +, and humanity does not seem to have the time nor the patience to absorb important information with all the infinite distractions around us these days.

I congratulate Derek's efforts, and look forward to reading that book if it does come out. We tend to assimilate ideas in different ways, and I love the way he thinks/ 'metabolizes' ideas.

As a final thought, wonder if Derek knows about Brian Johnson's Philosophers Notes? It's very neat what this guy is doing ! https://brianjohnson.me/philosophersnotes/

All my best !
- Clarice.

Sounds like a really good concept. Concise is good. Not too much info at once. Everybody bombards you with so much info on every topic. It is overwhelming. And makes people just tune out. Give it a try! Like the book idea.
Would it have certain defined topics? Or subjects? For example. Making CDs . I plan to make 2 more to add to my 8 and it has been 11 years since my last one. Going out to record Oct 1 . Could use some updated info on it! Good luck. Caren

Oh, I think you are absolutely on to something. I don't have the time to read all the comments so if this has been mentioned already, I apologize. I see that you could turn it into a daily "Do This" mailer. 5 days a week (need 40 more summaries to fill a whole year of Mon-Fr) then repeat. By the end of that year, the early ones will have been forgotten and your readers will be glad to be reminded. You can turn it into a book, "DoThisBaby--365 book summaries by Derek Sievers," and categorize the summaries. I'd buy that. I'd open the email, too. I would want both because I'd like a reference. I would keep every entry as absolutely short as possible. This seems perfect for our time. You could even solicit people to submit their books for consideration.

This sounds like an interesting idea, and I'd like to see what you can do with it-- I suspect it will work better for some books than others. I've been impressed with your ideas, though, ever since meeting you at the WCS Conferences a few years ago, and I'd like to continue on your e-mail list, to see what happens with this.

Derek you're a smart man. I always enjoy your thoughts. BTW, cdbaby remains as a great and trusted music distributor in the digital age. I know that youre not there any more but it was your "baby".

This stuff is dynamite. Perfect for the short-attention-span age, or more specifically, for the alert and wise person who simply does not have time to "read books".

Thank you, Sam McNally.

This would be great for an ebook, where you have both the advice and an expansion link to the text that you are advising from.

Free $$$ advice for the day - I will resist putting in the time and energy to explain why, since I'm sure you can figure it out yourself ;)

Hi Derek,
Glad to hear from you!
To me, the power of your art has been about showing, not telling. I'm sure a book entitled "Do This" will sell, but I wonder if a book titled and formatted for "See this" might not be even more popular for much longer with a deeper impact?

Example: boil down complex thoughts to short, memorable stories that resonate. Perhaps even find these stories yourself to create something altogether new.

I'm obsessed with fighting the Victorian telling ways, so perhaps I'm just an oddball. But, I really respect your life's work and would personally hate to see it go the way of listicles and such.

I think you can monetise those notes -- just in a deeper way.

I hope this note makes sense.
Peace,
Todd

My initial reaction was to make a correlation between what you said and what I know. After studying and continuing to study for many years, I see how it is I learn best and that is in small bites. Short explanations work for me.

Derek, I'm loving this.

I'm about to turn 65, and I feel that I have a million more things to do in my remaining time. I seldom buy whole books on these topics, saving my in-depth reading time for fiction (with much of it spent instead playing online Scrabble! ). So I very much enjoy anything that distills a great thinker's ideas. And I'm the kind of person who really will DO things I'm told, if they come from a respected source, or, in this case, distilled by a respected source. That of course would be you.

As a writer, I feel somewhat guilty for not purchasing and especially for not reading the entire works. With so much about life these days being fragmented, i suppose the acquisition of knowledge is no different.

I don't think too many people out there are feeling guilty about the fact that my songwriting royalty income has crashed to the tune of 95% with the advent of streaming. Music is free to them, and that, as they say, is that. Oops, I digress.

I feel your idea here is to do a service to humanity. To pass along good ideas. Which is what you've always done anyway. But for me, this could be your best idea yet. It is a highly-compatible-within-the-zeitgeist way to help people. I say GO.

With admiration,
Rob Meurer

"Do X because Y"
would result in more use than
"Do X"
...because...
it gives the reader the ability to gauge the significance of such action for themselves.

It's like delegation. What do you tell someone you delegate a task to, to make sure it gets done appropriately.

This goes in the same direction as Daren's https://sive.rs/2do#comment-51910

Nice to hear from you, Derek. Thaddeus Golas' Lazy Mans Guide To Enlightenment was my introduction to higher persuits. And since it might be accurate to say that most people get most of their their information passively and distilled via facebook et al, this is perfectly timed. I love it and will read it.
Thanks again,
S.D.

A little book please!!

Looking forward to your thought grinder smoothies!

THANK FOR YOUR WONDERFUL EMAIL!

Hello Derek, great idea, a condensed book " straight to the point" it's time consuming like you were saying to write the notes down. But I know it will pay off in the end. Great idea!
Much Love
RICHARD
https://www.psychicmediumspasoffshow.net

For many years now I've been compiling information into text files as well. It's generally pared down to the essentials. However, I keep articles around in folders in case someone needs more information to support it. When it comes to an advice compilation, the best approach is likely to make sure it is mostly or entirely stuff that you've done yourself and verified as things that work. That's pretty tough to do in a human lifetime, so maybe there could be a way to identify what you've done (or people you know have done). The dangerous claims are the types of things that show up in tabloids (like fad diets) for which 'experts' change their minds seemingly every month. On the other hand, if there are things out there that have truly proven to be useful to you, then certainly they're worth mentioning. My dad has a book on wood shop construction from around the 1940s. It's packed full of super-useful information and suggests to me that they certainly don't write them like they used to. Sadly I think quite a bit of the very essential knowledge is lost. The elderly seem to have a huge amount of useful information packed away in their brains that they may never write down. It could very well be lost with them. Rather unfortunate actually.

Anyway, I think what you're doing is really cool. I guess one hurdle that you might run into is that it's tough to lead people to information that they'll actually read (even when it's a quick read). Most people tend to kind of 'find' things when they need them. For that reason, a resource like Archive.org is pretty awesome.

In my own experience, I've tried to get rabbit owners to read a quick guide that I wrote based on my over 40 years of caring for pet rabbits. It's free information. It could greatly improve the life of their pet, but it's still a challenge to get them to stop and read it. I've yet to really figure out the solution to that sort of selective information 'phobia'.

Again though, I've found web searches and places like archive.org to be really cool. So maybe part of the secret is in the search engine for the information that you compile?

The last note that I should mention is that I do think it's worthwhile having additional hyperlinked info for those that need it. I only mention this based on history and political science courses that I've taken in the past. Certain major figures in history wrote short-hand treatises. The problem was that many of their quotes were so short that the context of what they were talking about was lost. For example, "Avoid awareness of competitors" as listed above. Without the back-story for this, someone might misinterpret this.
Thanks for the great reply, Jared. Great points. — Derek

You're an inspiration, Derek. You have an ideas and DO something with them, and then share your sharpened idea with others. Thanks you.
This particular idea reminds me of an English class as a Rutgers' freshman. The TA (you get teaching assistants, not professors, freshman year) came in and told us to write a full page on any topic. We all thought and scribbled our work. Then, with five minutes left in the class, he said condense the full page down to twenty-five words. Best class I ever had.

Hi Derek,

It depends upon what your goal is. A huge amount of work has already gone into each book with a writer, editor and marketing department. Does each other really intend in each work to supply a directive? If they did they would have done so. When Chabon wrote the 64 line book it was clearly his intention.

What would be interesting to me anyway is to hear what you got from the book. If the book led to a quickly describable action for you then I'm interested in hearing that. If we're reading you it's because we're interested in your experience and opinion. Then you're speaking about yourself rather than trying to psychically translate an author into an index card.

I think it will most likely act as a way into reading more of someone like me and the web and blogs are perfect for that.

As far as a directive removed from the work itself? Sounds a bit like blind faith or religion to just take a sentence on someone else's say so.

Hope life is wonderful for you these days. Let me know if you're heading to the Bay.

Heather

Oh! Those are the exact thoughts that I have. Influenced by your note taking, I have also been taking notes every single time I read (except for fiction - but even then, I still write down gems of insights). And like you, after having hundreds of notes lying around, it comes to a point where I become quickly overwhelmed. How do I actually put those insights into actions? What should I actually be doing with these knowledge?

I do think turning them into a book will be interesting. Perhaps, instead of "directives" consider publishing them as aphorisms? Nassim Nicholas Taleb has a wonderful book and the best I have read so far was by Publilius Syrus. Aphorisms are not meant to be read in one go (from my understanding); rather, it is to be chewed on and digested, as suggested by Francis Bacon. So, your "Avoid awareness of competitors" will be something that can be mulled over for days as readers like myself ponder upon the truth of this observation, and how it applies to my situation.

I wish the best for your project!

Derek it is not often you read a blog post that you find yourself getting excited the deeper you read (or maybe this happens all the time and I am reading the wrong blogs)
Regardless I LOVE this idea
I would but Do This in a heartbeat.
Anything you want is one of my favourite business books in the past 8 years (and if you think I am blowing smoke... Nope... You share that company with How to eat a lobster, predictably irrational, the little red book of selling and Strengths finder 2.0)

I look forward to these

Hi Derek,

I like the direction in which this is going!

Since I have a learning disability qualifying for accomodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (I passed the CPA exam with accomodations. BTW, I don't practice public accounting.) reading a book from cover to cover doesn't always work for me. So having the directives is an attractive option to not reading at all. I do love taking notes on books when possible, but time is short. Thanks for inspiring me to take notes.
Glenn

thank you ☺

I like the concept of extracting the essence of the core concept of a book, however, here are my pros and cons:

Pros:
1. Saves time
2. Can get lots of key data quickly

Cons:
1. The core concept is valued less as it came so quickly.
2. Books (like music albums) get relegated to "singles" and streaming sound bites

Sure, I don't have the time to read all the great books that are out there, but when I do read one, the supporting anecdotes are the perfect balance for the lesson(s) learned and presented in the text. Sometimes, the anecdote IS the lesson so there's no shortcut there.

As for the title... it should be more along the lines of "what" rather than "do," i.e., DK's byte-sized super-condensed books.

My thoughts...
RMT

Often a "Do This" book has made it's point in the Forward. It's important for a theory to be backed with facts, but often, there is something instinctual that resonates with the reader, and then the facts support what rings true for the reader after that aha moment. I love that you would like to share what rings true for you, and that the reader can go as deeply into the topic that she wants. It's very Talmudic.

Hi Derek,
(It's been a long, long time since the CD Baby years.)
Having given some thought to your idea of sharing pearls of wisdom that you have gleaned from your copious reading, the operative word, I believe in this instance, is "sharing."

Given that you have so much to offer, and yet, not knowing how it might be accepted, my recommendation would be not to write as a "do this," but rather as a "this is what I have learned, and maybe it might be helpful to you."

It's important to realize that we are all so different, and see things from so many different perspectives, that one can only offer "as a gift," that which has been good for you, and in the hopes that others can find these pieces of "knowing," or "know-hows," can also be of use to them.

I wish you luck in however you choose to proceed, and would look for the book when it's finished.

This is interesting. I think the value of this is that they will be tidbits "through Derek's eyes". I like the way Derek thinks, so I _want_ to see through his eyes. That's where the value is for me.

That said, if you read a book, you have thoughts that may not actually come from the book itself. They are _your_ thoughts.

I can't wait to see what you come up with Derek. I think it would be cool to see this too from the perspective of other great modern day thinkers.

Great idea, Derek. I love that you're generous with sharing your secret ingredients with us. Thank you 😀

I like the "observations" more than the directives :)

Natural Healing Encyclopedias allow one to browse through symptoms to find listing of the varyingly effectiveness of "attested" natural cures.

Not everyone knows "where" to go for "what" goal, but most are familiar with "falling short" and know that characteristically, something's "not quite right".

Hey Derek,
I just put together a book pulling the lessons out of arguments i had on facebook. It reads like short sayings. I would be happy to share a link to the manuscript if you'd like to see it. It is called FEEL: No one can tell you how to

this project sounds boss. I think you could take it a step forward and build an interactive site compiling this kind of wisdom. Because it strikes me also as a technique for sharing and storing lessons...

Thanks for sharing,
Josh Cole, Feelings Detective

Again another awesome idea that can change/inspire and give direction to those who take the time to read and apply the teachings.
I also like the title, because at the end of the day we can read as many books as we want but it is not until we 'do' what we have read that the change begins. And if we can read what we need to do in 5 min, then we can choose to 'do' and seek more info if we want.

Awesome work Derek, keep it up.

I'm interested to see what comes next.. though I wonder if quantity will translate to quality and people will be truly inspired toward lasting change. I think that's what you're going for. Social media already encourages us to live our lives in sound bites, photo albums and memories. Sometimes we miss the "real" living.

I have bookmarked your books page. I have a great deal of difficulty reading these days because, I assume, of my ADHD. This is a godsend —says this atheist. Thanks!

Interesting concept. I look forward to reading more of your work on this.

HI Derek,

I am an American and I live in Canada. I there is one thing I noticed about Canadians is that they love books. Why not write your book and market it in Canada?

Best,

Dave

I think that you should turn them into an e-book!!?

I loved the ending of Fahrenheit 451. Each older person WAS a book and they were reciting the book to a younger person so the younger person would commit it to memory and, henceforth, BE the book.
I love the idea of doing talks on, say, 2 books that represent 2 markedly different view points and distilling them down to their 'do this' and pitting one 'do this' against the other in a compelling talk
I'm free associating, if you can't tell.

I don't know about you, but I feel every every view point is valuable. Black and white. Up and down. But it's the voicing of the viewpoints where the ideas congeal for the listener.

Impressive, Derek. Reminds me of Gates Notes. Thanks for sharing this, and for the opportunity to sign up to your private list for future additions.

Cheers...JIm

Great idea! How about releasing one per week on Sunday morning. Then follow up with something that has them checking to see if they have internalized the concept. Two or three times during the week ought to do it.
Go back and see if people remember last week's Do This.

I would install this if it was a mobile app that gave me one notification per day, with a link to 'learn more'

Thanks for sharing this info with us!!!!

Your ideas are so exciting, thanks for getting this one out there.

Like comments #1 and #63, I'd buy, gift, and use such a book if it had some context for intention. (Made clear to me when I felt a flaw in your "competitors" example, above, since the thought seemed to be about The Number of Competitors, specifically.)

Since you asked...
[please excuse my lame examples]:

Consider a Seth's "...Your Turn"-sized paperback/workbook that comes with a pen, and (along with the book's title, author, info, etc.), each page would hold:
1) Your directive
["eat real food"]
2) The author's intent in an "if then, then that" context
["if you reach for a snack, make it real food that can rot"]
3) How you've applied this directive in your life, with a lean example
["now that I keep my favorite green apples where the chips were, I can eat real food when I reach for a snack"]
4) A simple fill-in-the-blanks form to help the Reader imagine how they'd apply it to her own life...
["I'll be more likely to choose to eat real food if I _____________."]

If read all sorts of summaries, one-liners, books of proverbs, etc., but only when I'm asked (or ask my clients) to imagine and write down how I might place the thought into my own daily life -- only then does it stick.

And while I like many things about your "Do THIS" title idea, as a contrary sort, I may use that as part of the subtitle, or consider a title that invites engagement, like:

"If You Want ____, Do ____" --
Useful Directives Culled From the Books You'd Benefit from Reading but Keep Putting Off, by Derek Sivers

And please, start a list for those who want to be your beta readers, proofers, cheerleaders. (But do monetize this idea; your time, skill, and talent are valuable... AND people tend to act on an investment more often than on free advice!)

Awesome idea, thanks for getting us all excited!
Great examples. Thank you! — Derek

Hey Derek, great to hear from you and GREAT IDEA! I'm on the road currently and will look deeper into your creation upon return. I'm going through the same thing, only with a different focus. Talk soon.
Best of Life, Steve

I like this format for Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, with expandable and collapsible bullet points:

http://tractatus-online.appspot.com/Tractatus/jonathan/index.html

I think that format could work very well for what you're proposing: some people could just skim the takeaways, but others could expand the points to find the explanations.

Being dyslectic and visually impaired, I'm always looking for short cuts that work for me. This sounds promising.

Keep up the great work!

Use an email autoresponder to release one directive a day via email. People can subscribe to the list for free or a fee, whatever you choose.

Sounds like something that could work for me. Put me on

Sounds really good. With all this tech we are overwhelmed with good info. Cliff notes of sorts are really valuable when referenced to the original works for deeper understanding. I would imagine the trick is to keep some sort of "journalistic integrity" as you do it.
Good luck. Many thanks! Always enjoy hearing from you.
Matt

Brilliant! I can think of quite a few right off-hand I'd prefer condensed. Sometimes the info is great, but the author...um....not so much in the telling or giving directions.
c

Just do this!

☺

Great Idea, it reminds me of the Daily Word by Unity Church. If I thought about it without knowing what was already out there, I would do this: Build a site that was interactive and Pearls of Wisdom could be exposed like an encyclopaedia. And the more you interacted with it the more personal it would become. Your very on Physiologist.

When you turn an observation into advice you create distortion. Take for instance your quote: “Behavioral psychologists Stephen M. Garcia and Avishalom Tor showed that merely knowing there are more competitors in a competition decreases our performance.”

Wouldn't the correct advice to give here be: Avoid knowing how many people you are competing against? More to the point, in what context did they show this and is it broadly applicable? Is this advice for a single competition? The people who are at or near the top of their fields probably don't care how many people are in the competition because they know that there are perhaps only a few competitors at their level. And they would do well to be aware of those people because they will likely be pitted against them and might want to know their weaknesses.
Thanks for bringing this up, Jim. I think about this a lot: the usefulness of broad simplifications. 10 Commandments example: “Don’t kill.” It could also add, “… unless it’s necessary in defense. Or if the person is terminally ill and asks you to help them die in peace. Or a handful of other exceptions. Oh and we’re only referring to humans; kill lesser things all you want.” Instead, we understand that succinct directives are rules of thumb, not all-emcompassing law. Folksy, not comprehensive. — Derek

Derek, I'm signing up for your private email list.
Have you paid any attention to the climate crisis? It appears there's no solution; if that's not challenging enough what is?

My wife wrote a song about it:
"Goodbye Cool World" at
thecantrells.bandcamp.com

Ebook be great

This sounds awesome. Bring it on!

Hi Derek-I love that ever-percolating mind of yours. This sounds like a useful approach for distilling and retaining directives gleaned from non-fiction. However, I can see the value in extending your process to those veiled pearls of wisdom tucked into works of fiction. These authors' directives may be seamlessly embedded in plot and description but nonetheless, worth adding to the toolbox. Just imagine what could be distilled from the likes of Hermann Hesse.

Cool idea man.

Perhaps not every nugget of wisdom can be distilled into a directive. For the introvert/extrovert example (which doesn't necessarily lead to a directive), summarizing would convey the wisdom. For example:

"People tend to selectively remember events which associate them with a group they view as successful."

I dunno, just a thought. Coalescing non-binary conclusions into a directive would seem to be a problem.

Best of luck to you brother.

Derek, I agree that your idea is brilliant for summarizing self-books, which sometimes contain too much fluff just to wiggle their way up to book length for the sake of finding a publisher.

In terms of sterling literature, to keep the genre alive, how about writing "Ponder This" study guides for teachers and encouraging them to assign the actual books rather than offering short-cuts students can find online? Maybe as your sequel?

As a manufacturing engineer, I have many occasions to tell shop floor personnel how to complete a task; for example, welding a subassembly in a certain order is important because if you don't, the piece parts may warp too far in one direction to complete the weldment by the time you get to the last portion. Telling them the "why" of something gives them ownership of the ENTIRE process beyond just the request or order to do the job, without the dreaded "because I said so, that's why" attitude coming across (whether intended or not). A little positive psychology among peers goes a long way, and is appreciated because it doesn't happen often enough! I think that including the "why" component is important, because in reality, the "just tell me what to do" synopsis you're describing is really coming from the other direction unsolicited in many cases ("you should do THIS because..."). That's my take on it. Interesting project - thanks for sharing!

Derek:
I love this idea. I listen to a lot of books on audible. Some of them are 12 hours long or longer. Some I love so much I will buy the book after to use as reference. Some of the books that I don't care for much I wish I would have had a synopsis on them prior to see if I'd want to purchase it. That's what I'd use it for!
Keep me posted!
Allie

Love it. I buy tons of books too: self-help, nutrition, Michael Pollan, you name it, and the idea of distilling advice is perfect. And overlooked. I too have explored film and books as vehicles for my little thoughts & insights....but too overwhelming. Please continue and just tell me.

Hi Derek I like the idea but.... Similar to Blinkist app?

Be well.
A.J.

I think you're onto something... I'd probably read every post. I might want to maintain some sort of ordered list of advice for myself to keep coming back to. Maybe others would too. Maybe you could incorporate something to help people do that in your concept. Maybe it's complicating things too much.

Hi Derek!
So good to hear from you again! ☺
Great idea!.. An idea full of idea's..!!
Hey. Here's another one. You could make a calender, with your name and your ideas ..one for each day! ..Just an idea...
anyways..Take good care Derek!
Rachel ☺

Hi Derek:
It's a great idea which should prove popular within particular market segments. For my part, however, being naturally analytical, the directives would be inadequate. I'd prefer to read the entire narrative and think through the rationale. That said, I'm curious to see the product.

Every good wish!

My first reaction is "that's strange." I respect you because of how you developed CD Baby and communicated personally with artists, so I'm interested in what you're doing. But I have never liked self help books. I don't find life's challenges to be black and white with linear solutions. They are more like learning to forgive or overcome fear. These are my lessons based on my experiences. Your idea seems over-simple. 🎵🎵🎵

Basically sounds good!

There are times when people need answers quickly, but there are also many times when people really need the full understanding before they act so as not to create more problems somewhere else due to what they did with the basics!

Very cool idea. Just be careful not to change the original meaning when you condense because sometimes it really does take a few extra words to communicate effectively. The example of "avoid awareness of competitors" mirrors the concept, but then it begs the question, "How?" Perhaps it could be changed to something like "Avoid awareness of competitors by focusing totally on the task at hand."

As for the following, “Half a group was shown ..." This is a perfect example of
superfluous poo. Studies that manipulate participants are, in and of themselves, flawed and the conclusions can be endless. Tighten up questions and examples if you insist on surveys or studies. Otherwise, you end of up answers that are so generalized they become meaningless.

I like the comments from a few readers to separate advice by categories. This heightens the usefulness of these bon mots of advice and eliminates readers having the terror of actually reading through everything. Pollen's rule book is an excellent example but, like most books of this sort, it has no genuine context. Done right, though, it can inspire readers to pursue more information. That's the catch!

As a fan, I recognize that you can do this at this point in your career because you have, in fact, taken the time, made the effort, and expended the thought to read, analyze and apply what you've read to your own personal objectives. This is how leaders and innovators "work." Followers who are non-readers or who avoid reading in depth will love it. They will never, be original thinkers.

Hey Derek,

So nice to hear from you!... Seems like it has been a while. ☺

Wow, Wow, Wow! Nice book list... And thank you so much, for rating, and sharing your notes on all of them!

Question?... Do you believe, that depending on where someone is right now, and what they already know, may influence how they would rate these books, compared to how you rate them?

I could see a book that is a 2 or 3 for you, maybe being a 7 or 8 for me? What are your thoughts?...

One last question... What comes to mind, as far as a book on being happy?... I feel I don't enjoy things enough, that I take things too seriously, and that I am not as happy as I could be.

Thanks,
Eric
Yes! I totally agree. And check out Stumbling on Happiness — Derek

Yes! Love this idea, and I will be sure to subscribe. You rock.

Hi Derek - thank you for this brilliant inititive - unfortunately in today's crazy paced world there just isn't enough time to dedicte hours ploughing through creative content, just to glean a few moments of inspiration- and sadly while we do dedicte our valuable time to reading, watching movies or listening to music, the rest of the world is racing ahead at speed .
I believe that EVERYTHING is too long nowadays- and it's only a matter of time that percieved standards for lengths of songs, books, tv shows, movies will become shorter - I already witness it in how my teenage songs absorb music - they skip ahead after two minutes, often before the even get to " the hook" - but they don't know what "the hook" is, because they never get there, so in essence they're not missing anything - I could go on...I've been trying to launch a music format based on this conundrum for years...shorter is better and will go someway to changing the concern of how streaming caninablises sales - thanks again for the inspiration-
Cheers Dave Thompson- Australia

Love it. I'd love just a tad bit more info... the why. So in your example, I'd turn this:

“Behavioral psychologists Stephen M. Garcia and Avishalom Tor showed that merely knowing there are more competitors in a competition decreases our performance.”

— into this:
“Avoid awareness of competitors to keep your performance from decreasing.”

I'd just need that tiny bit more of information to trust that the advice applies to me. I'd likely follow that advice. But I might not follow this:
“Avoid awareness of competitors to avoid the temptation to collaborate,” because that doesn't agree with my personal approach.

Just a thought. Either way I think it's an awesome, generous, ambitious project and I'm so grateful to you for giving me access to it. Thank you!

What is lacking in our post-modern society is the ability to concentrate. Those of us who watch television and stream videos are experiencing a deficit in attention span. Fortunately, the afflicted can always find distillations of reasoned arguments. Synopses come to the rescue; no need to form your own opinion, just take the advice of someone who's done the research and supports your confirmation bias. Great literature is not for the masses. Just buy the Cliff Notes and pass your classes.

Advise: Know thyself, whether introvert or extrovert play to your attributes.

Hi Derek. I think sharing summaries is a great way to help others to find the books that they may really get something out of if they read them in their entirety. Standard book reviews rarely tell you the salient points the author is trying to get across, I guess maybe because it's either seen as a spoiler or publishers are thinking no one will buy the book if they already know the punchlines? However I think it is more likely to encourage further reading.
I would organise your book summaries by topics (business tips, art practice, personal happiness, understanding others' thinking, etc.) to make it easier for readers to navigate to the topics of interest to them. Good luck with your endeavour :)

Sounds like a great idea.

