In all of the years I’ve been online, I’m still surprised to find that every single day I find a new voice, a new vision, a new person who is handing out useful info, advice, or just plain beauty. Today’s cool person is Derek Sivers. I found him via Lifehacker (a great site) and immediately, I’ve already learned several important concepts. Some of them confirm what I suspected but weren’t yet a certainty (I HAVE MY CERTAINTY!).

Sivers gave up his investment in CDBaby and put it towards charity, musical education specifically. That is “his story,” but his blog is full of great advice that he gives away for free.

It’s a streamlined, non-cluttered site with the important stuff to know up front.

What drew me there was his post on how not to thwart your own development by assuming you are smarter than everyone else and that you already know everything. Not a good long term plan, it turns out.

He says to assume you are below average — and that may be the thing that saves you. The other really spine-chilling bit of news for me? Something he just wrote a week or so ago on why it’s important to provide something FOR others rather than just for yourself. This is especially true if you are hoping to make money as a blogger; you aren’t going to make a dime doing what I do on this site, that is, write for my own pleasure without giving back much to my three readers. And that’s why I only have three readers. The moment I start giving a lot back to readers? That’s when people will come, Ray. If you build it, they will come. People like information. They like a daily surprise. They like wit, beauty, even conflict. They like political discourse. They like commentary. So, if you wanna be a blogger, read Derek Sivers and you will learn much, Grasshopper.