“The best thing you can do is whatever nobody else is doing. And the way to find that is to notice what about yourself is weird.”

What 5-Minute Action Could Shortcut You to What You Really Want?

Most people take the long way around. They imagine multi-year plans to finally do the thing they care about. Derek challenges that mindset with a simple question: what’s the five-minute action that could start you down the shortcut path?

Derek also offered a framing I loved: instead of asking “Is this idea true?”, ask “What action does this idea create?” If a belief drains your energy or keeps you stuck, toss it. If it moves you toward growth, connection, or creative output, follow it.

Make Your Brain a More Fun Place to Be: One of my favorite takeaways from this conversation with Derek is how he treats thinking like play. When he hears a belief like: “you have to go to college to succeed,” he doesn’t accept it at face value. He flips it. Asking: what if the opposite were true?

Art Doesn’t End at the Edge of the Canvas: Derek shares one of the most powerful lessons of his career: the art isn’t just the song, the book, or the game: it’s how you present it to the world. When helping a friend promote a concept album, he didn’t just send a CD to radio stations; he hand-crafted a bizarre, dirt-rubbed package from a fake... See more