Mr. Sivers,

I can’t even BEGIN to tell you how excited I was to receive your e-mail. Having just graduated USC with my Music Business degree, I have begun the adventure of job hunting and interviewing at various companies (just had an interview at UMG this Wednesday!). In-between working at a car dealership full-time until I officially land that first job in the music industry to start my career, I have spent every free moment after work at Barns and Noble ABSORBING self-help books. I related so much to your “Just tell me what to do” post, I felt like I was reading an article about my own life. I haven’t been able to afford buying all of these books to build my own library, so instead after work I go sit at the Starbucks inside Barns and Noble and read, taking copious notes along the way in various journals trying to grab as many life lessons as I possibly can. I have tabs upon tabs on my iPhone of organized articles from Time Magazine, Buzzfeed, and the like listing the “35 Books Everyone Should Read in Their Lifetime”, books for financial success, interview tips, etc.

In addition to learning great lessons, I have a note on my iPhone dedicated to “Lessons I’ve Learned The Hard Way”, where every mistake, misstep, or funky life situation I’ve encountered, I document to remind myself how to avoid these little hiccups and life lessons to turn them into positive ones for the future. In fact, USC just published an article I read this morning called “Failure really IS good for you: Brain scans reveal how we learn from our mistakes given time” (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3210651/Failure-really-good-Brain-scans-reveal-learn-mistakes-given-time.html).

I think your idea of having a running blog, or even a book called “Do this” is brilliant and absolutely something that would help so many people from all walks of life. Although reading hundreds and hundreds of pages of self help books is a little daunting, I personally enjoy reading a book in it’s entirety as I feel it gives me a deeper connection and adds more meaning to what I’ve learned. For example: I read this article on Time Magazine (“7 Summer Reads for the Curious Mind” http://time.com/3993881/summer-reads/). The only book I’ve read so far from the list (because it was offered as a free PDF on the article) was “Obvious Adams: The Story of a Successful Businessman. I’m not sure if you’ve read this book before, but Time Magazine gave a quick summary that was a perfect description of the book: “In a nutshell the book represents the mindset that ‘avoiding stupidity’ is easier than seeking brilliance. It’s amazing what we see when we focus on the obvious insights that we’re missing because we’re trying too hard to grasp the esoteric”. Now while this was an accurate description and the “Just tell me what to do” lesson was essentially Occam’s Razor (which I interpret as the simplest solution is usually the best solution) it totally misses the heart and charm that Obvious Adams gives off when read in it’s entirety. The story and heart behind getting attached to the main character, Obvious Adams” gave me a new perspective on what seems like such simple lessons “look for the obvious answer”.

As you asked for any other ideas in your post, my biggest thought I wanted to pass along to you was to maybe consider some way to keep the true essence and heart of a book in your summaries. While every life lesson can be boiled down to the core fundamental “Just tell me what to do” directive, I think some of the best lessons I’ve learned in life are the ones that have a story behind them. Maybe I’m just sentimental. I’m sure there are a lot of people would rather cut to the chase and find the shortcuts to being the best versions of themselves. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing, I think it’s wonderful and I would ABSOLUTELY love to read “Do this” because I think the concept and execution of compressing books into directives would be invaluable. I just feel that if you can somehow include the little witty stories behind the lesson to add more impact might really set the lessons above and beyond simple adages.

Just throwing ideas out there…maybe “Just tell me what to do” is a running blog that gives your synopsis one idea at a time as you stated, and “Do this” becomes a full fledged book that maybe has excerpts from the various books you’ve read in addition to your synopsis for those who wanted to delve in a little deeper?

I wanted to take some time to really think through and come up with more ideas, but I was just too excited when I read your e-mail that I had to respond right away. If I think of anything more, or if you would like to discuss anything I would be more than happy to stay in touch! Please know that your idea is SO INCREDIBLE and I can’t wait to keep up with your blog, continue to grow, and hopefully add a bunch more books to my reading list based on your posts!

Take care,

Natasha Miraya

i like my "word of the day" email from dictionary.com so maybe you could do it that way.


reid

I enjoyed your thoughts abut compressing ideas into a smaller text.
Today many people prefer shorter books so you have betters odds that your readers will complete the reading of your thoughts.
When I compose music I end up eventually compressing my thoughts into smaller ideas.
I am getting a very positive response from performers and radio stations. In radio the program directors look for mor succinct music- at most 4 minutes long. I keep this in mind as I compose and develop ideas.

I design houses. I often have to deal with clients who demand efficiency - no wasted space. I tell them that often it's the "wasted" space that gives the house it's character. A sense of the unexpected. A bit of artistry or soul. It's the way the spaces are linked and the travel between purposes that define character. Maybe you can find some use in exploring the space between your directives.

Yes, I like the idea of not having to read 250 to 400 pages to get the golden nugget(s) of advice in the book.
On the other hand I'm not really looking for advice.
That said I did absolutely enjoy reading your book "Anything You Want". Even tried to get friends to read it. So yes I will buy a copy of your new directives book.

For years I also have been collecting things worth remembering and acting on... but they are on scraps of paper in a drawer that I haven't often opened. I would love to read your collection and would pay a pretty penny. Wish I had known about your work earlier. Thank you!

Kinda like how music has shifted to the Single again, instead of the album. The consumer looks for it, but the artists are taking their sweet time in delivering...

I confess I don't really understand what you are trying to accomplish. You seem to be trying to come up with some sort of scientific formula to assure what might be determined success with various projects; perhaps a foolproof formula for succeeding in a variety of endeavors. Certainly there can be no such simple formula for success at any and every endeavor. Indeed, a good failure or two works wonders for certain people who know how to learn from their mistakes. Outlining a set of rules for success does not take into account any number of variables that may present themselves quite unexpectedly, and can easily send the most ambitious person back to the drawing board. Good luck with this one.

Yes! This is a novel idea, Derek! (no pun intended lol). "Derek's Directives Digest - Condensed Version". Think there is a need for something like this.

As for every individual reading - goals and conditions will always be different. One would hope common sense and logic would help figure what be applicable to meet their needs and situation.

I didn't have time to read much but I'm thinking it would be nice to have someone read everything I want to know and just tell me when I ask. I just recorded a short synopses on shibumi and wabi sabi and will be putting one on my web site for Kriya Yoga. I like the idea that someone can being doing something else and just listen. Wish I could have recorded this for you. Enjoy !

That's a strange looking Bonsai

I think you should do exactly what you have done. But the Title should be ...

"Tell me what to do!"

which was your 1st name for the results. The reader is looking for direction. ~ Jack

This is timely and brilliant. Unfortunately. Cliff notes would explain every chapter but "Do this" gets right to the point. Create one for the E-Myth. Wow. Actually don't. Perhaps figure out how to create an AI program that can read through the books and find the "todos" for all of us :)

This is a great idea & you have inspired me to do the same. I always take detailed notes when I read, but other than the occasional review, I don't really use those notes. Now I know what to do!
I look forward to reading your thoughts.

I read a lot of books and a lot of great ideas go in one ear and out the other. I like the idea of being able to go back to what I know was a good book and find the nuggets that I've forgotten. I imagine these nuggets would sit in the "Just Do This" category.
All ways interesting to hear what your up to.
Cheers Alan

Great ! I just wrote a Book for Children - www.gofundme.com/wvb5dr4
This is to Foster conversation from Parents to Children , Letters of the alphabet - A to Z List of Animals and much more.

Gonna be a great blog, Derek. Sometimes reading the whole book allows one to get closer to the writer and establish a "relation" though

I love how this exercise can make your learning more accessible.

Accessible to YOU for sure. You don't really know something till you do it. This repetition is more likely to end in action.

Profitable too. Reader cry out for something simple, will buy the same idea again and again if presented well. (I use the word "profitable" to mean "positive results" though it work for money too:)

Unfortunately, most of this this good is lost on the reader who doesn't do the work you've done to improve their own minds.

One hopes that the succinct presentation will result in action. And that's always profitable.

I also read voraciously and distill the wisdom into imperatives. The issue for me is prioritizing. In your "Do This" book it might be helpful to have some kind of interactive index that allows the reader to access the directives in an individualized manner. Just an idea...

This plays right into our desire for immediate knowledge without wisdom. We went to be given all the answers without putting forth any effort.

Probably easy to monetize but not as useful for someone wanting real knowledge. It's too easy, read it and forget it.

Don't you think the things you struggled to understand in a book are more memorable than the list of rules from Food Rules?

I suppose it's what people want these days.

Great idea for those with short attention span. (most of us)

Method Cards?

I think it is a great way to find out if I want to further investigate something new! Though there is a bit of mystery and excitement lost, I believe it would inspire me to soak up a broader pallet without the risk of distractions;)

What a great idea. Succinct. I like it.

Good idea :)

Hufffff... It would be a really weird book.
( negative statement )

Trusting someone or something blindly is really really really dangerous.

I prefer the idea : "Try it. If it works for you, do it. If it doesn't, don't do it.
Or give someone general idea to explore on his/her own.

"Since then I never pay any attention to anything by "experts." I calculate everything myself.
When people said the quark theory was pretty good, I got two Ph. D.s, Finn Ravndal and Mark Kislinger, to go through the whole works with me, just so I could check that the thing was really giving results that fit fairly well, and that it was a significantly good theory. I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. Of course, you only live one life, and you make all your mistakes, and learn what not to do, and that's the end of you."
--Richard Feynman

"Don’t ever get too attached to a way of solving problems. Don’t confuse a tool,
even a very good one, with knowing something. Concentrate on understanding the problem, not applying the tool. Use any tool that will help move your thinking
along, know how those tools work, and keep their limitations in mind when you use them-it’s part of the responsibility of using them. If you don’t do this, if you stop
thinking and asking, if you simply believe what the ’scope says, you’re done for.
When you do that, you’re not listening to the problem, and you’re no longer designing the circuit. When you substitute faith in that instrument, no matter how good it is, for your judgment, you’re in trouble."
--Dr Stern, Jim Williams ( Linear Tech )

This is the very good Richard Feynman commencement address :
neurotheory.columbia.edu/~ken/cargo_cult.html

Are you sure you really want to hear my thoughts? Old geezer here, been around the block way too many times...but , okay, you asked for it:

First of all, I really hate telling anyone what to do, but, since you asked, here are my thoughts, for whatever they might be worth.

Second of all, I've read a heck of a lot of books, starting with Napoleon Hill, Norman Vincent Peale, and so on and so on and so on. Some useful 'stuff' in those, motivational and otherwise, as in the 'power of positive thinking', for instance. I know a fella who was into dealing cocaine, and he tried applying that to his, ahem, business, figuring that, if he thought positive enough, he'd be a monumental success. And he was, I suppose, but he inevitably wasted his 'fortune' on usage himself, and ultimately got caught and spent a heck of a lot of time in the 'joint'. So, I came to figure that the 'power of positive thinking' is 'relative', and that just thinking 'positive' isn't going to cut it. I mean, it's not like a magic wand you can wave around in the air and then, there you are, presto, instant success.

I also figured I was spending way too much time reading on how to succeed and therefore not doing what is required to actually achieve results. I now have clients coming into my studio wanting to know the 'secrets of success', and they continuously worry about it. All I can say is that, if you're looking for some monumental obscure esoteric secret, there is none. We live in a world in which predictability only works to a degree. So, I now say stop worrying about it, and just do it, and make sure you are enjoying what you do, because, if it doesn't turn out to be the 'next big thing' you want it to be, at least you've done something you can still feel good about, even though you've never made a dime from it. A good idea isn't a good idea just because it's made a lot of money. It's a good idea because it pleased you to come up with it, and you had the enjoyment of bringing it out into the light of day, and anything else beyond that is 'bonus'.

I did have a measure of success with one of my recordings, but that had nothing at all to do with sitting down and planning for it to be what it (briefly) was. That success was an accident...totally unexpected.

Furthermore, what's the point of success, in regards to what so many others, especially in the industry, consider success, if it put money in your pocket, but never satisfied you in any other way, creatively. I didn't mind parting with a manager who was always trying to direct me from the back seat, while I was doing the 'driving'. If I'd have listened to him, I would only be doing what he and others thought was commercially successful, viable, and that, in my present state of mind, is simply abhorrent, as it means having to stifle the creative spirit that would like to bring something new into being, by just taking chances, and saying 'to hell if it's commercial or not commercial. In other words, just do it and let it be what it is, for whatever it's worth, or not worth.

I am a musician, first and foremost, and I like to think of my audience as listeners, not consumers of product. And that, quite frankly, seems to be what we've been reducing music creation to...produce to be displayed like meat at the supermarket. If you want to listen to anybody, then listen to some of Frank Zappa's interviews. He nailed a lot of things on the head regarding what makes an artist an artist, or just packaged meat to be dressed and presented, in the marketplace, to 'consumers'.

Oronically, the less time you spend worrying about what will or will not be a success, and the more time you spend on actually doing something, the better the chances are anyway. Also, in my opinion anyway, it's the unpredictable nature of things that makes the 'doing' exciting in the first place.Nothing wrong in trying to predict possible outcomes, but that is all predictions are, just possibilities. For another thing, you can't always know what is possible until you've actually tried it. So many people stop the doing because they let themselves be lead into believing that what they are about to do is impossible, because some so called expert said it would be so. I'm glad to have been able to prove that former wanna be manager wrong on a number of occasions.

So who the heck am I and whadda I know? Absolutely nothing at all, until I've actually done what I'd thought of doing, and then I know. In the end, there are only so many ways it can go, up, down, left or right, but one thing is certain, if you sit there and just do nothing at all, I can guarantee that none of those options will be available. You will continue to be sitting there, right where you are, wondering why you haven't been able to move from that lonely little dot.

So, what can I say in regards to telling you what to do? If you think it's a good idea, and you don't mind taking the risk (calculated, of course) then just do it. Failure is no big deal, unless you have millions to lose, which I personally don't have to worry about, and besides, if you're not willing to risk failure, then you don't deserve whatever success.

Okay, so now you've heard from a 'self proclaimed' expert on success. I have to go now. I'm off to the Salvation Army soup kitchen and I don't want to be late. Otherwise, I'll be last in a long line up and you have no idea what they give you when they've run out of buns.

Well, you did ask for my thoughts!

Works for me. I, unfortunately, live a very purposefully short-attention-spanned day. Good or bad, that's my world right now. I dream of zen-like days where I turn everything off and read a real book, not an e-book. Anyway, I personally would appreciate someone cutting through the cruft and providing me meaningful directives. Here's the thing...I have to trust that person doing this work, and frankly, you've given me no reason not to trust you. So...go for it.

Hi Derek,

I think it's a great idea...I don't want to tell you to "do this" but here's my thought....how about a podcast? You can do a short one for each subject and people can go listen to the ones they like. I personally like and learn a lot from listening to podcasts while I paint since I'm an artist.

Cheers,
Yume

Derek,
I think this a brilliant idea! And, what I particularly like about it... its giving the person you're sharing your "do this" the benefit of a doubt that they know the direction they are going in their life.. they are making choices.. and in that "instant".. they get stuck.. and just need the answer. What is also beneficial... that after getting the answer they may just move on .. or feel compelled to get more! What a bonus... free choice! My personal preference... give me the nuts and bolts and if I choose the build the ship.. I'll decide later :)
Here's sending hugs.. and as always wishing you only the best! Francie

I'm looking forward to more of your wisdom!

It looks good!
Go ahead.
I will wait to read it!

You have good ideas but right I'm a little down in the dumps over my life in general to read anything but what I am reading which are construction estimating books,blueprint reading to teach yourself at home and a quick math reference booklet! It sounds dry but other then the royalties I receive from musicnotes. Com for sheet music sales,I've. Let the composing alone for the time. Being.
Keep up the good work and keep in touch.
Tom

I love to read books, full texts, and for many years I have read books to my wife. There is a joy for me in a well written book. An example is Tom Reiss' book The Black Count. Amazingly researched and written, I enjoy reading it to my wife every day. That is what a good book does - it educates, it amuses, it challenges, it informs, it can simply be a well written book or it can be profound.

Hi Derek,

I, sometimes, have dillema on writing advice pieces. As in real life people when they open up to us about their problems they are not really asking us for what they should do but only needed some sort of release. This is what I've observed most of the time.

But a book is different. We make a decision to buy hoping that it will solve a problem hence we expect that we'll be told what to do.

"Do This" then is a good idea. It's forceful and no nonsence.

I, like you, read a LOT! I've read most of your book list, I LOVE going to your book list to find a book I havn't read. I really think you're onto something in your idea of taking the best bits. That way I can just give that book to my husband to read :) He always says to me, you know I'm not going to read that book just tell me the best important bits. Also I love the idea of writing down the best ideas and thoughts to keep as reference... I'm going to start doing that too.

You could also do a blog a day with one great piece of advice... call it "Do this... today" :) Personally I would love that blog, then you could direct people to the book or something beyond that thought...

So a thumbs up for me on your idea! :)

I'm big on Periscope and seeing as we have lots of good things to share including Morning Meditations & Sound Healings With Ken Davis Using Crystal Singing Bowls Is Proving to be a wining formula for me to become more well known at th time of giving the meditation to thousands of phone users just aching for goodness instead of useless conversations. Maybe a Periscope first intro would be great and you will get massive amounts of hears and followers Periscope is like with twitter so no problems getting an account. Stay well Happiness Always Ken always
My Periscope name is kendavismusic

Looking forward to your notes, Derek. I also keep notes on the books that I read, but it's funny/sad how seldom I take the time to review them. Taking a month or two go through them all sounds like a very rewarding project.

Also, I think Brian Johnson (of brianjohnson.me) recently did something similar to what you're doing with book notes, but in video format, which you may want to check out.

Hi Derek,

Thanks for your email!

Distilling books is a good thinking. What you're doing is taking (hours) of the time to read + your good judgement and = condense it into minutes of high value for your readers. Many people will like it.

On the other hand, your goal, I believe, is not just consumption, but retention and usability of your "do this" series. Turning 200 books x 20 hours into 200 short books x 0.5 hour still will make it 200 individual books.
(Think turning your 200 blog posts into 200 Tweets. I'll read them faster, will surely enjoy, but will forget most of it by finishing reading the last one. )

May be you could approach it by organizing "do this" around an object, a goal? As in "Food rules".

Then even if there are 5 books with cross sections on a given topic, and you have 5 of your "Do this" short summaries, reading all of them makes more sense than reading 5 original sources, if I am interested in the topic.

The goal or object, though, has to be chosen well. Because sometimes it might affect how you distill the books into "Do this" lists.
As in your example with competition awareness: if my goal is pick performance, than advice might be "limit competition by choosing 2 specific people you compete against" rather than "try to stay unaware of competition" that'd be more appropriate for avoiding distraction.

I am interested in this because I review books for an npr station--meaning, to me, that I have to read the whole thing, but distill some meaning for the review. Once my review airs, I share it on a blog. My latest book is a challenge to read because I don't always agree with the presentation, but I know I am internalizing the guy's view of his subject. Little pieces of the meat come out in my fb posts and in conversation. What to do with those bits of wisdom we become by reading?

Right now I'm reading a {completely amazing + badass} book called Pscho Cybernetics. I was just thinking about getting all of the "do this" exercises and making them into a document kind of like your thoughts on the books.
Dan S. Kennedy does a foreword on the latest addition and it's comptrly worthy of being on your list.
BTW Ignore Everybody and Influence are two books I credit with "waking me up."
Thanks for all you do!
J.

Hi Derek

Thanks for your email. My distillation is:

Acknowledge that we are both extravert and introvert at any one time. Celebrate the greatness in both.

Incidentally, I work in retail customer service and I believe in acknowledging my competitors but not dwelling on them.

Cheers

John

Hi Derek! Great to hear from you. I like the idea of sending one idea at a time of your directives. With so many emails to sift through it daily it makes it easier to read and keep filed to re-read later! Take care and thanks, Dawn

After almost 20 years in tutoring students learning American Sign Language - they, too, did not want to read thick stacks of mind-numbing ASL linguistic books, workbooks with outdated materials & unhelpful images... so in my blogs, I began, in using layman's terms - start sharing helpful tips - listing some - some with brief explanations & a lot of materials they can research. Just got a compliment the other day that I saved a woman's research of days and hours. Now I am inspired to do more.
You're on the right track - especially in this impatient, fast-paced bombardment of lots of useless hype that we need to wade through.

Useful! If the directive is relevant, it will drive the person to read the book. Great resource Derek! Take care.

Do this - here's why.

Directive, backed by a (really) short explanation/reason of/for it.

And link to the book - or your detailed notes.

Additionally:

Make it an X-part email course, one lesson a day or week, maybe?

Link it to a discussion forum or FB group where readers can discuss and debate each directive, throwing up new insights.

(P.S. - I *always* prefer reading the lengthier explanation or analysis if it involves changing the way I think or act, or is counter-intuitive enough!)

Brilliant

Great idea! It provides a place where you can document your life lessons and also share the resources that inspired you. I certainly am interested in this. I was on CD Baby in 1996. I still am. I have always admired your journey and the appreciated the advice you've shared along the way.

I think that there is a huge industry in sifting, analysing and providing digestible versions of great books (even articles). Again, not sure "directives" are exactly the right word - perhaps "action points"?

Fascinating idea. I may not always agree with your take on things. But you inevitably start such a great dialogue.

Hi Derek,

I absolutely love this idea, I read a lot, and listen to informative podcasts and audiobooks all day long, so short, concise ideas are great.

I have found that "When the student is ready, the master will appear" so many times, I will re-read a book, and boom, a new nugget jumps out into my brain, and changes my thinking. Having a shorter "book" to go through every few months will make the process much quicker, and of course, I would be willing to pay for it, and you would make some cash out of it.

This reminds me of 59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman, a book that I often refer to.

Carry on, I love the project, and hope to see you again at WDS 2016.

Derek,
Sounds cool and right up my alley. Keep me posted.
I'm a singer/songwriter and the son of a songwriter. How are we going to make singer/songwriters relevant again. The world is hurting without them.
I've got an idea.
Somehow this happened...
Brace yourself.
☺

The Skit: (Crack open a beer and listen)
https://soundcloud.com/smgbear/stuart-getz-evil-dave-what-would-howard-do-public/s-ixXwl

The Baboon: (Song)
https://soundcloud.com/smgbear/garys-a-baboon/s-B51D3

The Jew: (Song)
https://soundcloud.com/smgbear/stuart-getz-howards-a-jew/s-XPLZR

The Show: (Stern Show)
https://soundcloud.com/smgbear/stuart-getz-howard-stern-show-5614/s-155IZ

Evil Dave Theme: (Song)
https://soundcloud.com/smgbear/evildave-theme-4wav/s-LpmZI

I've always thought there is a business in condensing books to their meat. Looks like you're doing it. However, one thing may resonate with one person while something entirely different resonates with another.

Sounds great.
Maybe app where you
get one new idea per day
You can like it or adopt it
It gets added to your adopted list
You get notified daily to review your adopted list or your top 10.
You get points when you review an item on your adopted list
When you haven't reviewed an idea for a long time it rises to top of adopted list to review.
You can add your own and share them.

I know what you are doing haha...........Is there a need in the market place??? and we are all pons in the game Ye---hawwww. Truthfully this is up my alley. I don't read because the setting, Scenery, and feel of the grey clouds and tulip flows mixed with the grumpy minded fool they are talking about bores the crud out of me. Its like the author loves themselves so much they want to read their own book. Hate it... Just friggin get to the point. "tell me what to do" . The reason yo have a following is because you are attractive as a person and with the way you write and it is if we are being talked to by you personally and we like who you are. With that in mind. If you write another book, the content will be taken far differently from you than someone else, so deliver it to small business minded people is my suggestion. The middle class that is doing all they can to be the best they can while dealing with a culture and time in life where're we as a Country are settling, tolerating and and giving our leadership away. They will then share to the others upper and lower. The world needs leaders to tell them what to do and then back it up. Interesting times and you have a great opportunity to apply it to the current affairs and how to survive when the Leadership of this Country is destroying from within. The enemy is winning and we need to know what to do. So maybe take 200 books of good crud and apply it to us pulling together as a Country and being the USA we are supposed to be. Even if you do not take sides of political aspect just remind who we are and who we want to be. Just don't be a pansy ass about it. Be bold. Ok, that rant just got ahold of me sorry. go do what you do basically.

I love that you're asking for feedback on a new idea.

The book sounds epic.

Get to it!

Eh. I'm not sold. But I'm also a writer and an avid reader, so I'm biased for the long form. I know everyone wants everything compressed into the tiniest bite so they can dash off to the next thing but... It's not a trend I'm on board with. And who's to say what's the "important information" in a book anyway? Different people glean different things - it's the reason we have book clubs that do nothing but talk about books!

Long story short (lol), I'm not sold. Sometimes to journey to the information is just as good as the information itself.

Derek,
As usual you are taking on a project most humans would never do. In my case I found that every book, magazine or article I read has one or two important to me parts. I did like you and write those down for further consideration. Good luck with this overwhelming project and please keep me informed how its going.

That's a wonderful idea. Sounds like alot of work, though. But if you're willing to do it, I'll read it!

great idea. Like a mini book review with action points. There are so many great books with so little time. I would suggest posting based on themes. I.e. Three books on productivity, three books on success, so if books have multiple themes, it's not too overwhelmingly.

The value of wisdom is it makes contextual sense. Give me a list of "to do's" from the 13th century and God help me if I try to execute them.

Further, having directives from someone else instead of using your own reasoning to interpret reality, may make life a little simpler, but it's sort of like sending poor people cases of canned tuna instead of teaching them how to fish.

Your intentions are well placed, but you might want to use the "Teach the Teacher" approach instead. Mentor a very small group--less than 10--and make sure they have an honest and passionate need to help people find a way to live a better life for themselves. Then have those people select and teach 10 others, and so on until you've filled the world with helpful people.

Hi Derek,

I think this could be a useful blog format with one major change:

Tell us a story of how you tried to apply the concept in your own life.

I know you've been trying to apply these principles anyway so if you had to write a personal anecdote (which we all know you already excel at) it would achieve two things:

1) Create a new way for you to engage with teachings you value
2) Create a much more memorable, much more readable book format

Just my two cents. Always enjoy hearing from you. Hope you're well.

Best,
Rob

Brilliant Derek!

Great idea Derek,

I believe that context is key. So rather than saying "do this /that", say "if you are in this situation, or if you want this outcome, then do this". If people don't know why, they will not attach to the advice.

Also, stories are powerful, so it might require a paraphrase of the anecdote to give the context.

I know my suggestion goes against the idea of distilling the advice to pill form, but reducing the message too far will lose impact. It is why many people stop taking medication as soon as symptoms go away - because they don't know why they got sick in the first place or what the sickness really is.

Anyway - great stuff as always Derek. Your book made it on my top 10 list for my Squidoo list of books for the curious minded.

