Meeting Derek Sivers

Back in 2021, I discovered this thing called NowNowNow where instead of having a full-blown “About Me” page, people just have a page about what they’re up to these days (Read more about what it is here).

It was inspiring to see people with their own things they’re currently chasing, or awesome projects they’re currently doing, or obstacles they’re going through. It really got me out of a cave and made me realize that people are doing all sorts of things I don’t normally know.

So I wrote to the one who founded it.

Suprisingly, he replied very quickly and he actually took the time to read one of my blog posts back in 2020.

And almost in no time, I got listed on the website. After that, life kinda happened, with covid, launching my career in UI/UX, and everything else in between.

So I kinda forgot about it. Maybe once in a few months I get to update my “Now” page to write about what’s going on in my life these days.

Then just last month, Derek sent an email telling me that he’s coming to Jakarta and looking forward to meet some new people. I immediately said yes.

I’m very glad to have the chance to meet him. Instead of me conducting an interview about his works, I felt like the conversation we had truly reflect all his podcasts, writings, books, and music.

Derek was like the millionth people who said that I have a Californian accent. And the answer is always the same: Green Day. From the on, we talked about all sorts of things.

I introduced the local Jakarta culture to him. We talked about my family roots (being a Sundanese/Betawi) which I was kinda the wrong person to talk about lineages and history of it.

We randomly talked about how Indonesians don’t really inherit their names to their kids.

We talked about the “SEAblings” online identity and how it’s not really the case in real life.

And finally, we talked about music. I listened to some of his songs and he also listened to some of mine. It was really a great afternoon with salads in the central business district.