Best of luck and have fun.

Good idea for a tear-off calendar app like
http://www.tstudio.eu/iphone/tearoff/

📅

Hey Derek, Thanks for the invite to comment re "Books into Directives!" With our fast paced lives... "less is definitely more!" I honestly have no clue, regarding the future of "longterm" READING projects, especially for our youth... who've been in "Tech Emerson", from BIRTH!

I can certainly see Short Directives, allowing much more time for instant "meditation" and/or clarification... which is really the ultimate GOAL!

So, I wish you the best Friend! This will be a very meaningful alternative for many!
Lol, Will

Hi Derek,
This is a fantastic idea. I started doing the same thing with some great books I've read over the years i.e writing down the key points. The reason I did this, similar to you, was to try and retain the wisdom in the context in which is was delivered. I'm assuming that your book would also reference the original source of the advice/wisdom so that readers could then decide to delve deeper if they wished. Thanks for sharing. Mark

Just bought food rules in kindle, I get the idea on what you propose. Something like a cheat sheet. It will work for some books where we wish we would just get the lessons without the proof - maybe it's popular or a bestseller, maybe we trust the author's credentials etc., I'm sure you'll choose the right books. Best of luck.

I have read 100 books in the past 2 years. You are a real soul brother! Thanks for the reading recommendations. I will try some of your picks!

Sounds great to me! Thx

Yours is literally the only book I've ever read and thought, "Wow, that was exactly the right length." Love the idea of distilling out the big insights.

I love the ides. I feel the same sometimes that I learn forget and learn forget even if I write down what I've learned and come to mind while reading a book.
I believe It's hard to help someone unless he/she wants to help him/herself since the one who needs to take an action is him/herself not anyone else.
But we can at least give them a lead. A quick and effective lead. And I agree that directives compressed from books should be a good lead especially when the books are chosen by someone trustworthy and well-informed.

Thank you! ;-)

This is why I love making checklists!

You can compress years of hard earned knowledge into a constantly improving and evolving checklist.

Amazing read! I get where you are going. You need conceptualize an organization "schema". Create as discrete as possible, bullet points for all of the material you feel is relevant? To each bucket of, phrases or however the tidbits, truisms, anecdotes... Etc. then within each bucket of phrase create as many levels of groups of relevant anecdotes till each bucket is organized to your licking. I would start with maybe 20 buckets labelled or titled relevantly. Then chart each bucket and analyze the relationships all the buckets have with each other. Once all the data has some definable organization that can be easily visualized. One bucket might be a set of phrase that could assist someone with a creation humanistic situation that he might be able to woddle through the bucket through some kind of search interface he or she could possibly solve life issues that are hindering them in their lives or help a friend.

Hey Derek,

This sounds like a great idea for a book. Depending on how you scope out the knowledge you are hoping to impart, it might be more like a coffee table book that people can pick up here and there, rather than a reference or text that people use to seek some specific advice.

Why not organize it in a similar manner to the Analects of Confucius or the Tao Te Ching or The Art of War? Loosely organized pieces of advice, each of which can stand on its own?

Awesome concept Derek...!

I like the idea. I enjoy books yet at times I would like to know do this.

Go for it, Derek! I would like to get a bump of inspiration or insight from your version of cliff notes on some of the great books and ideas that I DO NOT have time to read for myself.

Since you have the notes you might as well turn them into blogs and share what you learned. Maybe don't be so stuck on the formula or the strict structure of it. Just tell us what you learned and let us figure out what to do with it or if it applies to our life or career.

Keep sharing with the world, OK?

This idea leaves room for over-simplification and taking concepts out of context. That's why it takes a whole book to present one major idea. However, even an idea that is accurately skinnied down to its grit is still an author's idea, and may not be applicable for everyone. That said, I also have voluminous notes from books I've read, and I regularly refer to those authors and concepts in conversations and in pieces I write. It would be good to skinny them down and cross-reference them for retrieval by title, author, and topic. And a wiki-community of us readers/thinkers/writers adding our skinnies into an online software might benefit us all.

It reminds me of "The Secret Power of Reading Derek's Words" :)
Love your idea Derek, and your updates.

I just love getting your emails.

Always a breath of fresh air, mixed with practicality and brilliance.

Can't wait to start getting them!

Brent Carr

Derek, things that I'm interested in I'll read & read till I literally fall asleep reading. The other directive stuff sounds like one of the "now" today type things. Although to have something like that after an individual has read a full explanation and then can accesses a shorter version of the who, what, when, where, & how is invaluable. So the idea presents interest to someone like me who likes to read all the details and then be able to look the information up in an abbreviated version or just for the person who doesn't want to work so hard for the information. Thanks for reading me, Sanedy

I think it's great to condense and trim the fat while being able to go back and reference if necessary

I'm with Wayne #3

Correlates with how we actually act in the real world. Pattern recognized -> learned response. And much easier to summon some short directive when needed, then trying to remember elaborate description

I love this idea, Derek! As a librarian, I'm obviously a big lover of books, but there are so many books I want to get to and I feel guilty when I don't. This would be a manageable way of getting the best out of them while still leaving me time to read my favorites. Thank you! (I must say, however, that I can't relate to the Pollan example--I loved all three versions of those food books. The condensed version is great for refreshing and refreshing and refreshing though. ;-) Cheers! ~Su

Seems like something Bill Murray's character in the movie Saint Vincent would like - "Just give me the punchline kid!" ;o)

Hey Derek! Distilling big ideas seems like a good plan, and it can get overwhelming. What if people could choose how much info they get, maybe control the flow of info (like a spigot on a hose). It feels like you could do something that mimics nature...rivers, oceans that ebb and flow.

Another idea: control the flow of info via time devices like calendars or deliver packets of info in some sort of timed way.

Like the idea of "Do This" but if there was a way to add built-in choice points where readers could tap a video or choose to read an extended version vs the short bullet point nuggets. It feels like an interactive website rather than a book with subscriptions for just the brief stuff, the moderate explanation, or the full-on fire hose! Have fun!

CDbaby was a great idea and the same goes for this new venture, continue to move forward.

Derek,

This is a great idea. I can't tell you how many times I've read hundreds of pages just to find the payoff anti-climatic. Why didn't they say so in the first place?

If you're asking, I'm in....

Gene Oberto / Stockholm, Sweden

LOVE it. As is. I want a "Do this" book. There's already a million books for those who want the meandering versions.

Hello Derek

This sounds like a brilliant idea!

There's so much good stuff out there, but the awful truth is I'm just too lazy to get through it.

And the other awful truth is the system demands people write a 'big' book to get published, relatively few people read it (unless it's Fifty Shades...) and then a tiny amount of those go on the conference circuit and we pay lots of money to hear the nuggets we coulda just read ourselves for $20! It's a crazy world.

So anyway, great idea.

"Do this" is a better title. Or "Just do this" if you can get away with it without being sued by Nike!

You are an amazing human. Keep it up!

Anthony

Do not feel intimidated telling people what to do. This is the premise for a product's User Manual... Do This To Make This Happen.

The User Manual is condensed from a Technical Manual that will tell you to "Here's What Happens When You Do This And Here's Why". I assure you, plenty of verbiage will follow.

I alerted my wife, a professional editor, about what you're trying to do. She's paying close attention, too.

What about (Do This) For Dummies?

I like the idea, I think a reference to the book will help.

That's can also be used like this:
1) You post your just do list.
2) You encourage other people to post their just do list on the same book.

I love it, and partly am jealous because I could see myself doing this ;) I already underline and write mini notes on all my books to benefit for a quick re-read a year later in a few minutes.

I could envision this like PersonalMBA in the sense that each chapter is a directive, a succint explanation, and references to the books that inspired each.

It will be hugely valuable, and will make a lot of people read books of directives they dig (consider shorurls even in the book if you care about monetizing those sales).
Good luck and looking forward to it! It is an endless project.

hi,

I have a poor working memory so need to rely on quirky / detail (some kind of hook to hang things on) to get things fixed into my head. I think you should be experimenting and trying some different things (go wild!) - who knows what will work!

Like;
1. what about putting a few together in a story like those spiritual books (Monk ferrari / celestine prophecy etc)
2. having a character who always does it wrong first?
3. mind mapping in one word / drawings each point and creating the tree / branches / connections
4. what about linking to stereotypes of people from around the world?
5. have you read any of Dan Roam (http://www.napkinacademy.com/)? Could the ideas be a comic strip? (i.e. three squares?)
6. what would happen if you gave these ideas to an improv team - how would they act them out? (theatre groups have done the works of shakespeare in super short times - what do they do?)
7. how about focusing on one group of people, like musicians, and showing how each would look or sound to them in their life? i.e. an average day/ average decisions?

In short, I think you have an audience who will let you play - so play!

Joanne

I love the idea of blog posts but there is a second format that immediately came to my mind, Oblique card style cards. I use Oblique cards then I hit a wall and need a different point of view.

I would love to have cards with a sentence or two with a reference to the longer excerpt and the book in an app on the phone in a format that allows flipping through a few of them till I see something that is relevant right now.

Hi Derek,

I used to do the same as you did, writing the key takeaways and lessons from books and articles I've read.

Like you, I did it mostly for myself, and sometimes shared it with friends and colleagues.

Finally, I decided to put it all into my blog, as tips and posts.

I like your idea of sharing your notes with everyone.

These days, people have a very short attention span and want only the bottom line without the complete theory or detailed explanation. The Twitter way.

I for one still like to understand the theory and rational behind the conclusions and recommendations.

For others like me, I suggest you also add a link to the book/article from which the "directive" came from.

Thanks and Best Regards,
Ziv.

Nice to hear from you again, Derek. Was wondering where you'd got to.

I think what you're describing is a very 'male' thing. Reducing a book to a directive is a bit like wanting an orgasm without the chatting up, the inviting out to dinner, the first kiss and the foreplay. Removing the context can result in meaninglessness.

A curated distillation of this sort sounds great. Turn them back into a book. Or an interactive workshop.

After avoiding it for years thinking it would be too depressing and that I already knew the info I finally read The Omnivore's Dilemma. It was amazing. The detailed account of industrial corn production and the myriad ways it sneaks into things you never even considered is haunting and memorable. Sometimes information told in a story like that can stick more than "just do this or that". Also amazing, Pollan's description of going out with a hunter and killing a wild boar. It's really a remarkable book. He tells you all this absolutely awful information but somehow his tone is uplifting.
It's not a history of food, that does sound long and boring. The full title is The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.

Funnily enough, I haven't read Food Rules. I thought it sounded dumbed down and boring, plus I'm sure I know it all already. ☺

Hey I love the idea! I'd read it and follow the advice. Thanks for sharing!

Make it an online, or even a physical calendar. Each day have 3 sections: In bold, the directive. In a secondary text, a brief explanation or example. In small text, the source of the directive, credit to where you learned it and a suggestion for further reading if someone wants to explore the nuts and bolts of the directive. Publishing it as a daily directive allows the lesson to be digested and thought about. It can also be referred back to, shared and saved if it specifically speaks to you. I'd use that as my daily calendar. (Now that the Far Side doesn't publish new ones anymore). Good luck.

Do it.

That's all the comment you need, Derek.

Excellent idea...however, would not work for me...instead of worrying about competition, innovating is my goal. I enjoy reading... several books per week...focus, not speed-reading. Some people need to be told what to do. And your approach would benefit that group. Others would rather think for themselves.

Sifted Wisdom. So smart. Break it down and disseminate. I like the idea of daily bits. A book full would be spectacular. You continue to inspire, thanks.

Great idea!

Hi Derek,
Welcome back. Personally, condense it short and sweet. I would say it as this- "This worked for me" Could it work for you? It's a generalization saying : You can use the advice or you could choose not too.

We all go through life one day at a time.

Maybe structure the information around "one day" and focus more on process. (i.e. the processes that allows one to have a long and prosperous life).

Now for some random thoughts:
- In workshops, the information is split in Attitudes, Skills & Knowledge. Getting someone to change an Attitude (e.g. adopt a Growth Mindset) might have a disproportionate impact compared to a simple Knowledge bit.

- Body -> Mind -> Social. First I need to fix the holy trinity (Eat, Move, Sleep) in order to have the resources to think efficiently (heuristics) and then move to social contribution. Also, chemical imbalance in the body (e.g. depression) might sabotage everything that one might attempt.

- Tiny Habits - BJ Fogg's work on behavior change is way to important to be ignored if people actually want to DO something. My guess is that most of what they would have to do, they would have to do repeatedly.

- The Science of Wining at Life. by Luke Muehlhauser is a series of articles that might give you ideas about structuring the information.
http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/The_Science_of_Winning_at_Life

I love the way you approach things and I'm curious what you will produce with all that information. If you create a kickstarter for this project I will be one of the backers. ;)

Hi Derek,

I would like to turn your observation example into advice: develop label around identity.

I like the directive idea mixed with one idea at a time. It's simple and actionable. And I like the book title "Do This". It sounds like James Altucher's book Choose Yourself. It is memorable.

But I would like to have one short story for every directive. Not just short explanation. Without context, I couldn't find much value in the directive “Avoid awareness of competitors.”

Derek,

Great to see you keep on working.
I think you nailed the "book memory" problem description. I am a heavy reader, and I am often surprised by how quickly my mind tends to forget what I read just few months before.

What you are trying to do, is good and also very challenging for yourself.
Here are the three things that I feel would be important to your new project:

1. Pedagogical factor- the author has 300 pages of anecdotes, and all the context to make his point. You have 1 post. So your writing needs to be superb (which is usually the case in your posts). I like the idea of presenting information in the format- 1. why the topic is important? 2. what is the insight? 3. how to do it, what is the sequence of action-steps? 4. what to do now, what's the 1st step?

2. Sequence of topics- I think it makes sense to create a theme-centered series of posts. In example: 5 consecutive posts about the idea of competition in business (5 insights from the books). Otherwise there is a risk that your posts will be like "word of the day"- one day "be kind", another day "eat healthy", etc. Whereas if you create this "series-format" it will be like mini-books, with it's own narrative.

3. Knowledge is to understand, emotion is to change (author unknown, hehe). So the context and all the anecdotes can generate emotions. And that's when we switch from "aha, interesting idea" to "I need to do it". This could be a make-or-break factor for the JTMWTD to have real impact.

All the best,
I am looking forward to your work!

Kacper

Fantastic idea Derek. You might even end up writing a song/s based on these - the ultimate audiobooks! :)

There’s this urge to distill everything to its bare essence for easier assimilation. But on another hand I’d prefer the apple, not the vitamin pill derived from the apple. So yeah, I think authors ought to be more succinct but not sterile. I love your format: there's always a heartfelt personal touch, followed by a clear lesson or directive. In my opinion it doesn't get any better.

Push https://sive.rs/book to a list at
https://www.goodreads.com/list or to a Zotero group, see e.g. this random item https://www.zotero.org/groups/critlib/items/itemKey/JPNMTSRA
Zotero items could have the extracted directives as associated notes.

Like a remixable reading playlist.

Hi Derek,

I think it is a great concept to extract the core ideas of a book. I have been doing this myself on a regular basis. The core ideas of books articles etc. could be collected in a mind mapping application including quotations of the sources so it is available when needed.
All the best and thank you for sharing your thoughts! Thomas

Today people don't like to read that's a fact, even at Newspapers most of the people read only the leads (the bolded texts at the side of the articles) so your idea is a good one, but the question is how to execute it ? one option (liked by me) is the humoristic way by using comics / cartoons or caricatures‬‏ דם people will internalize the message through humor.

Great stuff Derek you are very prolific.

Of the 220 books the one with the most knowledge is God's word -the Bible.

Thomas Aquinas said " to those who believe no explanation is necessary to those who don't believe no explanation is sufficient"

Proverbs 1:7. " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, fools despise wisdom and instruction"

Derek - eternal life is promised call upon Jesus to open your mind and heart to his reality before it is to late. All the trappings of this world are meaningless and the span of our life on earth just a vapor

That's a great idea, Derek.

I think not giving precise and easy to follow advice what to do is the most important thing a lot of selp-help books are lacking.

I guess 90% of the readers of these books just read them, feel good and never change a thing. What a waste!

Derek, It sounds as though this is mainly for non-novels, books that are meant to have one objective. I have bought many books that definitely seem to be over priced to make one point yet sometimes that one point is a good one! So, I appreciate your effort to save many of us the time, energy and money. However, the publishers and authors may not be as receptive to this idea! On the other side, it also may result in increased sales of certain books by sparking more interest on a particular subject. I had an author friend try this with news. He made a website that attempted to take out the politics from the news and give some unbiased background to the story and then combine various reports on the subject. But for me this did not work because it was his interpretation of what he felt was biased, etc. The same applies here, it is your interpretation and judgement of what is important enough to be shared. This involves quite a bit of trust by your readers. Then again, it definitely is more conscientious than depending on a reviewer who has other objectives. It would be more thorough and thoughtful. In the end it sounds like it would be a book club of sorts, people who trust you to share your finds. It only can help keep people informed and inspired, especially since it seems to be coming from a genuine place.

I love the idea of condensing the gold nuggets. The cited source is always available for a deeper dive. When I run long distances, I come home with spiritual nuggets. I used to keep a list, but that list got buried under other lists. The key to your topic here is the directive. Do this. Self learners, entrepreneurs, artists, etc. are used to this way of thinking. A system for helping us organize/share found wisdom, not just from books, could be iteresting.

People no longer has the attention span to focus on the twists and the turns to get to their destination, they just wanna get there.

Presenting your books, presenting the meat and the potato is perfect. Just tell me what I need to know now, no history, no mystery, I can watch that on telivision or youtube. Regards, hope this helps.

ShunTai

Mahalo Derek. Great concept! It enables the observer to explore ideas to the level of detail that they wish; instead of having to read in the linear form which was arranged by the original author/editor/publisher.
I usually "read" books in .pdf format, by searching the contents and index for keywords to find my current area of interest.
Will you also be hosting similar "reviews" of other writings from other contributors?
best wishes

Derek:

I think you "tell me what to do" concept is great. As an educator I just read "The Mathematician's Lament" by Paul Lockhart. I loaned it to a fellow music educator who could benefit from the sample concepts I was extracting from the book. He found my high-lighted paragraphs extremely useful, and both of us quote Lockhart when talking with other teachers on how to Foster creativity.
Is this possible -- could you present a book online and have high-lights that might change according to what the reader is hoping to learn and put into practice?
The next step might be to have high-lights that span several books. For example, if a "customer" is interested in "team building" there might be several books on management that each have specific advise on just that topic.
What do you think?

There's a big caveat to the "Cliff notes" perspective here - what if the writer of the particular "Do this" missed the point established by the original author for some reason? It's a wonderful idea provided the "Do This" is consistent with the original intent/message. Also, because each "Do This" is removed from its contextual bed prepared in the original text, isn't there an inherent risk of mis-interpretation? Exponentially so when translated across languages and cultures, no? Here's an example . . . finish this saying that most of us have heard repeatedly throughout our lives:

"Many are called, but few . . ."

90+ percent of everyone you know will fill in with ". . . are chosen."

Rather, than the correct completion of the saying which is ". . . are choosing to respond correctly", which of course connotes a completely different idea. Something got shifted in the translation.

I guess the question of whether or not a particular "Do This" is able to maintain its integrity across language and cultural boundaries is not the main focus for undertaking this particular project. Still, it speaks to a need to adhere to the author's original intent and ideals as much as possible - in other words "get it right".

If you really want to remember something, turn it into a rhyming couplet or a singable phrase (fun and creative). Next, put it on an index card and rehearse it for a few days. It will be your's forever.

I would add a meta-advice. Read all "do this" sentences and read the books that correspond to those that shock you the most or that you find the hardest to believe: they'll be the most effective for you personally because they will add the biggest difference to your existing knowledge and beliefs.
By the way, a friend and I are just starting a pretty similar (in some ways) project on books (often too long) and education (often no focused enough) :D.

My experience is the following:
Most people do things their own way and don't really want to be told how to do things, unless... it is backed up by a personal experience... Even though I understand you wish to be direct and succinct Derek, which is great, maybe there is something in the way to present those directives... : My experiences with... what worked... what didn't work...
I think the personal aspect of advice is always better recieved and followed, because it brings people in to your own world, an invitation. The way I know you, you have always been brilliant at that... Much love from London... AM

Hi Derek, it seems these days people DO actually want someone else to do the work for them.. even with thinking! For that reason, your idea is really good. I don't know if you know this guy but BRIAN JOHNSON does what he calls philosoher's notes and it's a similar concept. https://brianjohnson.me
I hope this helps! xo

I know it's a little longer, but the title “Just tell me what to do” sucked me in in a way that "Do this" might not have.

At first glance, the time one saves by reading the 'punch line(s)' books (rather than the whole enchilada) would free one up to learn many life lessons in a minimum of time.

But...
a) Even someone whose insight you've come to trust can be wrong;
b) reading distilled truths--even when they are spot on--deprives one of the process (and pleasure!) of how those truths were arrived at;
c) many books--especially the most thought-provoking ones--are not 'distillable'.
An example of point c is Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel". Were I forced to reduce the book to a phrase, it might be "geography is destiny". But there is so much more to that book than that.
My two cents.
Timothy

Your book condensations are a favorite for me amongst your work .
Are you aware if there
are others out there doing the same or similar types of summations ??

Keep up the good work Derek TY

This is amazing. I will bookmark this and come back regularly. Now that you have the knowledge of all these books you could do a podcast series with the authors. James altucher does this well. Thanks again for this resource.

What Richard Bach did in "...Reluctant Messiah" was to wrap his nuggats in a narrative (OK, he's a great writer!), a handbook. Worked for me.

Terrific idea. Thanks for always trying to keep the world moving forward. I for one need just the punchlines-- so I can focus on the bigger message.
Kudos
-- from the Irish-Canadian singer-songwriter from Vancouver who is in Newfoundland recording an album that was funded on IGG, plays in Germany and is moving to Spain. And is still impressed that you answered his mail years ago.

First, let me say I appreciate your posts and your approach to life. I have been inspired and used some of your insight to inspire others. Thank you. With regard to your booklist notes: I have read and used some of them. For example John Medina was scheduled to speak here in WV . No one had heard of him; I wanted to wake up people and get them there so I emailed your notes on Brain Rules to them. Even those who didn't attend his talk have used your notes. I have resolved to regularly read your note, but have not gotten around to it. I think it would be useful if you would email to those of us interested, your directives along with how to obtain your notes. Thank you for your generous sharing of your insights and work.

Fascinating and worthy idea with a host of possibilities and problems. In its current state of development, it resembles:
A. TripAdvisor authored by a single person.
and/or
B. A CliffNote quide to CliffNotes

Do you plan on monetizing the idea with click-throughs? If the site is opened to others for contributions, what quality controls should there be? Are you thinking of a blog or an open process of accumulating and sharing knowledge? Will you control it or build it out with an open source design?

Fun idea!

Make it into a book already, I'll buy it! :)

Derek,

Do you think that you have any sort of unique process (other than what's already out there) for sifting through material to get at the meat of books?

Would it be more valuable to teach someone how to go to the library (crazy idea in itself) and grab 10 books on a subject they're struggling with.

Then, use your process to quickly sort and organize material in a way that is meaningful/helpful for them to implement.

This would address the multiple facets of most subjects and allow the person to personalize the "Do This" to themselves.

This resonates so much w me because I do the same - always taking notes. That way the next time I want to read the book I just see the notes.

One of the things I've realised is that sometimes the anecdotes (or the story) or a related quote helps put everything into context super fast AND it lasts within you l

Derek,

This reminds me of the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament. This idea of compressing great ideas is thousands of years old, so to have a modern day book of Proverbs would be great! I would divide the book into categories (you probably already thought of that). Let me know how you are progressing!

Steve

Hi Derek,
Thanks for keeping in touch and sharing your thoughts.
This sounds like an interesting adventure and a great, worthwhile idea/resource.
I could definitely see this content being great for a dedicated blog. Especially with non-fiction, psychology-based, and self-help/inspirational-type books, I think one may not understand the essence of the work and truly understand the meaning the author is trying to convey without reading it in its entirety, but your content could act as a middle ground or gateway. With so many amazing books out there and with so little 'free time' to focus in this day in age, I think your summaries of the books you have read would be very interesting and useful in their own right, but could also act as more thorough summaries for allowing me to decide which books I would want to read in full. I know books tend to have a brief depiction of their content on their back covers, but often it does not provide me with a good enough feeling as to if I want to read it. In your case, you have already built up a good trust and rapport with your followers, so your opinions and summaries would be very welcomed I'm sure. All the best with this and please keep me in the loop, as I'm often up for a good book! Grady

Do it!

All your ideas are always great. I've been thinking about you lately and wondering how you are feeling? Still "down under".

Knowledge without application is entertainment... Love this concept!

I tried something similar by composing a 5-10 page booklet on negotiating that summarized the top 10 books on the topic... The reviews were mixed, seems like people like stories that teach a lesson rather raw info.

Have you considered a podcast format? 5-10 min on a book where the listener leaves with one take away but you spend 5 minutes on how you applied it in life?

Down the road you can create an audiobook of the best episodes...

Just my 2 cents!

Luke
Philadelphia pa

Hey Derek,

First of all, good thinking. The idea clicked immediately and I found lots of potential in the execution :)

Then I visited one of the 'Notes' and was a little disappointed to see the length of the notes :( While I was reading the notes, (The Personal MBA), I realized that the drawbacks of reading just 'notes'. Notes lack continuity and the reasoning, hence existence of books are justified.

But the idea of 'briefing' a book is great. You may consider packaging it differently. For example:
* You have defined a format for your /books blog. You may consider defining a format for Notes also.
* You may also consider limiting length of these notes. Anyway, original books are always available for completeness.

Looking forward to reading more notes and 2Do :)

Hey Derek,

Love the "just the facts, ma'am" approach. For the title, I like "Just Do This" (where This is accentuated)

I think this book in electronic form could be very beneficial. For those (like me) who could benefit from the short and sweet advice it could simply be a concentrated resource of great advice.

Then, for the deeper dive on different levels, it could serve those who need the supporting evidence behind the condensed advice by providing a link or expanded text to the instruction.

Then, for those who need more explanation of the greater framework behind the advice, you could provide a further link beyond that to the book itself.

I would think that since you've already taken these extensive notes and have them digitized that it wouldn't take that much more work on your end to accomplish this.

But as always, a brilliant idea and a useful one at that for the time/attention span challenged culture we live in today.

All the best...

GREAT idea, Derek, wish I thought of it myself! With the pace of innovation and change quickening seemingly by the minute, to have the wisest advice from some of the best thinkers distilled down to directives is invaluable. Especially since mentorship is so important to a successful life but most don't have access to mentors. CAN'T WAIT.

JOE C

Derek, mind-expanding ideas. I totally relate. In many of this type of book I read only the summary at the end of the chapter. In fact, I'm one of those people who cannot bear to hear anything about a movie (or book) before consuming myself, as someone else's observation/spoiler gives me enough information that I then don't need to see the movie. e.g. 'he crashed the plane' put an to plans to see "Flight". I've just revealed I'm more into entertainment than you probably are. Your focus and your ability to focus are inspirational. The title "What To Do?" would grab the attention of a wider audience.

It's a great idea because people don't have or don't want to spend the time these days. I've written 2 screenplays and it's impossible to get them read because I'm a 'nobody'. Perhaps, this method could work for screenplays so the Hollywood people (who really don't have the time) can get a better understanding of the story without reading the 120 page script? Maybe a website devoted to screenplays (so many scripts out there?)

I think it's a great idea, and as I age my ability to retain useful information is rapidly disappearing. It's a great public service, Derek. Thanks, Andree

Derek - this is a great idea. I too, love to read. I have hundreds of EverNote notes and bookmarks in my Audible and Kindle Books. But getting to the meat quicker can be really helpful - and like you said, go back and get the Meta data later - That's the best of both worlds.

At the risk of promoting a product - I recommend checking out Brian Johnson's Philosopher's Notes. He provides PDF's, audio, and vids on his favorite philosophical books - His Tagline "More Wisdom in Less Time" hooked me years ago. I listen to him as I ride my motorcycle around the country - then often end up grabbing copies of things, I would never have through of reading.

It could be a blueprint for the way you are looking to share your favorite books. You can check it out here: http://bit.ly/p-notes

I look forward to what you come up with! Reach out if you want to bounce of any other ideas. Take care - Joe

super idea. love the idea for blog posts. make an app and I'd grab that as well.

There are plenty of occasions when I want/need to immerse myself in the larger context... but an equal number of times I just need the little bullet to trigger action or behavior.

Thanks!

Thank You for sharing your ideas! That makes yo humble.
I was reminded of the movie memento where a guy with impaired memory has his own "to do's" tattooed on his body and every time he wakes up he reads his tattoos and acts accordingly...

I heard somewhere the completion -and follow-through rate for books is pathetically low.

Meaning, I don't think it will get any worse. Perhaps your idea might make things better. Who knows, if you manage to tap some interest via "bullets" perhaps you can reverse engineer further interest in the whole book itself.

Cheers.

P

Love the idea and like some others have said, perhaps needs expanding slightly.

Is it possible to make it a quick one paragraph story that gives one main reason/piece of evidence? Puts the advice into context and gives a better understanding so we can learn and maybe adapt the advice to other situations.

I like this idea very much. I find it sort of sad to encourage and enable people to NOT read and think for themselves, but we have entered a period where an adult's average attention span (8 seconds as of 2015) has dropped well below that of an average toddler (27 seconds) and something such as you propose is potentially very useful. After all, the Conservative political forces in this and many other countries already use the idea of sound bytes as reality for more nefarious purposes to great effect, why not also use it to give useful guidance and self-improvement.

"Do it," or "Do This" speaks directly to both the average person's limited attention as well as their perception they are getting something good without having to spend much time or effort to get there. It is a parlous edge to be balancing as the advice giver as to be savior or enslaver, but with a positive sense of purpose you may make many lives better. Perhaps an occasional admonishment to them to "use leisure to examine things rushed through or taken for granted" would be a useful thing.

I read your notes because they give me an idea of the book's content. Then if the thoughts appeal to me, I'll read the book.

I'm not sure what I'd do with out of context directives and like others before, I think a lot of the meaning of books comes from reading them: it's thought being formed, one sentence at a time.
As a writer I believe in writing 200 pages for 100 pages worth of valuable content. 1) Because maybe your 100 pages of value will be my 100 pages of context, 2) Because having this less valuable content will allow you to isolate the good pieces better. Your brain prioritizes info when you read and I think this makes the reading of the book more valuable as a learning experience than merely extracting quotes and throwing them out of context.
As a teacher I believe in giving the student too much content, to let the bits that are meaningful *for them* really stand out and get right to their subconscious mind. Then they get their own "do this" directives, the ones that are truly relevant for their situation.

I think just reading the directive wouldn't give me as much of an insight on what the book has to offer than reading the more extensive notes you already publish.

So... yeah, I'm curious but not convinced.

First of all, you nailed it when you said, I already trust the source, while most credible works are 90% supporting details to establish credibility and 10% content we can use. Your efforts have made many of our lives better (CD Baby- we miss you there) so we have a trust established from your previous work and relationship. Good idea!

I have authors and mentors that I trust without having to review their bio each time I pick up their work. "Do this, not that" would be a great help in my life.

Derek, Good to hear from you.

I guess it depends on your real goal. I know telling people 'what to do' doesn't help or change behavior. The process of a person's own inquiry and experimenting in life teaches. Stories teach and are memorable. I agree that many, or most, books are way too long. When I wrote my book, I made it short and easy to read. Seems you may end up with a list of famous quotes. They are read and often forgotten.

That said, I am always fascinated by what you create. I am tuned in!

I begin with a friend's ideas on this. “I give credit to this man (Derek) for trying but…these ideas are precisely what got me into the problem he mentions. I would only read the important stuff, which made my brain operate at 100%. By the time I was done with the material it was so overwhelming, I didn't remember anything. Not knowing the negative, unimportant stuff is worse than not knowing anything. It is simply impossible to avoid mistakes when you don't know how or why to avoid them; and this happens, when you only know the ‘useful’ or ‘good’ information.”
I write: Battles have been won because future generals and admirals read and remembered some of the most trivial facts in history, the ones that skipped over a bridge from one “salient” point to the next. Cures have been found and earth-shaking discoveries made by the connecting of stray data to problems.
"I have not failed,” said Edison. “I just found 10,000 ways that won't work" The more "useful" information you pack into your head, to the exclusion of the ancillary, seemingly less important, the more mistakes you will make and the fewer problems you will solve. To live a fuller, richer life, is to distinguish rightly what is of lasting value and know what is of only immediate help. When we make our standard for judgments only that which is reducible to our immediate needs, we fall into the kind of narrow pragmatism we suffer today.

Hey great to hear from you! I this is idea is interesting. Especially because most of the ideas, concepts and quotes I tend to recite are from books I've only half read! (i.e.: "The Medium is the Message"). This is a good post-modern solution to the never-ending flow of accessible, interesting books that I always feel guilty not reading.

What you're describing doing would be the subject of a great TED.com talk, any thing like that in the works?

Take care,

Ethan
Massy Ferguson band
Seattle WA

Derek, this is the perfect "product" for a membership site. I don't know what the price point is for attracting the maximum number of members, but I believe that most people would pay at least $36/year to receive a flow of your tips. I know that I wouldn't hesitate for a second to pay you that. There are many membership sites that charge $47/month, etc,. but they are niche sites, and most people won't pay that much.
Maybe it is time that you become compensated for your generous sharing.
An expert on the subject is Chris Farrell. Just so happens that he is sharing a free lesson in creating membership sites this weekend. Kismet? I think so ...
https://www.facebook.com/thisischrisfarrell

Sounds like a good idea. Will it just be music related or life in general?

Brilliant, as ever. I made a lot of "compression" of all of the books I've read, no matter the topic, and boy is it as big as a "real" book. Keeping it really short and useful is a bitch. Also, great point made in one of the comments: different people have different goals, so one-size-fits-all "do this" won't probably cut it. I also think that instead of writing a book, you should keep a blog. It is less "static", and you can add or remove at will.

Yes...
I like the concept.
This is hipper than Reader's Digest ; )

I like it. I get lost in boredom and never complete "how to" books, but I'm interested in the core message. Given the opportunity, I always go for the annotation. I absolutely love how you reveal the obvious disguised as something impossible - too hard to do. As always, an inspiration. I'm ready to be told what to do.

Hah! I especially like the "2do" in the URL.

Cheers!

Derek: I agree with what you are getting at. We want distilled ideas that cut to the point and then move on. However in this busy world of information floating around we must be careful how we go about this. By this I mean we can't do everything that we want to do, sometimes we have to accept the fact that the book I picked up yesterday that goes into the pile will go unread. This is where there is a chance to realize where your true passion really lies. If we are interested in something enough we will spend the time wisely to reach toward a goal or interest this is how the information will stick. remember the movie , A League of Their own, about a all women baseball team set during WWII. Tom Hanks character's comment on 'there's no crying in baseball' and 'it's the hard that makes it great.' We have to be willing to challenge ourselves enough to get to the part where it looks easy but really it is not easy at all. Thanks always for your insights Derek. Keep 'em comin.
Brian

Hi Derek.
Seems like I have unwittingly been using "directives" with my combo students at Purchase Conservatory and the New School of Jazz. They are required to record every combo meeting for an hour and a half for 15 weeks. Part of that requirement is to review the recordings each week and write into a notebook the salient points of each lecture. The notebook then becomes a collection of "directives" that act as numonics for the lectures. The quality of the notebooks become part of their grades when reviewed at the end of the semester. Thanks for clarifying something I've been doing for years and didn't realize it.

I've been an avid reader of your book notes, and thus of the books you recommend, for years. I've also written a book. What I find, like you, is that most people don't read unless, like us, they love to read. Personally I love to sink my teeth into a great book and go on the journey it takes me. But you are on to something; another example is The Little Book of Talent, which condenses the prose of The Talent Code in list format. Both excellent books, and the list book does offer new, more applicable examples, so it's a good way to cement the knowledge you glean from the manifesto. I think Julie (#85) has some great points about images and questions. I also think that great quotes are an art in themselves. Think of how we collectively remember "a stitch in time saves nine" or "absence makes the heart grow fonder" or "measure twice, cut once" or "lefty loosey, righty tighty." The app idea someone mentioned is cool too. I think that great sense is often ancient (think Marcus Aurelius) yet as social animals we need and want to hear it put in multiple ways and modern contexts both to entertain ourselves and to inspire us to action. Good luck!

Just wanted to leave a quick comment to show my support for this idea. It's funny, I've been reading your book notes lately, and was thinking how useful to me personally it's been to be able to extract the main points of a given book from them. Then, when I've actually gone to read the ones that really jumped out at me, I've felt that much more connected to them. Anyway, very excited to see how this plays out. Keep me posted and good luck! :)

I'm a time-strapped local church pastor with a national advocacy ministry and find your notes and approach to compressing books into directives very helpful. Sadly, I don't have the time to read all of the recommended books. Thanks for making the wisdom and knowledge available to us busy professionals!

I agree with you 100%. Unless the book is a treatise and one needs to build that expertise, the book should be short simple and sweet, or should have a synopsis as the first chapter.

Kindle does help in a way, because one can see what others thought was important and so read the book quickly.

Podcasts are following the same "more than necessary" model. Who wants to listed to something for 60 minutes to find out if there is something of interest. In a text form, at least one can speed read.

I like the blog idea AND the book idea. ( I like books)

Wow, this is what we've all come to expect, distilled even further! Way to go on driving succinctness to an even more powerful level Derek.

An immediate idea: What are your thoughts on combining this with the latest thinking on preparing people to learn?

Derek, I like the direction you are going. Focused directives are key to consume a large quantity of impactful resources. I heard from a former CEO of a publishing company that 90% of books published should only be articles. They fluff up the pages to build authoritative thump when you drop the "book" on a table. Times have changed and change is happening at a rapid pace live never before in history. I hope you are a disruptor in the book industry. What if the book directive was 90 words or less? What would the writer do to clarify their words and pursuasive power? Let's limit ourselves to give ourselves more potential. Regarding another book for you? I think short videos and short articles make sense. Thanks for being you! ~Tim DeTellis @timdetellis

Sounds interesting, but you'll need some sort of index divided by category so when people need advice, they can quickly find the appropriate gem.
Oh, and that last observation above... don't trust people's descriptions of themselves?

Hi Derek,
Great to hear from you as always.

Regarding your, "Tell Me what to do" ideas of concatenating a wealth of valuable information down into succinct bites for easy disgestion, I think it's essential for the ways of current society.

I, like yourself, have summarized all my life. I have a box of ring bound notepads containing summaries of every source of wisdom I have found. Many of these I have digitized also. Having a Broken Leg and not walking for 2 months is currently affording me time for review and reinforcement.

People crave wisdom, but often aren't prepared to search in depth for it. In this modern society people want the answers delivered, and delivered now, in a way that doesn't consume their time and resources.

So you are spot on with your path of sharing (as you always have been).

Name Change: may I suggest rather than 'Just tell me what to do' you consider another. People have an aversion psychologically, to being 'told what to do'. Many names come to mind, but I will leave it to you for now.

Feel free to contact me for any feedback and thanks for all the wisdom, imbued so far over the years. I look forward to the next installements.

Sincerely,
Richard W Gilkerson
310 614 7887

Hey Derek couldn't muster up the courage to respond back to your first email you sent. I do like this idea however, it's very similar to what I've been working on for the past 8 yrs now. Your doing fine going about it the way you are, simply avoid the trapping of rituals as most things the are universal applicable are inherently relative to the a person's personal world view, schema, paradigms, or whatever else round about words we use to rational human temporal delusion. Directives can be good, yet it must ultimately be emphasized they are only good as guidelines. It's a seductive idea to make dogma out of the useful, however what works in the summer fashionable, might not in the winter. Since you ask for thoughts and ideas; find Balance between the where and when these pearls of wisdom should be applied, as time and space are feasibly relative it might not be the easiest, but hardly the things really worth are. You'll do fine bro, later.

Great Idea. I almost found myself scanning ahead to see YOUR conclusions. I am curious as to how this approach will condense down into some app or something. It's almost as if we humans need to change HOW we think and process ideas - both our own, and those from without...but cool...very cool indeed. I can see that your "quickie updates" will help with focus and distractions. Thank you.

Try to determine the "Prime Directive" For example, out of all 100 or so, which one tops the list. Granted very subjective and open to interpretation, but maybe you are up for the challenge. :)

And yes that is not so thinly veiled Star Trek reference.... sorry... couldn't resist. :)

Book is ye another good idea. howeverWould love to see you have your own Radio or cable show
you have a lot going for you. I have had enough cooking show thanks you very much. Make room for Derek Sivers!!

Once again you deliver a helpful and transformative concept that is both fun and easily integrated. So much gratitude!

I love this idea. I think Dmitri makes a really good point, and there are always dangers to boiling things down too much. That said, I always appreciate books that turn their insights into concrete proposals and recommendations.

Derek, in addition to what you say above, I have noticed that students of music business (marketing, publishing, etc.) do NOT READ---THEY SKIM. I believe this is the result of the SCROLL culture that we are living in (they SCROLL through Facebook, they Scroll through websites with the flick of their fingers. As a result, I have started to write my books (Music Marketing For The DIY Musician and Business Basics For Musicians) to accommodate this (Let me know if you want a copy). The text are broken down into HEADERS outlining KEY POINTS without more than 4 lines below explaining each point. YUP, I think for many, at least the music business students that I have, the days of reading thick books are over.

To most people, being told "what to do" is comfortable. They are used to it. I think you are on to something that will really help all of those with short attention spans, who never read a book over 300 pages.

Telling people "what to do" comes natural for me. A USCG Merchant Marine Captain, retired.

I've tried to get over it, especially around my family. Now on my third and best marriage ever, I have learned the value and staying power of quelling my thoughts and forcing my mouth to say "Yes dear".

All the best to you Derek. Isn't it amazing how we can't hold back creativity once it's unleashed in our minds? We must have had great teachers. I just published a book on Amazon.com that mirrors one of my music cd's. The Title is "MAUI ON THE ROCKS" by (pen name) Oliver Gold. It's a fun romantic comedy, book one of three on "moving to Hawaii and dating crazy women"
I'll follow you on fb and twitter
Aloha,
Capt'n Billy
p.s. That's a terrific Bonsai of a Ficus tree; looks a hundred years young.

Derek, glad to hear from you.

Well, you already have 331 response from smart and educated people.
It's hardly possible to add something new (:

To be honest, I'm doing something like that for myself in a gigantic mindmap, but not for every single observation or piece of advice from books, but rather for core principles that I try to crystallize.

Trees of wisdom, as I call them..

Here are some problems I'm facing and possible solutions (who knows, may be it helps somehow):

1. Modularity is difficult to construct, but could be very valuable. I would like to drill down in every single principle. Let's say to_do is just one sentence. Level 2 approach (deeper one) is short explanation (several sentences). Level 3 approach is like a small article and so on. I guess it could be a lot of levels especially for deep subjects.
It would be great app, kinda treasure of wisdom.
2. There is no way to compare alternatives (without human brains). For instance, when I'm reading wikipedia I would like to compare this node with another one, e.g.
"michaelPollan": {
"food":{
"diet": {
"attributesOfHealthyFood": {
"shouldRot",
"oneMore"
}
}
}
}
}
*Sorry, there is no markdown editor here.*
For instance, what was an opinion of 'John Smith' on attributesOfHealthyFood?
Also I would like to parse it and analyze without human brains (API would be great).

3. It would be nice to make it with `product_hunt` principle in mind (i.e. advice/core principle has an ability to get upvotes). I'm not a big fan of The Wisdom of Crowd concept but it can be useful sometimes. Moreover Gamification adds extra for spreading this info.

At the same time point of entrance could be anything (:food, :diet, :michael_pollan). The only thing is important is to validate uniqueness of keys in hashes (I remember that you use Ruby from our personal mailing).

4. Each principle requires some prerequisites. In one book I found an excellent approach of marking ALL necessary prerequisites (assumptions, if you want) for each chapter. Very good point. A bit cumbersome, but it made me thinking whether I'm really ready for it or I need to meditate on some subjects.

5. It would be nice to have comprehensive list of tags for each advice/core_principle. It adds one more level of nesting in our imaginable JSON, but eventually it will help a lot (consider a work of several generations of people on a wide spectrum of core principles).

6. Also in 5y period I noticed, that some ideas become less relevant but I would like to save this transition and it would be really nice to see this dialectic. For instance, I have one book. It's short. But my comments are bigger than that book because I review it every 2-3 years and make comments to my own comments. In some places I reject my previous arguments and postulate new ones and sometimes in happens several times for a one particular place in book.

7. And the last one is feedback loop. That is what is success proof for each principle or advice. Success stories, but not from book, but rather from followers of this 'directive'.

Hi Derek

Thanks for your efforts and generosity over the years sharing the notes from your reading.

I'm a reader. Many of your summaries have been very helpful. Reading your summary of 'The 4-Hour Work Week' led me to buy the book. It significantly helped me make the decision several years ago to leave a senior public service job in Australia which had lost its appeal. It was one of the best moves I have ever made. Thank you and best wishes for your own future!

Dom

Only one question... Can you begin posting these today? ;)

I feel like the idea has been done before, and could go the wrong direction. You don't want to turn into a simplified Amazon review.

However I love Dmitri's post about making it more programming centric. Like your goal is to provide Johnny 5 with the best input and have to write code for a list of books.

open input bookfile.
evaluate ls-file-foodrules

I'm clearly bone idle (lazy) because this has a certain appeal to me! ☺

Like most things I guess you have to approach with a degree of caution as, in a similar way to proverbs, there's very often an equally valid yet completely opposite argument....all comes down to the interpretation. But in itself that can help as you then interpret things in a more positive way.

Great idea though...very best of luck Derek.

How about an app which gives a 'random' piece of advice each day? Just a thought.

Hi Derek Great idea ! Programming the brain is a complicated matter which in my experience requires reformatting old ideas and reinforcing new ideas For me the old basic programming often surfaces as the default The idea of reminding our brains of concepts and ideas likely increases the probability that they will be come useful either now or in the future
I love it Lots of possibilities here
Maybe you can call the book " Aristotle's Muse"
To the objection that it too sound bite I would argue that ,if referenced , stimulates one to go deeper and read the source Keep me posted Peter

Hi Derek,

read again "Drive" by Daniel Pink , at the end there is a very good example of an effective and very short summary of his book!!

In practice, each chapter has been summarized in very few "Tweets"!!

All the very best for your new venture!

Fabrice, greetings from Italy.

The phrase "too much information" is usually used in comedic situations, but it can apply to everyday life in the modern electronic world. There are already syndromes and ailments associated with devices, which is ironic as these machines are used to make life more succinct and orderly. As a musician, I love to elaborate on my craft to others knowing full well that I could be putting them to sleep. With that awareness, I strive to detail less and promote more understanding in conversation. Your ideas are beneficial and worth pursuing.

Thanks for resending the link, and i'm glad you did because this is a good read and a great project. As you ask for any other ideas, I would just mention Brian Johnson has a similar project going he calls Philosopher's notes (brianjohnson.me) It looks a bit labour intensive to me!

I really enjoyed your guide to doing business in Malaysia (which is how I first learned about you) and hopefully am getting closer (looking at starting up a company through Labuan).

Anyway, best wishes,

Richard

"Do This" is a perfect name for your book.

This seems like a useful project, and your introduction will make it clear that you are not claiming to actually tell people what to do by passing on some of the useful advice & ideas gleaned from the enormous amount of literature, websites and lectures out there.

For every author that signs a legal release for you to paraphrase or restate their ideas in exchange for a referral/reference to their original work, you should provide a link or bibliographic reference. This should shield you from copyright infringement claims (even though this shouldn't be an issue, because you are essentially doing the equivalent of a summary or a survey of literature, which is a commonly allowed practice).

For every author/source that claims an inviolable intellectual copyright on their ideas, I'm sure you can find a similar author/source that is less rigid. Human beings are all part of a chain of knowledge that is rooted in the ground work of others. Hopefully, most of the those whose content you are summing up will recognize this and be excited that a larger audience will be referred to their work. Getting their name and ideas out there is a great way for any author, researcher, website or organization to boost ongoing interest, business, or funding for their work.

I think a book or a web series like this would be a win-win for the general short-time-and-attention-span population and the amazing thinkers, lecturers, writers, artists, researchers & content creators out there. It would have an immediate audience in the fields of education, human resources, leadership, project management, design thinking, counseling/social services, and the huge DIY world. It could also help a lot of unknown writers/artists/thinkers/companies/resources get discovered.

Pursue this!

Great Idea and thoughts Derek but unless I'm looking for a quick fix like a repair on the car or similar, I like to read the complete Book as I find it quite relaxing to settle into reading many pages over several days.

"Do This" is a solid title.

I think The Four Hour Workweek had a similar methodology of creation. Tim seemed to take a large collection of single ideas and boil them into a single cohesive goal of "joining the new rich."

Anything You Want was a great business book and I can't wait to get your next one.

Derek I think this a great idea! I do understand after reading some of the comment's already posted that people aught to read books, people are in quite a bit of stress these days and bandwidth is an issue for most that actually need quality information that will allow for them to be healthy and prosperous people. So this may be a great method for people like that. Then they may be encouraged to read further the original books. Please do it.

In today's digital world less is more!
It's important to remember that your books are also being read or listened to when people are working or on the go.

Expand but keep information simple and to the point.

Thanks!

Derek,
I like it when I am reading something and the author feels compelled to summarize major points or make a quick suggestion list. A list usually helps make quick mental organization of ideas being presented.
I do not like books titled "101 ways to improve the way you tie your shoes" etc. and I think your idea is close to this so I'll vote not in favor (sorry). In my view these books make the author look very clever but don't encourage independent thinking and if I actually followed all these suggestion then what I really should have bought was the encyclopedia version "1,000,001 rules to live your life by (if only you could remember them all)".
My two bits. Thanks.

Many many times, I get tired of reading books that tease you, until you get to the meat of the subject which sometimes account for 30% or less of the book, so I think this is a very good idea, for people who want's to extract the knowledge in a more direct and immediate way.

Hi Derek,

Another thought provoking post, so thank you.

On balance I wouldn't be in favour of this idea in its current form.

It feels like this is taking an X-Factor (tv programme) approach to reading, which to me is the last art which we should dumb-down.

Whilst a lot of books (including fiction) have 'padding' which I'm sure we could all live without, the book sets the history, tone and context for a lot of ideas.

To address your summary of the competitors quote, in a business scenario if I were a retailer and pretended my competitors didn't exist I would find myself in trouble and hopelessly out of touch with my market if they all reduced their prices and I didn't. In this example the context of the advice and the background to the research is important for me to determine how and when to apply this particular piece of knowledge. However, in an online test (a job interview for example) this particular piece of advice could yield a large advantage without knowing more than you're summary.

If you were to distill a book on how to swim, it would say "kick your legs and move your arms whilst in the water". This would miss the nuances of stroke technique, pace, body position, breathing, leg positions etc, not to mention how to turn, swim underwater or perform backstroke rather than butterfly.

Sometimes the pleasure of reading is the discovery, the chance to absorb a subject in detail, not a bite size chunk (Kick your legs...). Reading is sometimes about a journey of discovery rather than a shortcut to a destination. Imagine Where's Waldo where on every page he's 2 inches tall and bright yellow. Summarising in a few words is the literary equivalent.

This century is all about the quick fix, instant fame, short messages and short cuts, but some things can't be boiled down to a 180 character soundbite without losing the quality which makes them important in the first place.

I see the value in a directional summary (Do this...), and distilling a text to its essence would be helpful, but not at the cost of the substance of what we should be absorbing. Maybe you could combine your twitter-esque directions with a little more information about why you chose the book and an almost Amazon style review as to what you got from the book, its overall tone, writing style, ideal audience, interest level as well as the takeaway points. I would personally find it helpful to try to determine whether I should invest my time and money in the book in the first place.

I would really like to be able to sign up for "Do This!".

Example (just brainstorming here!)
If I sign up, I'd get my own little profile. The profile would show my name, where I come from & where I would like to go. It would also show the different "Do this!" topics I am committing to at the moment.

Let's say that one of your "Do This!" Topics that I feel like committing to would be working out at the local gym 4 times (40 minutes) every week. Then I press the "commit" button and I write a short little note on why I choose to commit to this specific topic. This note will pop up under the actual "Do This! At the gym" feed. Everyone who visits the page can read the committed peoples notes. You just can't leave a comment if you're not signed up to "Do this!"

I would come back and update my gym notes every now and then, maybe I could inspire someone else to commit? Or maybe I would find out that it's just not for me and I would choose to commit for the "Do this! Smile more" topic instead, ha ha!

A place I would go to get inspired or to inspire.

What do you think?

Hi Derek,

Good to see you trying out new thoughts and ideas. Some past ideas, like a well built older European Building, are best to just improve on, and others need to be knocked down to the foundation and start again. It seems like if it is something the person doesn't know much about yet, or very well, then specifics are excellent. (i.e. a non computer person needs: step 1, turn on here, step 2, etc)
(i.e., a new therapist or counselor always want a set of steps to tell their patients.)
However, if you are further along in any certain field, then you may keep your good foundational base, but add on what applies and fits you and the other person.
(i.e....computer folks turns into writing their own programs, websites, etc....and an experienced therapist may use many, many approaches, from therapists, books, and creates their own version of what works....kind of like musicians.

Best to you...keep up the excellent work, and helping put actions steps to thoughts...because if we stop only at thoughts....nothing is ever done or completed. - Leah

Hey Derek, I am looking forward to see this new book :) I am sure will be awesome, and by the way thanks to share so many books on the linked you add on the article above. Nice to hear from you, and lets wait for ''Do this''. Sincerely Leo

like a song say what you mean dont wander off with unnessary words most of us must have heard the term read the pictures and look at the words so getting to the point of a book is joly good idea i enjoyed my peice of toast da da da la dada. nice Derek

This sounds great Derek - I think you have really identified what people actually want - a book would be perfect

Working on my book now... Great advice! Love your wise words Derek.

I like your idea because:
- I'm attempt to do this for myself with books I read (with intermittent success; other things in my life become more important, so you doing it provides a welcome service to me)
- In a blog; like one/day (or period of time) allows me to use my RSS reader to digest each entry in eatable chunks.

Thanks!

Hello, If everyone wants to git to heaven, then why are they so afraid to die. If I can dig a hole in the ground to keep someone from hitting me in a fire fight then I'm thinking everything is on the up and up from then on. We as men should be here to just give with women and children first. What better life and world we'd have. Ah to think about thinking. Help and allow them to agree or feel as if they knew or thought the on their own. Put the book in the form of music or song, record it. All books are someone's opinion of some subject, and words are just sounds coming out of one's mouth. I could be wrong about it all so who am I? And it all goes drifting out into space. Good luck thanks for making me communicate I think.

Society is in a new "modernity" with a youth culture at the reins ruled by faster, sleeker, and inexperience. Compression is not always good or necessary.

I like it! We all mostly. Just want the lowdown! Keep up the good work!
Cody

I love the concept. It sound like what I do when I review business or self help books, I just grab the Aha! moments from my notes. But would you have the same Aha! moments that I would if I read the book? That's something worth testing.

In todays world a concept like this will be very popular. No ones got time for anything except constantly looking at their devises.
The sheep will enjoy this.

Cheers

Can you publish a daily
do this?
...Like those calanders

Each idea is like a bead. String them together to make a necklace. Each bead can stand alone. Read "Lazy Man's Guide to Enlightenment".

One word: ingenious
P.S.: (❌🔁 (as close to infinity as I could find!)

Love it, Derek. It's a fantastic idea that will help many people and inspire them to take action.

I think wisdom is useless unless it can be implemented into one's life (or alternatively, actively deciding NOT to implement wisdom learned).

"The great end of life is not knowledge but action.” —Thomas Henry Huxley

"Knowledge is not power. Knowledge is only potential power. Action is power." - Tony Robbins

Yea all good books sure have the stand out punch lines. Great idea to write them down. Its a difficult one time to read new stuff is hard enough without going back on old stuff. However some great learning in the old lessons. i hope that somewhere the knowledge remains within and keeps adding to my wisdom. Nothing is perfect lines and lines of punch lines can get a bit in your face. Happy noting though
.

Please share more Derek! I certainly prefer the condensed 'do this' info rather than the alternative.

Best for now,
Chadwick cl

This sounds great! Similar to what Brian Jounson is doing on YouTube-his top five tips or take-a-ways from books he reads. I enjoy watching those immensely and then figuring out which books I DO want to read entirely!
Love your ideas, emails, keep up sharing your excellent work. Thank you!! Min

Derek,

The idea is genius, the follow-through will be the test.

I like the title "Distilled Directives"

Good luck!!

Interesting idea, thumbs up on the blog format, maybe push it out as an App like the Workman's Circle publishes all those one word or thought per day desk calendars. Or maybe emulate (rip-off?) Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies card deck, kind of a hip and smart Magic 8-Ball. If you must go the book route, I'd like to suggest an alternate title. "Do This" evokes in my mind the old children's game of Simon Sez, where simply saying "Do This" instead of "Simon Sez: Perform This Action" is actually the signal to *Do Nothing*, lest you be eliminated for flinching into activity by the invalid "Do This" call. So I would title your hypothetical book: "Sivers Sez: Do This!"

I don't know why, but what if you try to tell somebody what to do when meeting a bear in the woods. The lying down passively in a fetal position doesn't work, apparently, if the bear is hungry and starts snacking on you anyway. Then there's the advice to carry spray and a big knife and a gun. At least you've got a fighting chance. You can also punch them in the nose real hard. They don't like that. Of course, you could also avoid walking in the woods where bears are known to be around, especially if you are a woman on your period. You could begin to learn about controlling fear, but I doubt that would get you very far, or you could just stand up and talk to it and tell it to go away, which worked in at least one movie I saw.
(Morgan Freeman). This is just an exercise in the ridiculous, of course, but my point is that the process in learning is more important than the result, say, as in learning how to make a fire from a few sticks. It will work, but it takes a lot of time and effort and understanding. In your case, I don't know what to say. Maybe you read too much and might be better served to follow a passion than try to know everything there is to know. Best I can do. Good luck!

The only thing I might change is the title to- "Do This, Not That".
Give the "do this" advice, & then compare it to what most people do that really doesn't work. People often gravitate to doing things the easiest way, but not the right way. Using this approach you'll answer their inevitable question- "but why didn't this work?"

Well Derek, splendid concept

I am reminded of Ronald Reagan who could only cope with one A4 size page per very large concept, whether it was forest death in USA, or nuclear war with USSR. But your condensation-mania must not spread to the world of art

Excellent idea especially for many people like me who constantly struggle to find the time to get so many things done.

Nice idea Derek.

Except that some advices are very closely related to a circumstance.

For example : “Avoid awareness of competitors.” might be valid in business. But not in sport. Or even more specific situations.

It's the problem with quotes. You have to know the background of the person to know why he said this. Or else, you could misinterpret the quote.

So perhaps a little explanation with the directive would be of great help (or reference to the chapter where it was mentioned)

Kind regards,

Alexandre

Well done for your thoughtful legwork on creating a new Wiki of sorts.

Just two things. (1) "remember the milk" gets better recall than "Don't forget the milk".

(2) get a proper pure Boolean string search engine for your site and thus your instructions AND their references are close at hand for your visitors. This puts the value of your information a big factor more valuable to searchers.

'Glimpse is a good choice. It's just been put into public domain and it is pure. In other words it's not chocked and biased with 'push algorithms' that Google and the others are {since they're ads driven}.

This way people can search for words and/or phrases and are presented with a choice instantly (reminiscent of Google in simplicity)
Each return has picked up whole sentences so searcher knows what they are getting.

It indexes new additions so you can set it to refresh when updated. (A bit like Wordpress without the complexity and coding).

Jacqueline
PS Skype address databaron

If you want to phone (7187150468 local rate from Us) or 02079936415 England) me or Skype me I'd be happy to extrapolate on this idea - taken as advice - 'Remember Glimpse or Webglimpse.'

Wondering how it's gonna turn out for you.

For me, each time I did that, something was missing. Like the big WHY. Why you should I do that again?

When I finish a book, I write a summary and the main points/ideas I got from the book. I also have a list of 3/5 things to do in relation to these points. But I keep all of that together, else many times I can't remember, or can't feel, why I do have to do these directives.

Hi Derek,
I agree completely with your premise. Psychology and self-help books, in particular, are notorious for turning ten useful observations into a 200 pages treatise.
I receive a daily email containing a single vocabulary word, with its definition and derivation. It's a manageable way to build vocabulary,as opposed to reading the dictionary. Consider sending one "Do This" a day.

I like the idea Derek, because often people just can't face reading the whole book and I'd rather they took away the key nuggets than not read it at all. I also admire anyone who can distill a longer message into something short, which doesn't lose the meaning or undervalue what is said.

Interesting that you bombed when trying to deliver it as a talk. Perhaps it turned into a series of bullet-points of "do this" and "do that" which lacked any narrative structure to bind it all together.

Wish you every success with this Derek, bring on those 'first followers'!

I think 'extreme summaries' would help me select books to read (skim, or remember) from a vast and growing sea of literature. I don't think they can necessarily all be boiled down to an 'action'. Some are observations, like the one you posed in your about people's 'success bias'.

Whether the advice is applicable or advisable to any given individual or not is out of scope. Different books give contradictory advice for a variety of reasons. I don't think "Go big" vs. "Stay Small" creates any new problems. If that is one's question, a one-line summary helps us locate the case for, and the case against.

Hi Derek,

Useful indeed. I also suggest you create a group for yourself using the Zotero plugin, add your library and directives to it, and then share it with your audience, as Zotero is a magnificent tool created by university researchers exactly for these purposes : promote "active reading", share your notes and bibliography with other readers or researchers. Check it out @ Zotero.org.
n/

I really like the idea. I like the "get to the point" short phrases to carry with me through the day and try and apply.

I really think the point about competitors is true: Avoid awareness of competitors. I get caught thinking "we can't do that because someone else has already done it or we have to do that because someone is else is doing it".

We have to be creative and do our our thing with great service without the influence of what the anyone else is doing.

It is so true what you said about a great idea without follow through is worth nothing, but a great idea with follow through is worth a lot.

thanks for your email and contact about the directives: great idea and it would help me.

Thanks
Jeff

Yes! Trim the fat and get to the best and most important points. I like the comment by Garcia and Tor. We are bombarded and surrounded by bullshit and know-it-alls, but somtimes we just need to be ourselves and enjoy life.

Cool idea. I track the books that I read, but am still "stuck" on the Post-it method of marking things and making notes. I know, pretty lame. I don't like to write in the book because if I end up giving it away, my notes will just be distractions to the next reader (and possibly not as relevant).

Had two thoughts on this...

1) How would you deal with credibility? Are the types of things you are tracking indisputable? Depends on the book and author. A book about the Earth being flat might not be something to include. How important is scientific accuracy for this?

2) Why not turn your idea into an app like the ones out there for Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies?

http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-oblique-strategies/id638528266?mt=8

Here are 3 sites on Youtube that I use to get summaries of books, hope it helps
Clarify what you are getting into.
1. philosophy notes
2. Tai lopez
3. fightmediocrity

Derek, I love your mind. And you are kinder than I by not highlighting our modern waning attention span. On my most recent music CD release I'd planned to include songs just 2 minutes or less in length...but along the way I forgot.

Could "Do This" somehow encourage people to learn to love reading (especially young people, if that would be your audience)?

Write a song with one idea at a time. Write one song at a time. Your thoughts on the subject make the text and your mood makes the melody and the groove. Above all have fun. It is a way to make your discoveries memorable.

Derek,

Looks like a great idea. I think that including the book title above the sinpets of wisdom would really help.

That would give the advice a broader context - so if someone was really interested in that thought, they would have a way to fact-check your conclusion by giving the data a broader context.

Sometimes I find that a book will give me the 'one piece of wisdom' you mentioned - but then it took the understanding of the broader context presented by the author to really understand that point.

It'd be interesting for you to post a sample chapter before writing a whole book. That way you can get feedback from your audience and tweak based on what they LOVE.

All the best from Chicago.
-Chris

Derek, I think that consolidation is very important. As a song writer I use as few words as I can to make my point. I also make lists, as a way to TCB. I find if I know the genre, directives do the job perfectly.
...G

ps. love the Bansai...

Eric Barker has a really great formula for condensing the books he reads into pithy how-to next steps. It is worth checking out his blog http://www.bakadesuyo.com/ or signing up for his newsletter to get a flavor of what he does. What I love is that he cross-references items from new books with information from previous books or interviews. Seems to be a kind-hearted soul who is in it for the learning and sharing.

Presenting one idea at a time, which can be built upon by others, sounds so much better than lumping a whole bunch of ideas / directives, which could be overwhelming.
There is something to say, though, about a 200 plus page book that develops an idea or several ideas. True, there may be a lot of repetition, but following the sources, development and conclusive statement is in itself enlightening, and helps with retention, rather than just coming to some maxims / directives, that may seem at times dry, and harder to remember (as they stand isolated, with nothing to support them).
Anyway, I'd be interested in reading your directives, and yes, one at a time, please :)

Wow.

Yet another great idea, Derek...if you need contributors for this, please let me know!

Best regards,

Byron

I think the idea of internalizing books by making short directives is really good - if you've read the book beforehand.
Educational studies has also shown that summarizing main points to yourself might help you remember texts. But directives without the context and lessons behind them seems like a bad idea - it's kinda the problem with religion: a bunch of rules accepted without the evidence and arguments behind them.
Once you have read the whole piece, then making directives would be a great idea - but only to yourself... others might get different things out of it.
And also things are always more complex than we believe them to be and if we just say: "science says this, science says that" we might be blind to crucial details that can give us different perspectives and other 'directives'... Science does not equal truth and there is always human interpretation behind the findings.
Anywho, Derek that was more than one idea at the time... Hope you won't hate me for that ;)
You have actually read books, so you're a great thinker anyway. People too lazy to read or do other learning activities needs to learn that life is about the process - not the conclusion. :)
Have fun.

My friend Grant has 200-250 books worth of comprehensive notes.

Tonight I mentioned your /2do article to him, and we liked the idea of organizing books and other forms of media by:
1) Stage of human development for an ideal reader.
2) A rating of the relative value to an Auditory / Visual / Kinesthetic learner.
3) A short review covering the most important ideas, skills and knowledge areas covered.
4) Detailed notes.

I'm wondering if there's a maximally beneficial sequence for blog posts if you did one per directive. Leo Babauta of ZenHabits does that sort of thing very well.

I appreciate your work and think you seem like one of the raddest, kindest dudes ever on film.

"I’d be happier with just the conclusions — the actions — the directives."

Wow. . . Now, that's frightening!

In 1999, I wrote : It is an illusion that we are better informed today than in the past. A heavier dose of digitally acquired lowest common denominator stimulation does not constitute a more informed mind, a more substantive thought, a more caring viewpoint. It simply makes what we now know more palatable, more politically correct, more "user friendly".

Being an elder (old fogey to some) I'd rather have a book that offers me enough material to think about - even with content contrary to my own thinking, than be offered up a few "directives". But then, I prize my capacity to analyze and think things through. If I don't use that capacity someone, some day, is going to tell me (give me directives) to not bother because they can do it better than I can.

But, I'm not in a submissive mode yet - despite the times and government structures under which we ply and comply.

The very foundation upon which this question is posed is not a problem. It is academic. It's something to think about.

But the too often accepted answer is : Love it! Don't bother me with the details. Just give me the "facts". -
Now that's scary.

I also agree w/ responder #1 Dimitri.

Major publishing mandates roughly around 280+ pages these types of books. E-books haven't changed this page paradigm either. Over the years I see many of these would be better suited as a magazine article.
Get to the point - I'm paying for it financially & with my time.
Verbose + filler = Wasting precious time. Plus its not green.

I would peruse condensed versions of worthy books, even pay a fair amount.
I know of one company that does this but they only focus on business. Life is more than just that.

Love the idea, and totally agree with one great idea for $20 from a book is a no brainer.

Perhaps another way of thinking about -"Do this" is to frame it as "this is what I know" as in having reading this book and based on my judgement, this is what I know about food health.

I've tried really hard to use my blog posts to add value to someone's life (470 posts and counting). I write with an action oriented operational brain. Let's face it 99% of blog posts are puff with little real life laconic advice for busy execs.


In summary, fantastic idea. I would do it as on online regular review, where subscribers can expect to see the same format, every time, say 6 books reviewed and simple actions that capture the thesis of the book.

Just some thoughts.

Best

Great idea - I vote BOOK. The comments already are very thoughtful and I have nothing new to add. Except ...

The title reminded me of a NIN lyric ...

"Got money, I'll do anything for you,
got money, just tell me what you want me to do ..."
- Head Like A Hole, Nine Inch Nails

"Don't ship out with a crazy skipper." --Moby Dick
"Don't try to re-create the past" --The Great Gatsby
"Always check your dagger for poison" --Hamlet
Who knew there was such "wisdom" in these books? Everything worth knowing is a "sound bite". Complexity and nuance are for the "nattering nabobs of negativism".
Mr. Sivers has invented the reductio ad absurdum. He should have bought a hydraulic press instead. With that tool you can turn a book into pressed board--which is much more useful than these moronic dicta.
(Folks, this is why you can't substitute a bank balance for IQ points... Every American businessman who once made a killing thinks he's a genius--I give you: Donald Trump. Alas, by commenting we simply give him what he wants: attention.)

Well done for your thoughtful legwork on creating a new Wiki of sorts.

Just two things. (1) "remember the milk" gets better recall than "Don't forget the milk".

(2) get a proper pure Boolean string search engine for your site and thus your instructions AND their references are close at hand for your visitors. This puts the value of your information a big factor more valuable to searchers.

'Glimpse is a good choice. It's just been put into public domain and it is pure. In other words it's not chocked and biased with 'push algorithms' that Google and the others are {since they're ads driven}.

This way people can search for words and/or phrases and are presented with a choice instantly (reminiscent of Google in simplicity)
Each return has picked up whole sentences so searcher knows what they are getting.

It indexes new additions so you can set it to refresh when updated. (A bit like Wordpress without the complexity and coding).

Jacqueline
PS Skype address databaron

If you want to phone (7187150468 local rate from Us) or 02079936415 England) me or Skype me I'd be happy to extrapolate on this idea - taken as advice - 'Remember Glimpse or Webglimpse.'

I think this is a great idea. Personally, I would probably use this mostly for ideas/tips/solutions/conclusions that I've read about already, but that I would like to remember, and keep as mantras of sorts.

I've actually played with a similar idea once: a website for Frequently Asked Questions for everything in life (that's a large site…), supported by "evidence" from somewhere, like popular books, articles, websites. Of course, that's a highly subjective matter, but so is everything else, including self-help books.

Anyway, looking forward to this.

i LOVE this idea!!

I often DO read books, then totally forget the directives.

Thanks!

Thank you Derek for the opportunity to address the issue which you broached regarding compressing books into directives. For me, who likes to cut to the meat, sometimes, and avoid the fat, the idea of flash reading appeals to that need. However, yes.....there are times in which expansive dialogue has its appeal, you know ? It is like a trip, a voyage, something to enjoy .

Please write this book! Brilliant. Distilled wisdom.

I love this idea! I'll look forward to seeing the imperatives.

This is an amazing idea Derek. In the world we live in now everybody wants everything simplified for them. We just want to reach the conclusion real quick. People hardly have time or even the patience to go through a whole novel size book just to learn a few conclusions and advises. Its the way to go. But the name though ... "Do this." It doesnt really sound interesting. Instead it chases a reader away. We dont want to be told what to do. We want to be softly convinced that if we read the book it would change our lives or we could learn something from it.

I underline passages, write notes on book pages to retain the messages. Tear pages and make folders and then misplace them. u have done a great job.

Hi Derek,
I'd love one directive or idea at a time. In defense of reading longer books however, I am often able to remember and idea or a "directive" or a "how to" precisely because of some anecdote or quote the author cites. Everything is so sped up these days and life being beautiful, we want to get to as much of the "good" in it as we can--so the speed of just one "directive" at a time is appealing but I will probably still seek out the longer winded books. Thank you for your always thoughtful, positive and genuine communications. B

Very cool read and concept, Derek. Love reading your insights on all of your adventures throughout the years. The "just tell me" concept is interesting, because many times I want to know the true action item of what I'm reading....and for someone to "just tell me" what it is I'd need to do. The only thing this may cut out is the point you make in "boiling it down"....or the "Context" of the "big picture"...not saying that can't still be achieved, but just my immediate thoughts.....Awesome job, and thank you! Matthew Mayer

Great topic...have you looked into any Ted talks on this idea? I kinda looked at college textbooks in the same idea....800 page texts? After reading it seemed my notes made a better book than the text book...maybe it has to do with money in the publishing world! Technology and the new age we want things faster...simpler with less waste.

I think it's a great idea...as you know...short, sweet & straight to the point.

good luck with it...

I love the idea and especially Dmitri's comment below.

The books I love the most are the ones that tell stories to go along with the advice.

Would be so cool if you could publish it in a format like:

"Do XYZ" to something like this:
*) If you want to achieve A and
*) operate under conditions B, C and D, then
*) do E.

But then add an example or story of how this advice worked/affected you or someone else so that it is easier to grasp. Or a story of how someone implemented it and the changes that occurred?

Could be like a 5 min Derek talk

Thanks! By the way, I LOVE your notes from the books. Always found it an easy way to figure out whether I wanted to read the book or not.

I love this! I'm a trainer and it is exactly what I do. I tell people what to do, give examples, let them practice, and tell them how to integrate and sustain the new behaviors.

I read books and so many of them tell stories and bury the few 'how-to do it' nuggets.

Thanks for doing this. I'm looking forward to reading your cliff notes!

Moira

I like this ides compression of intellectual knowledge... lol

Like a song of sorts "Don't bore us get to the chorus.........

I've always preferred reading to learn more than reading for enjoyment.........

Great idea!! My thoughts;
1. Summarizing and extraction of critical information is still beyond the realm of internet search engines so this initiative would help convey ideas concisely.
2. How about adding one more point in the mix i.e. If , do because AND avoid .
Since readers are expected to apply the relevant knowledge in situations that specifically apply to them, they might also benefit from knowing things they shouldn't do!!
Cheers ☺

What's interesting about this to me is that YOU think these are essential points. I would read them because I have a high regard for you.

How you are going to distinguish it from the other "be successful" books out there I have no idea.

DO THIS works as a title. It's direct, cuts through the crap. The other title I can think of would be something like "Derek Sivers' Best Ideas I Ever Heard". For me, the fact that your name is on there makes me take notice because I know who you are.

This could be a fascinating idea for a text message, not simply as a blog post. That would improve it's visibility...

i've thought about doing this myself many times, particularly after meeting an exec who hired someone to read books he was interested in and submit a two-page report on them.

how about a book in two parts: 1) the front is a list of distilled aphorisms organized by category, easy to browse, and 2) the back is an appendix of sorts, where each aphorism is indexed to a longer paraphrasing of the necessary detail and context for more complete meaning

One thing I've learned about change over years is if you want immediate change that may not become permanent, change the environment. However, if you really want a change to last, infiltrate into the culture such that others choose to make the change a part of their lives, then one has to provide depth and space to empower others to choose to embrace it. Whenever a person changes behavior because someone else gave a directive, it will only last as long as the enviroment demands it. When that incentive disappears from the environment, so will the behavior. However, if a person chooses to change, based on the values and merits of the concept, the change in behavior will stick even though the environment no longer supports it.

All this to say that a directive, while short, condensed, and very helpful, may not last without the depth, the relationship and the mental effort to come to agree with it so that it influences a person's values.

The quick summary, the quick fix, in today's fast paced world, seems the solution, but often, it diminishes the greater impact that comes with the relationship. That's one of those reasons why books are filled with anecdotes and examples, to give a person the space and opportunity to mull it over for themselves.

Yet in the end, the change needs to be succinct for another to apply.

Enjoy the balance.

well, nice idea and sorta cookie cutter.
I'm am thinking more of a wiki kind of interaction thing where it can be a living organizm with input from others as well. indexes for any subject, but with a tweet limitation so many of us blowhards would have to keep it simple and short. Then there's the music biz where the variables in each person also dictate their successes. Too simple would overlook the integration of other factors. Success doesn't always = happiness. I feel diligence, grattitude,
and humbleness might slip through the cracks. namaste' and congrats of the offspring. mine is 22 and it is still an experience that requires challenges.

http://zenhabits.net/12-essential-rules-to-live-more-like-a-zen-monk/

Hey Derek,
Nice to hear from you again.
This concept reminds me of "Cliff Notes"...you know, back in high school, they'd take a book, like Moby Dick, and turn it into a 40-50 page synopsis. It's a great idea, and I think it would work well! Hell, it got me through High School......

Derek,
Well, it sounds like quite a project.
There is a book that has been out for some time by the title "Love Is Letting Go Of Fear" by Gerald G. Jampolsky, M.D. The first half, of the publication that I have, is 48 pages, out of 131 pages for the entire book. If you decide to take a look at it, you will find it is a synopsis of a larger work called, "A Course In Miracles." It's a small book in which the first half condenses the concepts and the second half lays out 12 seperate lessons (directives) to move the concepts into practicums. I'm telling you this as it might help you formulate a template to deliver your information.
The main idea is inspiring the reader to "Do" the book and not just read it.
I hope this helps to further your project.
Keep up your great work,
Carl

Derek,

At first this seems like a great idea - we are all seemingly so busy and rushing around to get somewhere, anywhere, that something that helps us jump ahead must be good. But I wonder. Our attention spans are getting shorter and we are finding it harder to extract satisfaction out of most things that we do. Why? Could it be because we aren't savoring things and letting them soak in and really getting the "nutrients" out of them. While the idea of compressing useful books into "read bites" I can't help but compare it to fast food. Sure it takes longer to put a real salad together and I'll end up tossing out the scraps that I don't need, but there is something valuable and tasty and satisfying about the process that makes eating the salad even more nourishing. Thoughts?
Keep up the great work - I love what you do!

Love the idea.. Impatient always looking for a quick answer. Love metaphysical books give me just step by step to get it done

Derek you always enlighten me with great ideas, I do like it and please keep up the good work as usual.

I feel the same way in a sense that I don't always want to read the whole book just to get the few advices I'm looking for.

I see a problem in relevance though. For example my interests in different topics change over time (now I'm fascinated by how nutrition can influence longevity and diseases) and so I'm interested more in these things than others. So I think clustering all the advices in one ebook, presentation or something else is not a good idea because each person will find only few of those things interesting and worth doing.

This is a very simple idea but why don't you publish your notes on Amazon so people who're looking for a specific book can find your notes and read this extracted version if they don't want to read the whole book?

I was actually looking for this some time ago and I love that you made your notes public. But I'd never found out about it if I wasn't your fan.

Thanks Derek.

I have also a new book (by: me and IFUD of Human Rights) Dutch / pdf 805 page.
http://www.archive.org/details/EUROPESECOMMISSIEJUNCKER

Thank you Derek,
A great idea. People just don't have the time to read a lot of information these days.
Getting straight to the point is the way to go.
And if you do want to read the whole book...you still have the choice to do that.
Thank you!
All the best,
Kel-Anne

Concise advices are good, but too much conciseness can hurt.

Personally, I do not get the point of “Avoid awareness of competitors” but I find the observation “merely knowing there are more competitors in a competition decreases our performance” refreshing and compelling.

It may be related to being a non-native English speaker or it may be because in the back of my mind there is always a voice questioning every command, but I find slightly more elaborated advices much more trustworthy than very sharp advices in the form of commands.

It's a brilliant idea. With tons of information in this era, a really succinct and direct DO THIS instructive statement serves all of us well. It's up to the readers whether they'll want to delve deeper into the respective book. It works for me, Derek. Hence, I'm looking forward!

Derek, I love this idea and I would love to be updated!

I love this idea.

Some of us find it hard to sneak some time away for self improvement. Obviously we *should*, but I think having bite-sized chunks of things we should be doing either a) will get us motivated to make that time or b) give us the takeaway that we need to make some changes because we're already open to the idea/fact that we *do* need to change and improve.

I'd want to know why. I say put the list of directives at the front of the book for people who want the shortest version. Then, for the rest of the book, use the directives as subheadings and explain the research / thinking that lead to your summation. This would be a good format for summing up current research in many areas, including socioeconomic development.

derek. here's some advice. there are no short cuts. "avoid awareness of competitors" doesn't always work. sometimes awareness of competitors makes our performance better. it's nuanced. knowing there are more competitors in a competition decreases our performance if it's a classic tournament, ie that only the first, second and third place get anything for their efforts. but in the economy of today, each so-called competitor actually has a chance to change what they do to become personal and unique (even if it's just a placebo effect). more competitors then gives us a better chance to use our imagination and developed our own personalised style, which could make us more driven, which could make us perform better on the basic service that all competitors provide.

books provide stories which are the evidence for secondary experience becoming wisdom that we can own/share. we all need to read them and make up our own aphorisms. we can't use yours (or mine).

I like the idea, yet I find it hard to completely share your point of view. It sure works for very practical stuff (how to use a machine, for example), but a simple "do this do that" list is hard to link to more psychological stuff. The stories around show how and why the author comes with the list, and I'd lose precious motivation if I didn't read the whole thing. Also, some people hate to be simply told what to do without a justification. Actually, it depends on the reader. But still, I'd rather spend weeks to read a whole Tony Robbins book with all his bigger-than-life stories than 10 minutes on a simple 'résumé', however clearer it would be. Here gaining time isn't always gaining knowledge. :)

Nice idea, https://sive.rs/book is one of my most visited places on your blog. Because I can't read all the books. I look into your rating & read some notes if I like them i'll go ahead and buy them :) Surely this will be helpful.

Hi,
This is a good idea. I read too much every day at work, so I appreciate someone who go straight to the point. I think quality of sumaries it´s all, and could avoid complains from writers and followers.
I use http://www.getabstract.com/ at work and it works. It´s a website with 5 to 8 pages sumaries of several books. It has some textual notes, and I suppose they sell this saas to big companies (saves employees time) and should have some marketing arrangement with editorial.

Great advice; I especially like 'Avoid awareness on competitors'!

Hi Derek,

First of all I reall appreciate the fact that you've kept in touch since selling CD Baby. (Which I'm still using) ☺

Well, as far as putting your directives in blog form, it would be convenient because, then you could read the directive and reference the full explanation quickly, by clicking the link.

However, some people just like curling up with a good book. ;-)

Thank you for taking the time to do this for us.
☺

Hi Derek,

I'd love to see a book reflecting Derek's wisdom from distilling 220 books. That's because I do enjoy your writing which of course is from your point of view.

But, and not to get to technical, the challenge with your proposal as I see it is that your endevour could and most likely would regrettably lack relevance . and as such fail to achieve what you are setting out to achieve... i.e. general applicability...

How dare I say this?

My conclusion is drawn after considering your proposal through the lens of Karl Weich's interpretation of Thorngate's postulate of commensurate complexity... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorngate%27s_postulate_of_commensurate_complexity.

Thorngate's postulate was a response to debate amongst sociologists - mainly between Kenneth J. Gergen and Barry R. Schlenker– revolving around the meaning of sociological research. Whilst Schlenker appeared to maintain the position, that context only superficially influenced social behavior, Gergen appeared to maintain that context penetrated everything in social behavior, rendering observations as specific to the very situation observed. Thus, simplifying the discussion, the observation of social behavior would be no more than collecting historical data, since context would never be the same and the results would remain unique Thorngates view - his postulate - is that ' It is impossible for a theory of social behaviour to be simultaneously general, simple or parsimonious, and accurate.' (Warren Thorngate (1976) "In General" vs. "It depends"

To to simplify its application, Karl Wieck has developed an interpretation of his model considering it “as a clockface with general at 12:00, accurate at 4:00, and simple at 8:00 to drive home the point that an explanation that satisfies any two characteristics is least able to satisfy the third characteristic.”

According to Weick, research operates in this continuum:

if research that aims to be accurate and simple (6-o'clock), results would not be generally applicable.
if research that aims to be general and simple (10-o'clock), results would not be accurate and
if research that aims to be general and accurate (2-o'clock), results would not be simple any more.
Basically, Weick maintains, that there is a "trade-off" between these three virtues in such a way that only two can be achieved at any given time.

How does this apply to your situation in writing 'Do This'?

Simply put, distilling the content of the texts results by definition in a great level of simplicity which then permits approximation of generality meaning that the advice would not be accurate... or approximation of accuracy... resulting in compromising generality i.e. to a specific context, which would not be the same fore every reader.

Regardless, good luck in your project however you plan to progress. I'd still be interested to read what you have to write as I always have!

Best wishes,

Tim

There are lots of feedback here already. I couldn’t read what others said due to the huge volume of comments. It sounds like the exact theme of this thread? ☺. I will simply provide my observations for your consideration, Derek.

Whenever I experience too much information (books, speeches, presentations, etc.), I always ask myself “Am I being information hoarding?” What I have learned is that not all information is critical. Only certain information is critical at certain time. The question is “How can I know something is useful when I need it?”

It’s like learning a new skill, it’s not just about knowing what can be done or what should be done. It’s about how we can start practicing it so we can be better with it. Very often, it’s about finding a starting point and practice it properly/regularly. Using figure skating as an example, I know a triple Axel can be done on ice. I can’t do it right away. I need to practice single first and build myself to work toward to the triple jump.

When I read a new book/presentation/speech, etc., I always ask myself “What’s different/special/unique in this book/presentation/speech?”

The reality is that we just don’t have not enough of time to read all the interesting books. However, does that trigger empowerment and self-driven from someone with the idea of “Just tell me what to do”? I do appreciate you being considerate about not telling people what to do.

Besides the key point, other parts of a book may provide a journey to help a reader experience the key point. It will be registered better in him/her to help someone utilize it when it is needed.

My $0.02. ☺

Hello derek I hope life is well for you.I like the idea.My advice would be to give examples of how these directives helped you .

I 1) love this idea, 2) look forward to reading what you post about it, and 3) am highly likely to buy such a book.

One of the things I love most about Chip and Dan Heath's books is that what they write is prescriptive, rather than merely descriptive. I read Duhigg's _The Power of Habit_ hoping to learn more about setting good habits, but instead found interesting but non-actionable information about how powerful habits are. Phbt. I already knew they were powerful from reading Loehr and Schwartz's _The Power of Full Engagement_, but it also provided guidance on WHAT TO DO, which I felt made it a much better book.

This is a great Idea! I will go through your list for books to see if you have any that are in my to-do list and save myself a lot of time! In my opinion, If you fill your cup with coffee (fill your mind with too much information), you leave no room for sugar and creamer (understanding and retention). This is why most people would rather you give them the information than read the book themselves. It would be nice if authors condensed the info in their books in the first place and left out the fluff.

This is a great idea Derek. I wondered what you had been up to over the past couple of months. Now I know :)

Look forward to grabbing this book. Will be perfect for a daily morning read of reminders.

This is absolutely genius I love this idea!!!

Derek,
I am a give me all the details & i will make the decision type of person; however many people are not and simply will not truly read a lot they may skim and take things out of content, so have a short & to-the-point version with a detailed explanation or point of decision linked is an excellent idea. As for the title "Do This" is good or maybe even "Just Tell Me What To Do" longer title but more explicit. (sort of Q&A style)

Hi Derek ...

Yes, your approach to consolidating reams of information makes great sense. I liken it to consolidating decades of music and guitar theory into segments of information that can be easily grasped and executed. The retention factor, of course, is always the biggest challenge when learning the details about most any subject. "Keep It Simple ..." :: Dennis

DS - maybe incorporate a combination of Dmitri's thoughts into your "blog" approach. The directive would be the subject line of the blog, then a short (emphasis on short) discussion of background, why, "boundary conditions", etc. Sounds great!

Hi Derek,

This is a really great and generous idea!
I like to receive "do this" advices!!!!
And I don't loose any of my critical sense for this. The ones who can't deal with "do or try this" advices are simply in some "self-confidence deficit".
Someone enough confident in his thinking capacity can deal with advices.

So please, keep your project wide open and uncensored. Oooops! Am I telling you to "do this"?

Also what I may find interesting would be to receive (by your blog, newsletter ....) 2 "to do" advices a week for a period of time you define. One for wisdom about life (in general) and one about business. And if possible, who knows, they could be linked. Like a wisdom life advice translating into a business one.
So here is my humble suggestions.
Simply thank you, Derek, for even having the idea of doing this project.
Etienne.

Hi Derek, thank you very much.

Even if you just shared notes that are mainly for yourself, I'm sure that I would still like to read them. Though, thank you for taking the time to have others more in mind also.

Your sive.rs/book was my first inspiration for also sharing notes that I have collected on books that I read. In fact, I put all my book notes and developer-related notes and 'cheat sheets' public on GitHub (https://github.com/danialgoodwin/dev/tree/master/note). Mainly for myself, but others may find it useful too.

The biggest problem I find when reading (books or articles or websites) is that there tends to be a high noise-to-signal ratio. Yes, it is worth the time and money to learn a useful insight from reading an entire book. But, there are so many good books to read (and I have many interests) that the high noise-to-signal ratio hurts productivity when I know things could be learned faster. And, I do like to remind myself to be more of a producer rather than a consumer. Though, because you wrote this post, I think we already agree on this.

In my newer reads, I also put the page number for the each listed gold nugget so that I and others can quickly find the source for further details. I hope you will also consider this for your future reads, as well.

;)

(Sidenote: One can also be considered productive by making others more productive.)

This is great, because other than storybooks that I read to my kids, I don't make reading books a priority, but I crave the insight. In the past when I have read the full books I have compressed their knowledge into little lists of wisdom to apply to my life...
once again, great work Derek.

Hi Derek,

Couldn't agree more.

This is the idea behind a blog I started a few years ago (and need to start updating again):

http://themattheweffect.org/

Let me know what you think.

There's also a collection of quotations at http://themattheweffect.org/quotes Hover over the left side to get a menu of topics and authors, over the right for a next arrow.

Matthew

Nice!

I see this as a different way to organize books....Instead of Table Of Contents, start with the takeaways first, then clicking on each takeway reveals more details, and then finally, each of the details links to a story or experiment that supports the conclusion.

Personally I think it would be a far better way to organize self help books, because then I can easily skip the stuff I already know, and get to the parts I want to know more about.

Interesting, because I've been involved with a project for the last few years aimed at doing exactly what you're describing. You may have heard of it: eHow.com. The site has been fighting a bad reputation for years because of one overarching fault: oversimplification for the sake of brevity. Yes, you want to get your point across before something shiny distracts the reader, but we wouldn't need language if everything could be reduced to grunts and groans. In short, there's an art involved, which as a music-lover, I'm sure you can appreciate. I'm happy to share thoughts with you, Derek. E-mail me.

I love it. Every Book should come with a Just Do This Section.

Can't wait to see it.

Great idea, and I think Dmitri has a some really good input on how to put it into a format that will make people internalize the information. Are you planning on citing the source material that these directives are going to be gleaned from (if such material exists)? I think that will help to alleviate some of the 'fast food culture' sentiment that Rex Strother mentioned. Not only can it serve as a nice, succinct directive, but it can provide kind of a one-sentence summation of a complex idea - one that, if the reader is truly interested in, they can go to the source and get more information.

This does not sound like just another self-help book...more like a "let me help you achieve your goal" book, which is alot more supportive and encouraging.
Good luck with it, Derek!

Love the idea of a "Do This" - although personally when someone tells me that and have a good argument why I get curious and want to learn more. What have they read or experienced that I haven't? I would then want to read the book or at least dive into parts of it to learn more.

I'm reading The Happiness Advantage right now and it's loaded with awesome tidbits. So for a book like that I think it would be hard to pull out a short wise directive but there are plenty of books that only contains one or two a-ha moments, perfect for the 'do this.'

Amy Lynn Andrews, a known blogger, compiles all her notes and more into a Knowtbook. She uses Workflowy. Not sure putting all your notes into something like that would be up your ally?

Dear Derek, I think you have an excellent idea. After a career in physics I took up playing music. As I was studying the book Sensations of Tone by Hermann Helmholtz (575 pages) I wrote down all the points I never wanted to forget. I turned these points into a small booklet I self published called Physics, Music Theory, and the Hammer Dulcimer (31 pages). And now, 36 years later, I have sold a few thousand copies and greatly helped my success in the music business. Just this morning I was thinking of doing another little booklet on Anatomy of the Spirit by Caroline Myss. I think it is a very important book and maybe too long and dense to re-read down the road.

the concept is super cool and would be right up my ally though I don't read the same material as you do! But it sounds like a good direction anyway. I would like to be more helpful to you but I'm not real knowledged in this stuff ! Good luck!

You're going to need this system for these comments!
☺ — Derek

Hi Derek,

I can't thank you enough for such a valuable resource that you have created for us as summaries of the books you are shared. Otherwise many of us would never be able to extract benefit from them.

Thanks so much!

God Bless!

Hi Derek,

Great idea. It reminds me of the book of Proverbs. I wish I memorized it for different choices in my life. You might even apply some of your lists to books of the Bible and come up with something like the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule.

Depending on how detailed advice you are giving and about what issues in a person's life, you might want to put some kind of disclaimers in there. "If I was in your situation given the facts you have given me, I would probably do this. You might want to future fantasize what it would look like if you made one choice and then how it would look if you made the other choice."

I have always been fascinated with psychology, hypnotists like Milton Erikson and paradoxing someone. Even if a person grasps the advice, what motivates them not to follow it.

Also, what does their own inner wise person advise them to do. I find it helpful to imagine what Jesus would tell me to do and then whether I can live up to that.

Derek!

You're kind of a genius. ;p Love all the amazing feedback you're getting here!

Like mentioned here, I would love to see a category breakdown which would be helpful and then maybe just minimal bullet points from each book.

Another way you could do that is since I'm sure a lot of books have crossover, you could have a category - let's say productivity - and list lessons / cliff notes of the top books in that category.

You're stellar at keeping it simple and direct, Derek. I look forward to seeing what you do.

In the meantime, I'll be trying to get through the 200 books you just added to my reading list! ;p

Talk soon,
Dominique Anders
www.DominiqueAnders.com

This sounds AWESOME! I can't wait until you get it all fleshed out.

No immediate ideas strike me as compelling enough to share with you quite yet, but if I come up with something great, you'll be the first to know ;)

Take care Derek!
<3 Brittany

I like the idea. I appreciate your sharing the concept itself as well as the notes on the many books you've read.

the concept allows me to, well,
1) consciously distill information so I myself can take away the essence
2) contribute to others who are interested in what I've distilled from it. saves them time. it's actually a bit like cooking in a communal household: everyone cooks one night, and so there is effortless food for everyone every night minus the one you're on shift.

And I like your sharing your notes, because I just learned a whole bunch of things by reading them without having to comb through a kazillion pages.

Your sharing of both concept and contents strikes me as very generous, on top of the benefits named above, and is thus inspiring to me: You are an example for me. Your "simplicity of humanity" (for lack of better description) has inspired me before, I just never said anything. It's as if you're completely unafraid of people while freely sharing yourself. I appreciate such a stance in life, as well as the contribution to our "community of all" that it provides.

Love this idea Derek. Looking forward to receiving these "directives" posts!

Hi Derek,

Nice to see your mail.I think the positive aspect is people will learn as they do when they implement the to do's/directives. Start with a pilot project and see how it works.Regards, Bala

What I want to know is how to capture the eyeballs and mindshare to get 479 (so far... in 5 days) comments on a simple post with no real opt-in, no promotion; just text an a little bit of formatting...

What is obvious to you IS amazing to others; but that's true of all of us...

What's the secret to finding the people who find YOUR obvious... amazing?
Slowly slowly building fans and friends. I've been actively making and sharing things in public for 21 years now, since my first website in 1994. — Derek

I like this idea a lot! Recently I've been using Blinkist to review books that I have read. My main purpose is to quickly recap the main lessons; the thing I have to do. A list of directives would be welcome!

Good idea Derek, I think sometimes all I need are a few insightful sentences to get me going. Looking forward to this project, best of luck! Jay Cavanaugh

I tried this a dozen years ago. I took what I considered my key thoughts and compressed them into what I called The Beckwith 40. My reservation began with the realization that people responded much more strongly to the books than the mini mini mini Cliff Notes. And after studying great teachers in my work for my next (and last) business book, I decided that the context for the lesson matters as much as the lesson, and perhaps more. The context--the story--illustrates the lesson. And illustrating the lesson, literally--the story plants a picture in our mind's eye--is what makes the lesson vivid, memorable, and credible.

Great teachers don't just tell, or explain. They illustrate.

This isn't to discredit your idea at all, Derek. I am incapable of discrediting any of your idea; I trust you that much.

It's always good to read your thoughts. My only complaint is there are too many days in between them.

all the best as always, harry

Here's my summary of Blink for you:

1. Snap judgments are good, except when they aren't.

2. No. There's no way to tell when it might work and when it won't.

3. Done.

And here's Tipping Point:
1. Influential people influence other people.
2. Trendsetters start trends that others follow.
3. Sometimes, influential people don't influence others and things trendsetters do don't become trends.
4. I don't know why either.
5. Done.

Final Three:
Here’s Outliers.
1. Luck is huge.
2. With Luck and 10,000 hours of practice, you can become like the Beatles.
3. Smart is way overrated, Ivy League schools, ditto.

David and Goliath.
1. Screw luck--think smart.
2. Underdogs sometimes win--by thinking smarter.
3. Some people succeed despite their apparent handicaps, by compensating for them.
4. By being very smart.

The Bible.
1. There was light in the beginning, but it sure as hell wasn't this big bang thing people talk about.
2. The hero dies in the end.

To learn many concepts and facts and then synthesize them into a body of thought that is meaningful specifically to us personally is ideal, but the truth is that many of us already have full time jobs and can't always afford the luxury of delving into the history of food (for example)in a time consuming way. We are still responsible for eating healthy food, however, and if we can find an author we trust and what we read makes sense I don't see any harm in condsensing information. That is why doctors spend years studying(maybe bad example); we trust them to condense their knowledge , give us directives, and send us on our way with important bits of their shared wisdom. Lawyers go to doctors and vice versa. Ideally we all share some wisdom or support our fellow beings as best we can. I say it's a great idea.

Hi I only know you from Facebook. I don't think I know you in the real world. I get what you are trying to do but part of the problem is that people want to squish large amounts of information into tag lines. Reading is a process. It helps one to think better. The actual process of reading physical books (I don't count screen reading as reading) is as important as the message.

So generous. (your list and notes and ideas) An endless array of floor to ceiling windows...hmm. One idea at a time=a ray of light coming through to consider. Yes, I would read a book of bits and then follow the views that captured my imagination.

Hey Derek,

I did the phone notes, like you, for a few years and then it just got too large and I started forgetting the really interesting and cool things because the scroll was enormous.

It always felt good when I could relate a story or fact, in a few sentences but how do I collate the essence from all the books I thought interesting.

Tell me how, please ☺)

Cheers Ollie

Thanks for sharing i think u are on the right path .Getting to the meat of it is Irie …!!

People eyes opens for newer ideals. if the music has a good taste to the public they will buy into it. The old music from the 50's to the 70's everyone enjoyed those years. The new music they make now is mindless music.

In oder for that plant to grow, it still needs the Nitrogen to make it green. Take away the nitrogen you got a dead Plant. Music goes for the same advice. You can dysect this. but it still a plant. So is music

Derek- I like your thinking. I'm going to use your Michael Pollan example in an upcoming post on how to use Evernote in alignment with psychological principles. I think the path forward is clear: your next step is to weave these directives into a coherent framework. As an intellectual person, you probably resist such universal utopian visions, but that is exactly why you're the perfect person to do it. My favorite blog - ribbonfarm.com - is full of dozens of frameworks for different aspects of business, art, and life. The writers make them up on the fly, understanding that every framework is wrong...but some are useful. I think this ability to place seemingly unrelated ideas in context together is going to be a critical skill in the future. People are looking for more than "tips and tricks" - they're looking for coherent world views based on science and proven by experience.

I think this kind of book would be very useful to certain segment of folks -- especially if you could tie the theoretical "do this" to a real life application, perhaps a personal one. I'd definitely buy a copy...or three.

Hey Derek,

This is a great idea. I've come to the same conclusion in recent years and have resorted to only reading certain charters in books whose chapter title speaks to whatever I'm trying to understanding at the moment in time. I've only begun to do this because I realized that most books I'm interested in contains lots of filler text , stories, and anecdotes, which I'm not interested in. Let me know once you launch, I'm in.

OK, how come so many of those commenting here (not to mention Westerners in general) wail, "I don't have enough time to read a whole book!" Yet, NEVER do we hear anyone saying, "I don't have enough time to watch TV/play videogames/surf the Internet." Let's be honest — each and every one of us finds all the time we need to do the things that are truly important to us personally, regardless of their redeeming social significance...or lack of same.

Pretty much in agreement with the commenter who questions the need for yet another collection of soundbites. And there is something to the process of reading an entire book (or as much of it that holds our attention, at least) being integral to truly utilizing the information it contains. That said, Derek, there are no doubt many people who will appreciate your efforts...starting with yourself!

All the best,
Laiki

Always insightful Derek and this goes back to a music convention I met you at in Nashville TN about 11 or 12 years ago when you had cd baby. I think the idea is brilliant, yet, the "aha" moments for you may slightly be different for someone else based on their own perspective when reading the entire book. I agree with you though, that more refinement is always better, rather than the fluff that comes with so many books to fill space. As far as the competitor thing, sometimes it is better to just focus on what you are doing and get the best results you can without the diversion of what someone else is doing.....In this way, you keep the energy and focus where it should be. BUT , as people have already alluded to , there is a sense of motivation and even inspiration one can gain by seeing what the competition is offering. I prefer the first approach personally. When you had Cd baby, did you ever look to others who were doing or starting to do the same thing? Or being a pioneer, were your horse blinders on? Also , have you read and what do you think of the "4 hour work week" by Tim Ferris? Best,
Greg

Hi Derek, the point you mention about awareness of competitors feels spot on. There is a deflating effect, I think, from the YouTube sensations - so many 8 y.o.'s ripping up everything from Rachmaninov to Art Tatum - it can lead to "what's the use?!" kind of thinking. LOL.

I like it. What I've found helpful in the past is a day-to-day type calendar. (this one is good - http://www.andrewsmcmeel.com/catalog/detail?sku=9781449451165 ). Every day I get a note to think about as the day progresses, instead of getting a concentrated dose of a number of different ideas. Plus, it's an additional sku that you can add to the Sivers inventory ;)

Hi Derek,

You succeeded in compiling a fantastic list of book. I scanned it and added a few titles to my reading list. Thanks a lot!

Idea for improvement. Sometimes I am struggling with the idea that a book is outdated or not relevant anymore. Probably this can be indicated somehow.

Good luck!

Toon

It's a good idea Derek. I like it. Of course I'm a reader and poet, so I like the longer explanation, but as a singer/songwriter once sang, "the trouble with poets is, they talk too much."

Dmitri Pisarenko, Interesting concept like a twitter for books. Seems you could have a book as a category like a # to crowd source each persons directive.

Could be fun with the right input.

I’m not sure what it means to conclude there is a market for the idea. There’s a huge market for Adam Sandler movies and a yawning maw for Eat, Pray, Love, so “Go for it” can mean anything from “brilliant” to “thatt’s the kind of shit that people eat up.”

You cannot divorce words, or the ideas they convey, from their context. Just as important, while knowledge may be knowing the How-To, wisdom is knowing the Why, and anyone who suggests knowledge can go even nine holes with wisdom has just demonstrated a fatal lack of understanding the difference. As a parallel, knowledge is knowing the precise date when the Edict of Nantes was revoked, while wisdom and understanding are knowing what the fuck that means in any meaningful way.

Brilliant idea! I often find myself skimming most books now and looking for the gems, or the directives as you call them. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on what might be lost when we skim, abbreviate, and abridge. Any downside that you see? Personally, I think context is important sometimes if only to help remember what the point may be. "Avoid awareness of competitors" is pithy and memorable, but I almost immediate find myself trying to backward engineer it and understand it in a larger context. Is it true? Is it always true? When is it most useful? etc..
I've also witnessed that when I come to insight on my own, climbed the mountain of understanding, through guidance sometimes, I feel like I can own it more. The "ah ha!" is genuine and feels more rewarding, and perhaps long lasting.
Still the take aways are very powerful, if we can remember them, understand them, and experience their truth through lived experience.

best to you,
Jeff

In a business context, I think your idea finds a lot of friends. Reading over some of the comments, I'm struck by how many seem to start with "I don't have time to read a whole book." That, I believe, is the radical problem facing most of us.

Given that, the heart of your concept here isn't so much how things are condensed, but "curation." Same problem facing the arts, in the Internet age especially. A trusted curator / purveyor of things that merit our attention is a vital function in the modern world (probably earlier, for that matter). You - Derek - have a degree of trust that validates the books being condensed as well as the condensation itself. You have the reputation of being insightful enough to understand and condense things usefully. So, the qualities of the curator are really the key to this idea being useful. My version of Book #1 might be different and, let's say, flawed in some way by my limitations. A curator who is trusted (meaning, believed to be qualified) is the cornerstone.

The more difficult problem is identifying curators who merit this trust. Consider the evolution of film critics.

Capturing the teach points!! Great idea. Each reader will interpret the points in their own way so it is not exactly you telling them what to do-- just making it succintly available. In a short format people may be more motivated to engage so this helps them stay connected with literature. This also acts a somewhat of literature review (or like an annotative bibliography) so that readers can compile and compare different perspectives or a range of ideas on a given topic. If readers need more anecdotal/theoretical or academic evidence from the source they can go to it inspired by your short "abstract" if you will. Well done!

Reminds me of Cliff Notes and highlights (from previous students) in my rented college books... which were great in a pinch.

I don't appreciate long winded authors, but I also like some storytelling, context, application of ideas. I read a lot of bios after college, tried to find the thread that would lead to success in business and in life (which was quite simple in theory). I got more out of it by reading about their personal journey and discoveries, their experiences and work ethic... all of which I am sure has helped build the roads to my success.

Examples to give it some context would provide a deeper meaning and understanding. Perhaps this can be printed at the end of the book (or link), directed by footnotes if the reader's interested in learning a bit more about each wise directives? Or maybe you could spell it all out with highlights and Cliff Notes? :)

You just did this to us with the comments! Too many to read, so we have to scroll down until we find the green of your reply, which basically tells us Derek says "READ THIS"
☺ — Derek

Yes...I like this idea Derek! It gives busy people what they need to know quickly :) Some aspects of a longer diary would be lost but sometimes cutting to the chase is good, no?

Great idea! I take notes in the books I read just for this very reason, and re-read the notes to refresh my memory or come back to a topic when I need to apply it in my life. I'd recommend including the page numbers of the "Do this" actions, so that if the person wants to dive deeper into the topic they can quickly jump to it in the book. I do this in my notes and it's extremely helpful.

Hey Derek,

Just read your post and thought I'd share this. Long ago, I started off with a similar (albeit, a bit unstructured) system as your notes, which I would use for random knowledge acquisition (be it personal development or professional -- i'm a programmer). Before too long I realized that 'tagging' the random bits helped me not just organize the information but also helped recall information. I think enabling tagging and search/filter-via-tags serve the same purpose as a good index in books (think back of book indexes -- not table of contents). If you refer to them often enough you end up 'chunking'[1] the information itself with reference to the tag.

chunking used here in the sense of https://www.google.com.sg/search?q=chunking

I think this has some good and some potentially dangerous qualities - one good possibility albeit commercial, would be making a page a day calendar style book/blog/website limiting the amount of advice available at one time. this would allow for better digestion of your point, and stop a person from reading 15 'do this's' just to find the one that suits them that day.

The possible negatives have been mentioned by others: over simplification of complex ideas. To use a chess analogy, there are plenty of good rules that will get you to an intermediate level, but after that it becomes so much more complex that its all about exceptions, memory and deeper understanding.

Overall, still a great idea!

I would buy "Do This".

While summaries are not a replacement for the originals, they are a great way of finding ideas you otherwise had not. You cannot read every book, after all.

The book 59 Seconds is a good example of a similar book, I think.

I really like the idea. I do note, however, that what I actually do is sometimes different from what I think I'm going to do. for example, I like the idea of a brief summary - but then I turn around and order your top 8 books from amazon. Maybe you could continue to rate the quality of the books - I would love to grab the key points out of your below 6/10 reads - but I would feel as though I'm missing something if I don't give more attention to those that you think are brilliant. I'm delighted that you are willing to help me filter some of the noise, but your ratings help me pay a bit more attention to particular books.

I think you have great ideas you are genius Derek, I get bored reading long books, yes I feel bad but true because I work as a songwriter, and my friends read big books I don't like to read, long and eternal words I like short things YES so this works just great

Hello, Derek! First I'd like to say that I miss you at CD baby, so it's nice to hear from you here.
As an avid reader of fiction, I find myself unable to remember the actual events of a story I've just read as much as I remember the emotional impact, how it made me feel. I don't know how or if that speaks to your system of extracting the informational/educational core from a non-fiction apple of a book, but I find it interesting. Do you?

I wasn't happy hours of my intimate conversation with author feel wasted when I don't remember the contents and did not change my life. So, I make sure I do something in real life from the lessons I learn. Have directives will make it so much easier and maybe I can share with other readers.

Derek, I strongly believe in this, but with a twist. :)

When I wrote my first guest post for Zen Habits, I summarized the article at the bottom into 2 parts: Theory & Practice, both written as bullet points (See: http://zenhabits.net/two-simple-ways-to-form-new-habits-without-really-trying/)

It's important to include the underlying theory in addition (but separate from) the practice. That way you get a chance to address false assumptions and misconceptions. You set the stage for better practice with less mental friction, if the reader's current outlook is faulty.

It's enormously important to also include context of when and where the directives will be of use. What does the advice look like in the person's life?

I remember noticing this in one of your notes (I believe it was the one on the 4 Hour Body): There's a difference between:

Take the following supplements.

And:

Buy the following supplements. Take these in the morning, these in the evening.

If I skip the buying, the taking won't be possible. :)

In conclusion, do this: :P

1- Include a separate section on underlying theory to set the mental stage
2- Include the context in which the directives will be performed for easier application

Hi Derek, Thanks for contacting me. I fully support your positive intention to create a new direct approach to enhance the "learning process" for interested people and readers. It makes good sense ... to simply: "Do This"! Go for it, Derek, and enjoy the creative process, my friend. Namaste, Jerry

This sounds like the kernel of a knowledge base which would give advice simply by typing in a phrase. Or, at least that's how I see it. The user would ask the question (whatever he or she wants to be told what to do) and the system would scan the knowledge base and provide factoids that were applicable to the question. you would need to make sure each of the factoids were tagged with some sore of identifier so the search engine would know how to find them. You probably know all this and I'm insulting your intelligence. Sorry about that, I'm thinking out loud here. Let me know if I'm on track with your vision.

Hi Derek,
I love everything you think of. This is awesome. I couldn't agree more with wanting a condensed version of advice and not wanting to take the time to read 400 pages to say the same thing. I am already on your e-mail list. Please continue to notify me of your posts. Thank you! You really rock...

Always love your thoughts Derek - keep them coming - and the book is a great idea

I like this concept Derek. My experience has been that some of the most informative prose is often poetry. If you look at the Tao, Dante, Rumi's poems on love, they all seem to be a container for everything but using the fewest words while engaging ones mind in the desire to expand thinking.

In my own focusing work, where I try to cultivate this kind of wisdom from an internal source, my own body, I have received many directives. This distilled wisdom usually comes in the form of few words but words that also carry specific actions and an inherent "knowing" of what to do next or what is "right".

I set them as daily reminders. Single phrases like: Assume the best, Responsibility is possibility, and Completion is interactive, Celebrate Gratitude have become calls to action while instantly connecting me back to the source of the wisdom.

Now, I know it would be hard to monazite a book on specific calls to action generated from my on internal focusing work, but I am pleased to share them with you in the event that they might resonate or carry some kind of universal meaning.

Re. extroverts & introverts: there's a little set of 'distinguishing' questions that I like:
'Can you tell what is beautiful from what is fashionable, what is good from what is popular, what is right from what is normal, what is valuable from what is expensive, and what is true from what is comforting?'
The last one frequently applies to exercises in personal reflection.

I make 'do this' lists from books I've read, but I think they work for me because I've read the book, digested it, and produced a personally relevant distillation of it. But there's always something to be gained from a quick look at someone else's summary, I'm sure, whether it leads you to read the book yourself or just gives you something to think about.

I wonder if the real value in this idea is that it's something we should all do for ourselves?

Derek .

I have read many of your condensations and find them extremely valuable , in on going experience kind of way , for me personally . The Willpower Instinct has become almost a mantra for ...(TY Kelly McGonagal)...I am not an formation format expert , so I can offer no presentation advice so please press on....The Sooner the Better... Larry A.

Hey, Derek
I love that your mind never stops working, and that you're always seeking to better yourself (and all of us who read you).
I believe there's a lot of merit in the idea. Bulk -- of words, time, commitment -- can become intimidating, and I appreciate your sharing your insights.
Kari

Great initiative Derek. In my quest for such an approach, I came across http://www.wikisummaries.org/Category:Summaries ,which has been helpful. Looking forward to your directives.

Thank you, Derek!! What an amazing life you are having and sharing.

Could you take on NATURE'S TRUST by Mary Christina Wood next? (Forgive me if I missed it on your list already.) It's a great read and extremely important for all of us.

Enjoy our planet today!
Barbara

Derek

A while ago i decided to start my blog posts with my 'conclusion' and a short execution plan (bullet points) 'how to'... only after these bolts and nuts introduction the complete article follows... Asking people to invest in time has become a big challenge nowadays.

So yes i support your idea ☺

BUT... i think people rarely grasp the "deep" meaning of something when it is not repeated in multiple and different ways... so yes, a more complete story would still be recommended i think...

Just like it takes more then only saying to my wife once in a while 'i love you'. This is not enough i'm afraid ;-)

Looking forward for you list !!!

Oliver

"“Half a group was shown that extraverts are more successful. Other half shown that introverts are more successful. Then when asked to recall events from their past to help determine which they were, they remembered just the events that support the successful group they were told.”
How would you turn that into advice?"

A: "Memory is selective, this is why depressed people often only remember the depressing things from their past. Remind yourself of this bias and work to counter it when making decisions or judgements of all kinds."

??

I like the idea of short, sweet and to the point. Reading the books themselves can't be replaced as everyone's takeaway might not be the same since we are all different and so are our situations. Yet, I already view you as a trusted advisor so I know whatever you put out will be a worthwhile read.

Hi Derek,

I think this is a brilliant idea, but would raise two two thoughts:

1. If put into book form, would they be more digestible/thought provoking as a micro book? i.e. a handful at a time? Like a 30 minute presentation, after a flipping through pages, do they become noise and pretension?

2. The value of the distillation, is directly proportional to the level of trust of the distiller. For example, if you walked up to someone blindly in the street and said 'You really need to read this book' or stood there and gave the distilled version they would probably look at you as some sort of nut job and call the police.

Michael Shea

Hey Derek,

Love the idea! Currently, I use the Blinkist App (https://www.blinkist.com/en/) to solve this problem and it does a really good job of summarising books.

My experience using the app has been that I learn a lot in 20 minutes but I don't retain it over a longer period. To solve the problem I try and use spaced repetition.

The other insight that some of the other have mentioned too, reading the story helps me remember the lessons better as compared to just reading the insights. I wanted to be sure of this point so after having read the summary I read the books. So I read the following books in full - How to Measure Your Life and Drive and I realized that I remember the stories better than I remember the lessons.

So now I've decided that I'll do both. In the interest of time, I'll read the summary but overtime I'll buy those books and read them as well.

PS - A quick search on the comments told me that only 2 people know about the app.

So, we are talking about ideas. And ideas can be mapped in some data structure. People looking for an inspiration in interesting things, which is implemented in interesting words. Ideas are useless. Proper description of ideas has a value and we need to read such books.

But I think sometimes book publisher needs more pages and an author needs little more money for book. More pages - more money, but it, possible, will be a bad book.

What a great idea. So true, we read to get inspired and improve ourselves, however some of it only sticks with us for a short time before we are inspired by something else....when we should maintain more of the insights we have learned. Still to date your short video on how to create a movement is my favorite Ted Talks and I too read a lot-Bryan Tracy is my favorite author BTW 100 pages and great insight in all of his books.

fascinating idea...

One of the other comments suggested that it's about building conviction within through truth. So, to an extent the product would need to be storytelling of results, then a summary of do this to get that. I find that everyone's take aways come from a personal viewpoint so it would be hard to apply knowledge to each case as a blanket rule, but I don't think it would be invaluable to have something that has the long story and the short summary (glance through summaries to see what you need, go to story to find relevancy or more truth of claims...)

The wondrous nonfiction writer, John McPhee, wrote a piece titled “Green Four” that seems to belong in this discussion.

“Green” was New Yorker code for “Cut,” and the number that followed Green indicated the number of lines the author needed to cut to fit his piece into the space available.

Cut four lines? When he first read that instruction, McPhee felt sure the piece would suffer, particularly given that he already had edited the piece at least three times, But only a few Green experiences made him he realize that cutting more always made the piece better.

But few book authors find themselves in Green situations. Instead, they find they must add thousands of words to fit their piece into 250 or more pages. And one result is the comments you read in Amazon reader reviews:

“This should have been an article."

"This could have been a pamphlet."

"I got the idea from the first chapter; everything else was repetition.”

Thinking about this, I don’t dismiss the reviewers who say they don’t have time to read. I suspect instead, and like all of us, that they don’t have time to waste, and too many books waste too much time.

The last business book I read that seemed McPhee-like? I have to go decades back, to Ogivly on Advertising and Robert Townsend’s Up The Organization, two books in which the authors used only as many words as they needed to convey their intended message—and not one word more.

Please post the to-do list because I adore your writings and almost everything you have said, and I've read every single article on here, has helped me a LOT!

I agree with your idea for the practical applications of the wisdom of the book(s). In fact, over a period of years I did the very same thing with my work as a psychotherapist. I distilled all the coping methods used from a stack of workbooks I would have my clients and patients use for each diagnosis down into one thin manual (49 pages) that can apply to various issues. I also put a further distillation of just the applications of this method into a small, memo sized book they can carry with them to refer to when they really need to apply the skills they are learning in therapy. It's called the Personal Survival Manual and the PSM Pocket Manual. It has saved two lives that I know of. There are moments in life when just having the brief reminder of what could work can make all the difference.

It makes perfect sense with today's culture. Everything is immediate and no one takes time to do anything these days, including myself.

I teach songwriting and it's a struggle to keep people focused, so all my session are either an hour or half hour. Never more than that.

You do a great job, my friend. God bless you and keep it up!

Now, THAT'S a book I would like to see. You're right, Derek. A lot of these "good advise" books take forever to get to the point. It's like watching some of those videos you see on FB, where they say "watch this video to save your life", and they fill it with so much bullshit, they never get to the point OR the answer. Then, if you have the patients or the time to watch it to the end, they want to charge you an arm and a leg to get the answers. Yes, sir.....I'd like a book that gets to the point right away. I believe you may have caught one on the fat part of the bat .

I'm not sure there is a single salient proscriptive interpretation in a text that can be elucidated.

Literary theory talks of the Death of the Author, in that the work animates in the mind that receives the text.

Readers Digest of course did something very similar for years - not sure if they still do it now though?

Some of their abridged novels were butchery in my view - in particular they told Moby Dick as if to preschoolers, when in fact Melville is a towering genius of the written word.

I also have a personal affection for wordiness - it is often in the interstices that the mind suddenly composes an insight . . .

That said, I will be very interested in your project - don't fail to get the Dunning Kruger Effect into your musings - somehow seems apposite.

I usually want to know the basis for advice that is offered, but as you referenced Derek, once a bond of trust has been created with a particular source, I'm not sure I would need a basis and find myself open to just receiving the 'do this' part. You've got me thinking about this mode of communication now. Thanks for sharing.

Jerry

Do This....Excellent Idea!!

great idea derek, you always have the best ideas. i think there is room to expand this one for sure.

Hey Derek,

Great idea, as usual. One of my favorite books is "The Quotable Walt Disney," an index of his most inspirational and thought-provoking quotes. I still watch full interviews and read various articles about Walt, but the book offers me quick references for daily pick-me-ups.

This book you're proposing could be a great index of quotes from books that inspire action, inspire reading the full books, and inspire more thoughtful insight.

I also keep "Anything You Want" on my desk as a reference of inspiration and quick fix for clarity as needed. Congrats on the worldwide distribution!

Sir,
I just discovered your post in pocket. In reality, I merely scan through your article, but I cannot avoid admair your effort your good intention. It is rarely to come by such a great piece. I have been longing to write books and this is a great help and moreover a trmandous inspiration to my lofe long wish. Thanks.

Great concept. Derek, this is flying. I hope you had as much fun putting this together as we would have reading it. I wish you more success.

My attention span is that of a gnat. I forget lessons too. Having "jewels" at your fingertips is wonderful. Kinda like 212 the extra degree

I think you will find success how ever you present your book. You are passionate and very genuine.

Awesome! Sounds similar to what I was going for with my Anki cards ☺.

Derek, I agree that sometimes you just want the directives but I also enjoy and find great benefit from the history and interconnectedness of things, especially regarding Pollan's books. I think that our civilization is becoming obsessed with quick access to answers and information and that we are losing our ability to see the bigger picture. Pollan's 450 pages of food history was incredibly relative to the point of "The Omnivores Dilemma", in that our food has become a product we buy like all the other consumables in our lives and we are, if we haven't already, losing our connection to it. Simply stating that our current food production system is bad for us is not the same as revealing through our food production history, that it is bad for us. Short and sweet directives are good sometimes, but when relating to something as vital and complicated as our food, I want more than just the cliff note version.
B.

Derek, I am working on technology to extract only the useful parts of a book.
If you are interested partnership with me let me send me email. I have gone beyond what you did.
You'll be amazed I promise.

I enjoy reading all the pages. That is the time where I am allowed into someone's brain. It's like going to an amusement park.

But I'd like to develop this same habbit to my own. You're the third smart guy I know that does it. I think that serves well my entire goals of living!

Why just read? I don't have time to just read. Everyday is one less day I'll be around, I better put the reading to work!

Derek! This is exactly the insight a needed to finish a project. Thanks for writing this article :)

I have read this posting a few times, intending to respond with great insight. I have a drawer full of random wisdom gathered from people like yourself. It is personal, few would find the same value in each that I do, however...until they are released the few that could can't. Time to read your new posting, sorry for procrastinating on this.

Hi Derek,

I'm just now stumbling on your site--I know of you from CD Baby, still an important part of my life.

This is a great idea and very useful for anyone who has difficulty with reading. So many people do. But I have to say that I'm not very interested in the final condensation. I much prefer to understand the logic behind the conclusion. Your example of the behavioral psychologists Stephen M. Garcia and Avishalom Tor is extraordinary.

In addition to understanding the logic, I think that when we express our own condensed conclusion, or directive, we insert ourselves into the source information, thus changing it. When I read, "Avoid awareness of competitors," my immediate reaction is to ask why. And having read what lead you to that directive, I (and/or others) might come up with a completely different directive.

I would be very interested in reading more of the collected information.

Joanna

Great ideas! Carolyn

Hey Derek,
Love your stuff.
How about flipping the idea a bit?

You have read a huge collection of books. The authors have gone out and developed new insights.

How about distilling these hundreds of ideas, described in a thousand different ways into a few dozen principles that are the patterns that link them all?

The book of these principles might not be super short. But each principle could be a bite-size piece of wisdom, explained in a little detail over a few pages. You could include some short "do this" points at the end of each chapter.

After you have read the book, you have a reference for the principles that help you be successful from over 200 books.

Now that, I would buy in a heartbeat.
Actually you just described the idea better than I did. I never meant that I was going to compress *each book* into directives, but rather what I've learned from *all* books. — Derek

As always I am thankful for your insight. I appreciate your time and thoughtfulness in sharing what you learn as it becomes wisdom you share and it becomes a wonderful nourishing meal for my soul. That is why I have been following you since we owned CD Baby! I appreciate your wisdom and who you are!

Derek
Right on....I agree with Damon's observation and your intent....wonderful and right on for this time in life. The world is fast, and while many enjoy the read....I find a quick reference is helpful for me because I can refer to it immediately and situationally. I would tend to think the challenge/trick is to take the lesson, and as previously alluded to, make it relevant the story without rewriting the story...the short message captures the lesson and the story without losing the meanining in its brevity. I look forward to it.

Turn 'em into a book! In fact, just tell me where to send the money. (I realize this proves your point.) I like the idea of something hardcopy that I can touch, and feel, and flip through looking for The Thing I most need to apply next.

Great Plan. Do it! :)

Derek ,

I must say, I love the way that you think. Simplicity is wrongfully undervalued. It seems you've figured that out though. Looking forward to more content. I should thank Tim Ferriss for recommending your blog.

I love the book title "Do This" !
xoxo

Yes, do that :)

I am thankful for your compressed notes. I am not a big reader. Saying that it doesn't mean that I don't read. I do. But it's hard for me. Mentally I can not concentrate long enough and if I do I completely abandon other things that slowly grow to a problem.

Being an extravert, I found a solution by surrounding myself with people I like. People that read books, took action and I see a result. And I just asked them what do they think about this book or another.

You, Derek gave me a couple of titles after your talk at DC one time and I read them. Your notes are what I was looking for for awhile.

After you put our notes I read 3 books in full because I wanted to expand on topic. I am sure others did the same. All Best

Hi, Derek,
'don't do this' is probably the most effective words to tell, coz most of us overloaded with directives, rules or limitations all around us. And most of us don't like that. May be 'don't do this if you want to be successful in that' will make us to pay attention to 'why'. But, from my point of view, it's impossible task anyway. We all are very unique, but difference is only in small details. And that is already enough to have absolutely deferent attitudes towards achieving the same goals. Best Regards
Interesting! A “don't do this” collection. That'd be an interesting creative challenge. I was thinking the opposite. Thank you. — Derek

We all want the short version, the simply 'just do it', and simplicity translates into not overthinking but rather action.

Thank you so much! I think I have found what I emailed you for earlier.
Very inspirational soul...

I think it's problematic. I like that you first advise people to read the whole thing. However if you simplify things, trouble looms, after all God is in the detail isnt he?

“Avoid food products that make health claims.” does not sit well.

Without going on too much I have had great succes with simple foods that are not mainstream *despite* claims being made about them , that have turned out to be accurate.

Basically I don't have much time for people that claim to not have enough time to do things for themselves.

I do always enjoy hearing about your idea though, Rock on Derek!

I love this idea as I have written a book explaining the fundamental law of the Universe under my pen name Jeremy Flint (out on Amazon amongst others). The only problem is how do people get reimbursed for compacting their thoughts to 64 lines (for example). Best Wishes, John

This is really interesting! I recently stumbled across the idea of a commonplace book, which your book notes and concise one-idea-per-post blog remind me of. The practice of recording powerful passages, ideas, or any kind of snippet, has been historically very important for thinkers and creators. Then I found out my girlfriend has been keeping a similar practice for years, and she swears by it!

You can find lots of historical examples of commonplace books here: http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/reading/commonplace.html

Here’s a related question I’ve been thinking about: Could condensing ideas into a question sometimes be more powerful than condensing them into a directive? Directives point to the known, while questions point to the unknown. Most of the world is unknown, and a good question will make your mind spin with ideas about what might be there.

You can learn a lot about any scientific field by reviewing the “open questions” of the field. Are our ideas better defined by our knowledge, or by our ignorance? Our curiosity?

Is a directive better for encouraging action, and a question better for encouraging reflection? Do they encourage different modes of thinking?

An example of a question I wrote as a note from your sive.rs/pg:

Could you have Postgres generate EDN or Transit directly instead of JSON?

EDN: https://github.com/edn-format/edn
Transit: https://github.com/cognitect/transit-format

I like the idea, and it'll be useful for some. And that's good enough reason to do it. I like the idea of doing something and seeing how it flys--bravo!

I'll look forward to reading more about you "now"--I've really enjoyed your projects!

Take care,

Gordon

Hey Derek, I just heard your directives on Tim Ferris's podcast. I love how simple the advice is. Where can the rest be found? Thank you :)
Nowhere else yet. ☺ As of now the plan is to elaborate on each one in its own small article, then later list them - like I did on the podcast - but with links to the articles for more info. — Derek

Heard you on Tim's Ferriss podcast. Just wanted to thank you for putting in the time to create the "Do this" project. I am looking forward to receiving the emails. Keep being awesome.

Loved your Ferriss talk. I write about changing minds. Thousands of pages at changingminds.org.

Go well

Dave

you should call the book

TL;DR
The short guide to doing shit right

Hello Derek,

The directives book (I also vote for "Do This") or other art you will make related to it will be very helpful to many people. Maybe adding references to your bibliography would help when a principle is not obvious to a reader. It would also make a good book (or link) to give to others ☺.

Attempting to distil the following into advice:

“Half a group was shown that extraverts are more successful. Other half shown that introverts are more successful. Then when asked to recall events from their past to help determine which they were, they remembered just the events that support the successful group they were told.”

Advice:

"To see ourselves as successful we will pick out or invent evidence that supports whatever is defining success. Do this: recognize that we all want to feel we are a success and may even lie to ourselves about it - use that knowledge to help others, but also recognize you could be fooling yourself similarly!"
¡ Thank you ! — Derek

Please do more on directives they are very helpful

Hi Derek,
This is superb idea:
Take notes from the books and to extend from any informative talk that you listen to (e.g. Derek n Tim)
Others think the same to.. Just came to this page from Leo Babuta's Zen habits :)
You rock!!

I am a proofreader and "extravert" jumped out at me. Extrovert is the correct spelling. Sorry, can't help it. I love your example of 450 pages, 250 pages and then, 64 lines.

Found this really helpful information through Leo Babauta's "Zen Habits" email newsletter. Your effort is appreciated and I look forward to reading your posts.
Thank you!
Terry Garrett

Hi Derek, I like this idea in general although I agree with the comment re fast food too. For those who don't want to miss the full message, having the summary note first could prevent them having to wade in to get the details

I think chaining events like you do in project management programs or follow up auto-responders. Finishing a task, triggers another. A record release can be like that though there are some simultaneous actions as well. But, they are all short tasks. My tracks go like create structure, fill in parts, tweak parts,build transitions and drum fills, do final mix, export to master, master. The marketing, web and design tasks can happen along side the music production if possible or after depending on the project.

Keith

Hi Derek, thanks again for the effort you are putting into this. I think the directives need to be positive, in the sense of telling what to do as opposed to what not to do. The example '“Avoid awareness of competitors” does not tell where to focus my awareness to increase my performance. Perhaps "Focus your awareness on your breathing and let your prep work and training take over" could prove more useful?
☺ I agree. Good point. Thank you. — Derek

I wonders...it sounds exciting, but you will be the record player that the aliens don't have when they retrieve the LPrecords that we left them in the time capsule. Making the records useless for them.
I will be curios what you've cooked up nonetheless.

how wonderful:)

Nice idea: perhaps hard to do effectively. Good luck!

Hi Derek,

you might have a point - but otherwise not. Just let me add a thought: making things more simple is good - making things too simple is a disaster. I'm well aware that people want simple rules, simple actions and just follow commands. That's inherent in people, somehow, especially in todays folk, who want to make always more, always better always faster - and don't have a plan at all.

#1 BUT: Insight does not come from blindly following rules, and when it comes to that: there ARE no rules. I'll give you just an example. Let's take diets, and push five diet books into "to-do-format". The do's and don'ts will conflict with each other heavily, leaving people confused and most probably doing nothing in many case. (no clear rules - no action). Another example: the "doing it" method of things tells you: just start things. Wisdom will tell you: "just don't do anything until you're absolutely clear about where you will go. Don't act blindly, but think first in deep if it's worth the way. It'll save you a million miles of roundabouts, making you fast and direct in the end".
The first one is a simple command, easy enough for everybody - the second one needs some time to digest it, but will change people's life much more, when they have understood it. Better make ONE really good thing than 25 things that you've "just done".

#2 Especially in the last example I find you see that "advice" can come from totally different views of the world and of life. That makes them totally incompatible - and people will first just find out, which of the worldviews behind they share - and THEN, secondly, choose a method. But when you "reduce out" the world view and the basic underlying thoughts - people simply can't judge if that supports their own worldview or not.

Can you handle this? Properly?

#3 Behaviour changes only come and stay because of INSIGHT. Not by following commands. People tend to want that somebody tells them what to do, so that they don't have to figure out themselves, that's easier and seems to be more secure. But when I don't REALIZE that vegetables do me good - I will not eat them with full conviction.

#4 The question of right and wrong. There is no simple answer to that, and the same applies to actions. It might be right to do something - but it also might not. Being not aware of your concurrence might be your death in the market. Being highly aware of your concurrents can make you feel like marketing is sort of a "war" against your concurrents permanently which might make you feel exhausted, overly aggressive and just fighting windmills. When you make it "Focus on Being Good yourself and providing valuable stuff to people, rather than just comparing yourself to the concurrents" it might be better - but you'll miss out the change to watch what your concurrents do and learn from their mistakes (that can be very valuable indeed).


I see that to, that people just want simple commands, that they

...are literally hungry for them and not wanting to think - but the medicine is just the opposite: refraining from "rights" and "wrongs" and "advices", spend time thinking THEMSELVES, forming beliefs and personal values, and acting after them. Then it's easy to find out, what you should do.

So I think, for people so confused and planless that they will follow just any advice they get, main thing, they GET ONE, it would be responsible leading them back to themselves, to finding values, form a worldview - and act according to them, rather than following any advice.

We had that here in Germany, some 70 years ago, when people were happily following "advice" - and you might know from history, what it lead to. They were manipulated exactly that way - being told what to do always and kept busy all day. That made a whole nation even lose common sense and give in to weird ideas and even their most cruel, hidden personality trades.

And read about the milgram experiment.

Still so sure, "just telling people what to do" is such a good idea? or should we better make them think, explore, and let them find out theirselves, what to do?

That's a thing, by the way, that many of the long books indeed want to do - help people explore a topic. And "having no time being busy doing just something - might not be a very good excuse for not thinking at all about things".

That's at least what I think and how I perceive that topic. It was not meant to turn your idea down - I just think it might be something, you could try to put into all that briefness, too.

Have a Merry Christmas, and sorry for my sometimes a little awkward English :)

Marc.

Seems like a great idea Derek, Can't wait to read them.

Hi D,

I'd like to be added to your useful book directives email please.


Regards,

Ray

Got your link from Zen Habits... my two cents on the idea of "just do this...."

I like, “Avoid awareness of competitors“ less because it doesn't really tell me WHY in the same way that, "Behavioral psychologists Stephen M. Garcia and Avishalom Tor showed that merely knowing there are more competitors in a competition decreases our performance.”

I agree wholeheartedly that so many books are tedious and cumbersome to wade through, just to find the piece of them that is the takeaway, but I find both snippets here to be succinct and the longer of the two gives me a "why" that immediately clicks into my own life experiences in a way that makes sense to me right away and gives me a new, empowered feeling of knowing.

I'm ready to buy this book. Send me the price and directions for payment and I'll be first in line. Happy to wait for it... preferably not too long.

Thanks for the inspiring work.

Cheers and Happy 2016,
Russell

Sounds swell. I read books BUT also respond (ridiculously) well to the formula "If what you're after is X, then do Y" I can self-identify or not. And it feels like a friend talking to me. Sending joy your way.

Thank you!!

Happy Holidays Derek!

I caught you on a Tim Ferriss podcast and found your blog etc...

After reading this post, I couldn't help but read the comments section (like reading Amazon reviews). There's an obvious disagreement as to whether or not a "Cliff Notes" approach to dissemination of information is appropriate...violates "sacred" traditional book reading etc...

Consider Marine Corps leadership:
There's a time and a place for explaining why we do things a certain way (Garrison Environment), and there's a time and place when an explanation is not only unnecessary but completely inappropriate (Combat Environment). A Marine instantly and willfully obeys an order because they TRUST their leadership. After the fact, a "hot flash" or analysis of the event / mission / exercise is conducted and then questions are asked.

For some individuals their life circumstances or need for knowledge is that "Combat Environment" whereas for others it is a "Garrison Setting". If you need to know what to do before you get shot in the head, "Duck Now!" might be more valuable than reading a 400 page obituary of those who didn't.

I hope this gives a new perspective for those who read it.

Respectfully,

Trevor

I have been using almost exactly this same process for many years. It seems tedious to outsiders, but preventing wisdom from leaking away is crucial. When I first read a book, I underline anything that seems important with a red pen. After about a week, I read through the underlinings and use a yellow highlighter on the ones that still seem important. After another week, I go through the book once more and transcribe the best of the best into an Underlined Books file in Evernote. Then, as you mentioned in the Ferriss podcast, just a simple occasional review of the distilled notes is enough to keep the nuggets from drifting away. I also try to use "directives" because the brain seems to interpret them as commands. A Sports Illustrated writer caddied for a pro golfer as part of an article. One hole had water on the left and he said, "Don't go left." The pro chastised him and replied, "What you should have said instead was, "Stay to the right." Great stuff you've presented for free. Like reading my own notes! Maybe it takes an INTJ to appreciate this kind of attention to detail. THANKS

Derek,

I just finished reading Anything You Want – and listening to the two podcasts with Tim Ferriss before that. Your book was the second fastest I ever purchased. I bought the Kindle version with one-click on Amazon, so I was reading it within seconds.

You say you get inspired by people’s questions, but I don’t have one yet since I’m still processing all the very interesting things you've said and written.

I also want to share with you the moment in your book when I had to stop reading to reflect for a while: ”But then the whole town was bought up by these damn corporations full of MBA weasels micromanaging, trying to maximize the profit from every square foot of floor space.”

Perfect words for what I’ve noticed has been happening since the early 1980s. Back then aviation was the only thing that could get me interested in becoming a good enough student to get through college.

But as soon as I started school and accumulating hours in a Cessna, the airline industry was de-regulated, and the aforementioned MBA weasels began taking airlines into Chapter 11 to get out of their existing labor contracts. By the time I got a commercial pilot’s license and graduated with a computer science degree so many airlines had disappeared that I gave up on the plan. Too many people for too few jobs.

I've been a programmer all these years but most recently I’ve been developing a product out of my garage. Hopefully all the wonderful wisdom you have shared in your book and the podcasts with Tim will help me make better decisions that align with who I am and what makes me happy.

THANK YOU!!!

Tony Duque

p.s. I would love to share with you what I’m working on

Found you through Tim Ferriss. Great work, keep it up!

I really can't wait to see your directives. My brain works this way as well. I've done similar with my four adult children. When each of them was a senior in high school, I left them quotes or summaries of my favorite books ( only around 50 instead of over 220 - but it took over 200 books to get to the 50 ). It was all over the board as far as topics, but mostly inspirational. The purpose was to keep them guessing on content as well as give them a memory of how their dad ticked . I recently gave them a summary of my summaries as a Christmas present. Who knows if they will ever read it?!?! If they only knew that I just want to show them a few shortcuts an not learn everything the hard way - unlike their dad. Definitely do the book- ASAP.

This article is so valuable. It nails everything.

Every frequent reader (and everyone should be one) has to read this.

Make those lists available on list app also :) fun illustrations would make the lists super fun and memorable :) and therefore usable

There are an overwhelming amount bullet points and advice lists available these days, so I can see where the resistance could come from.

The difference lies in the underlying trust and belief in the messenger. I could read a list of directives all day from someone I respected and trusted. The problem today is so much of the media content relies on page views, so advice lists get pushed out one after the other to try and drive traffic. And when there is a need to drive more traffic, motives always get skewed.

I think here in lies the obvious difference. I see no malice or hidden agenda in your want to spread such advice and directives From the way you appear to carry yourself, you don't have the need to push anything but your best intentions on us.

For this reason, I welcome the sharing of these directives. When we have the ability to trust the source, we can cut through the backstory and bs.

It's the reason we cling to small pieces of advice and quotes from famous or esteemed leaders either past or present. But an author we don't know needs to put forth a wealth of information to support his claim before we even believe him.

Awesome ideals!

Sounds like a great blog format indeed.

Love your idea and the mini cliff notes you created on all your learning. Thank you!

Derek,
I just wanted to thank you! Your posts always seem like distilled gems of wisdom. I greatly admire your selflessness and humility. You are one of my heroes.
Eric

I think the idea has merit, especially if someone is deciding whether or not they want to buy the book and read the whole thing.
But personally I'm a fan of readinga whole thing. You get so many insights and thoughts when you read - all of which are relative only to you.

Title ideas:

Bite sized knowledge

Do This: Thinking automatically in an age of information overload.

Autocorrect for your soul (or life)

The essentials extracted.
☺ — Derek

Derek, I understand what you're saying, but I think it's the story that makes the point memorable. The point states a fact; the story gives it meaning. ☺

Derek SELL THIS BOOK (shut up and take my money)

Just the ones you shared on TFS podcast were awesome.

I've always thought of making a list of axioms/aphorisms for my kids Straight to the point type stuff... they can think it through if they want

Derek,

It seems like you are taking 200 books and condensing them down into a modern proverbs to me.

A proverb (from Latin: proverbium) is a simple and concrete saying, popularly known and repeated, that expresses a truth based on common sense or experience

I love this idea and will be the first person to buy your book when it is available.

Keep it up!

Hi Derek,

This is a great idea, I just found out about you from the Tim Ferris Podcast, it was really great!

My Idea for this would be that it would be important to frame it well, or put into context well i.e. "how you got to these conclusions"

Just for any people like me who might not know you as much!

Otherwise sounds like a great way to get a alot of the best bits from a wide range of sources...

Cheers
Phil

When understanding something new:
Simple > complex > simple
First understand the basics
Then understand the details
Then know what really matters.
It can be hard to just accept simple ideas from people though.
Thanks for what you do. Best, J

Derek, I listened to your podcast interview with Tim Ferriss. I really liked your summary of directives. I had a look at your website / blog for it but came across this and realised the consolidated version is still to come. If I'm wrong I would love to know how to see the full version.

Reyburn
Cape Town, South Africa
Still working on it! — Derek

Derek, this is an incredible idea. Life is about trial and error but you giving a list of actions that are most likely to result in a success means that we can all fast track ourselves to a better place. Thanks so much and excited for this.

Just want to say THANK YOU for your beautiful work & be a leader. I definitely will introduce/guide my son to your blog when the time is right (he's just 26 month-old).

I wish we have more people likes you on this earth so kids can look up & follow.

Wish you & your family, esp. your little son lots of joy, health & peace.

Appreciate much.

Just tell me, everyone, what to do to make litter extinct (in each out city or town).

I want to achieve: Make (my) city become the cleanest in the nation.

Operate under conditions:
- No shaming.
- Encourage widest possible participation, (individuals by themselves, partnerships-business, non profit orgs, city staff..._), community meet ups.
- Creative and multi projects/programs with same litter free goal.

Just started a leadeship programme and have read a couple of book summaries before. Stumbled on your website whilst looking for best place to find. Like the idea of being given info and then can look for further if want too. Was interested in reference to meta as trying to notice limbic responses at the moment so that I can try something different. We were discussing meta cognition and had been trying to find a list of meta questions to lever into this with aim of refining skills and behaviour. Also interested in growth mindset and was looking for a list of words / sentences that would help facilitate this. Any thoughts appreciated. Wouldn't be any good at a book summary ...... yet 😊 gilly

Hello, very interesting ideas on your site. Thanks for sharing them with the public.

I've also worked a lot on my approach to book-reading and information gathering during the past 5 years, and I've reached the current process, which has been stable for 2 years and seems to me very effective since it minimized anything that is not reading, reviewing, memorizing.

1) only read on the kindle (if needed use "send to Kindle" chrome extension to send web pages to the kindle)
2) underline the interesting parts
3) extract underlined text and create an archive in form of web pages
4) review the archive
5) create cards to memorize what key items
6) review the cards

I've created a java application for (3) and I'm using anki (ankiweb and ankidroid) to memorize the cards.

Anki is truly great, and free, and it's become a routine I look forward to every day.

I'm happy to share more details and the above software with you. Just send me an email.

Has this topic materialized into a collection that can be found?

Many people, other than myself, struggle with execution and would truly benefit from these. Executive dysfunction is rampid.

Thanks for the inspiration and desperation to become better.

3 motivators for change
-inspiration
-desperation
-resentment

I cannot wait for this to be published... I HOPE it is a book format, mostly so that I could use it in a durable and physical format.

Hi Derek,

Are you still going to be slowly releasing these directives?

I love the thought process and concepts behind those you have previously mentioned and very eager to see and digest the rest.

Keep up the great work!

Todd
Yep! They'll be coming faster, very soon. I just had to finish some other things first. — Derek

Looking forward to this stuff. Just listened to your podcast with Tim Ferriss for the 2nd time. The amount of simple wisdom you have is incredible.

I Love You Derek! I have since I first heard your TED Talk on starting a movement... The love grew after watching your book videos and then reading your book... I pray for more people to come on the scene with your mindset and similar message, relevant to their talents and passions, of course... I admire that you give your child a solid 30 hrs a week! You won't regret it...
I homeschooled my children precisely for that reason first and foremost, along with knowing I could do a far better job than the public education of the 1980's & 90's, and I did!
Thank you from deep in my soul for being such a beautiful beacon of hope. May you continue to touch many lives & hearts with your genuinely caring soul!

In Gratitude,
Ceidi
PS Great job with the weight training... Love Mehdi's 5x5 website so far... As a former high intensity trainer, I gave Ripetoe a scathing review on Amazon that's still getting responses🙃- Oh My! At any rate, you look Fabulous Darling!

Hi Derek,

Just heard the Tim Ferriss podcast with you. Really liked it. I'd say it's in my top 5 for sure, probably top 3. Your clarity of thought and direct, clear communication is so refreshing.

I would love to get on your email list, in particular for the directives project. I have thought about exactly what you mentioned to Tim about the directives.

Thanks,
Abhay

I think it would be brilliant to see a set of algorithms based on these principles to help one automate the drab tasks in life and make the most efficient use of their time based on personal goals. What parameters are we reaching for and what's the best way to get there? Interesting ML applications here...

All I can say is: Thank you!
I am going to start reading some of those books you recommend.

Turn them into a video series. Make them short, sweet, and surprising ( i just listened to the Altucher podcast. Great tip!). Your " How to Start a Movement" video is a great template - very unforgettable. It could be your recorded voice over fair use/public domain footage. Or you could film your own footage, put yourself into them. String some together for a weekly half hour show on Netflix.

Or turn them into a collectible set of tips. Like Hockey Cards, you want to collect them all, share, send to a friend online.

Or some kind of "wisdom card" boxed set, 365 cards, one for each day of the year. Comes with a little workbook/diary "I did this".

Interesting point about competition. Supports the idea that you should only start a business in an area or niche that has little or no competition.

Loved your book and TED talk!

You could take this to the next level by organizing the directives in a hierarchical way, like:

* Have a successful business
** Perform
*** Avoid awareness of competition

I use dynalist, a simple software perfectly suited to do exactly that, check out this list
https://dynalist.io/d/LdFmrywjQsXf9huhnNCI1Hdv

Hi Derek,

Nice thought and I agree about internalizing books, if feel the same way about "not wanting to forget" some really good books I read in the past. (btw I use a kindle e-reader and make notes which I can come back to at a later time)

On the other hand, I think the "storytelling part" is also very important. Some important points stick longer just because of the whole surrounding story. We humans are used to communicate our thoughts and ideas through stories.

Nevertheless, good for people who wouldn't read those books in the first place :)

Brian Johnson does a great job with his "Philosophers' Notes", condensing great ideas!

Man, I'm grateful for not only people with good advice and wisdom, but people who are driven to share it. I'm thinking how those golden nuggets get more deeply embedded and a part of mindset everytime they are shared--win/win!
Thanks for sharing!!

Your idea worked. I am reading this today (from the front porch of my wooden bugalow 100 meters from the beautiful diving sea in thailand) becuz of a subsequent post I received a notificationyou posted.

Hi Derrick:

Thank you for disseminating and filtering this info. What a great and generous mission.

I like "Do This". But I like "Do This: Your Life Blueprint" better. I use a personal to do and call each project my "blueprint" because it's not just a boring list. It backs each task up with a short one sentence detail on the "why" and "how".

Just a thought. Thanks again,

JD

Hi!

It's nice to see, that someone also has already reached the same tipping point as me. I used to read a lot of books complete from start to end, but then I notice that a lot of information is repeating and its really hard to follow.

It was also in time, when I was overwhelm with decisions and I look for some advice, how to handle them efficiently and not to fall in decision paralysis. The most effective solution, that I found, was to make rules list. For example: If you have to make decisiong about something reduce possibilities, or If it's question of money, it's not really a problem.

I used Trello as a board and notice advices for each situation, work, education, lifestyle, relationships etc. After time I updated this rules or add new one or remove the one which didn't seem to work. Heh, I even have rule (criterias) about how to pick book to read and when to stop reading book :D It really helps me, like a programmer I'm really exhausted from mental work and sometime it's better to follow the rules and don't really think about it :)

That is what www.getabstract.com offers. I am sure you have seen a book by the founder Rolf Dobelli. It seems to me he is a famous person too.
Just my take away messages are different from yours and different from everyone else. I like your Michael Pollen example. His final booklet summarizes the points nicely although some points I disagree. You can condense that even further. I say my food grows on a plant (locally grown, organic, fresh, preferably tree ripe, in season, grown on mineral rich soil). It does not come from a plant.

Hello Derek
I like the idea of a book. How about audio book, I hear that Tim Ferriss is an excellent producer. As I commute in to work, I find that listening to audiobooks not only helps me to get the reading in, it also pops in to my unconscious mind and when needed it seems to float up to the surface.

I love this. Brilliant. I am a bookworm and read and read and read. I take notes to remember the teachings. I love Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink and I think it has great practical tips we can apply to our every day lives. I can't wait to now go read your to do list. Thank you Derek.

As a person who gets annoyed with the repetition in self help books, I like this idea a lot. Perhaps you can include one story for each lesson that illustrates the point. When I read self help books it's the stories that stick with me and pretty much nothing else. And if you could have a video for each point, even better. I think about your first follower video a lot. ☺
That's the plan, yep! Working on it. — Derek

This is valuable and fun....thanks,Derek!

Book name - "Undo yourself"

Thanks for sharing.

Brian

Shalom Derek,

Thank you for caring and sharing. I've written a similar book for relationships and one for young men. The titles are "BEFORE THE DIVORCE READ THIS!" and "Positive Messages for young men growing up without their fathers".
They are both available as e-books. My hope is that they become REQUIRED reading for Junior High School Students nationwide.
My website is Poems Promoting Peace . Com

Be Blessed

Great idea!!! I get the "avoid awareness of competitors". To me it's the idea that you should run your own race and compete only against yourself. I do think an audio CD would be great to pop in the car CD player. I travel a lot and would enjoy the opportunity to learn by listening. I'm one of those people that are not going to read all these books. Thanks Derek!! You da man!!!

I think that the most powerful lesson is that once the pupil is ready, the master appears. At least in my life, that is how it has always turned out. It takes a convoluted path from one insight to another to arrive where you are today, and the path ahead is not even clear, so it is hard to plan.

When you write for an audience, not everyone will love it, and it may not come out at the right time for people to absorb it, but EVERYONE may go crazy for it at a future date. There is simply no way to tell. The same goes for learning, you find yourself building on past information, and it is never a straight path- read this, then read that, etc.

All you can depend on, is that when you are ready, the right path to learn and self improvement will appear, as if by magic. You will notice a gem here and there, a book title here and there, a podcast here and there, and before you know it, a year later, you have become 300% better than last year. Have faith in the path, and just follow it. It is wonderful.

Ooo I love the idea of keeping a tally on the tid bits of a book that I like. I also find that I don't remember the points that excited me when nose deep in the book. Great call, thank you. I just reread "Anything You Want" and will start there.

I would love to read your take on the books you've read. Do it Derek!

Very helpful! Especially the thing about competitors. Also the whole concept of breaking down lengthy but important points. Thank you.

I like this idea of yours about condensing and telling people what to do. Not everyone is capable of reading entire books and digesting them so that they can make positive changes. Also it just easier sometimes for information to be condensed into a few vital sentences or paragraphs.
I'm constantly in charge of making decisions and keeping things rolling at a hetic pace that I feel I have no time to really "think" on improving my methods of operation. So I would love someone to just say "Do This" it will make your life so much better, in so many ways.

Fun article. Somewhere in your notes there must be my personal "do this" inspiration. Namaste.

Your idea reminds me of a book, "Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart" by Dr. Gordon Livingston. Each chapter is only 2 - 3 pages but the wisdom is memorable. Love this kind of to-the-point concept. And love your posts. Most of us are short on time. Couple that with a short attention span and those long 500 page books get lost. Thank you for your bits of wisdom.
Wow! Thanks for the tip, Jeanette. Bought instantly. Perfect role model. — Derek

Robert A. Heinlein published a list like this. Much of it made sense to my 17-year old self that read it. Some of it was jingoistic crap. As a human being one has the ability to sort the wheat from the chaff. My objection to the "kernel of the book" approach was that without context some of the points would come off like, well, if not jingoistic crap, certainly something that has only very contextual applications. And then I remembered that what you're making available isn't a rule book, it is a suggestion library. Good job.
“suggestion library” is a nice term. Thank you. — Derek

Yes!!! Write the book. I will be looking for it!!! Thanks again for all your work.

A book that collects then and a companion app that allows people to ask for advice and be given the relevant directives/Derek advice/recommended reading. The talk could be more about what you discovered through the process of having so many people ask for advice--patterns you saw, and solutions. What you learned people are looking for, universally.

Derek I have been taking notes on books I have read for years to boil them down to their essence. I never thought of compiling them. It would also be an interesting idea to compare and contrast them. I find there is so much information and so many theories it is tough to sort them all out in your head, and always I come up with a combination of parts of each that I like to form an opinion

Hey Derek, I started loving bite-size content not that long ago, so this is now something I'm really waiting for.
In my humble opinion, researching for the best content delivery methods, I've found that a simple app can make a lot of sense.
It can deliver bite-size wisdom on weekly or daily basis, without any distraction, and frame the space in between for putting advice into practice.

Slavko

Great advice. I will definitely be using it for my own blog. As for your advice example, here's what I came up with:

"If you want people to identify themselves with a certain persona or personality trait, first portray that persona or trait in a positive light."

For example, if you want people to identify themselves with being nice or bold, you should first portray that quality in a positive light.

Hi Derek,

I think everyone who reads a lot should do this too. Imagine a world where people try to make their knowledge actionable and useful to others compressing thousands of books, articles and podcasts.

It reminds me of "Standing on the shoulders of giants"

If you could only leave something in the form of knowledge for your kid, to help in the future, would it be this list or something else?
This plus a treasure map. — Derek

Holy mother of Cow! I kid you not. As I have been reading and writing notes from your site, after about the 50th book, I realised that Why not make all these into a book format. And when I heard your podcast on SuperHuman and heard about this page I immediately came here and I think the book is good. And the name is pretty neat!

You could also do a mini podcast series with pocket sized information packed inside 3-5 minutes. :) Just categorize them :)

Funny - I've been coaching people into better diets for some time - then I ran a program that was very much DO THIS and THIS - and it worked out so so well!!!

Was led here by Trainer Tips Nick. Great guy, a YouTuber. He really likes your directives and looks like I will too. 😁

Observation:

“Half a group was shown that extraverts are more successful. Other half shown that introverts are more successful. Then when asked to recall events from their past to help determine which they were, they remembered just the events that support the successful group they were told.”

Advice:

Lie to yourself when useful. Prioritise personal utility over truth.
Yes! Agreed. — Derek

Hello Derek and friends,

Color me skeptical.
In bullet (dash) form:
-When I read Seth Godin's blog archives my eyes glaze over, I can only read a few posts. Derek's, though, are long enough for me.
-After reading the comments I suppose I could compress them into a few themes, but I feel no motivation to do so.
-My favourite comment is not on theme, is unique, namely #174
-I share the skepticism of comment # 310
-The last all-wheat-no-chaff books read by #536 are books I treasure too: I would urge people not to give up on books that are older or out of print. Wisdom is not as time-sensitive as people would egotistically think.

> How would you turn that into advice?

Mistrust categorization. (Or at least design an objective measure first!)

Would love to see more! I would really love to see a book or more blog posts on this.

Friggen great title 💯 can’t wait to read the finished product

I am all about the "Hell Yeah". Just tell me what to do! Someone mentioned different people different goals etc - ok I'll skip that part! LOL I'm with Octavio and Jose and others - and as you commented to Wayne who likes to read the whole book...I am one who will never ever read the book! I loved your simple list of How to Like People! Great thank you!

Re-reading some of this content as I write some advice for my boys' graduations this year: one H.S., one university).

Derek's distilled, succinct delivery is *effective* wether you agree with the advice or not. Upon reading something like "avoid awareness of competition" -- you will react internally with either "that's good advice" or "are you kidding - it's the competition that gets me out of bed every morning" --at least you know where you stand!

Really looking forward to "How to Live"

Great idea. I have struggled with this problem for most of my life!!!
How can I see your 220 directives.?
Thanks.
My new book “HOW TO LIVE” is the culmination of the directives. — Derek