Would I Still Do This If Nobody Knew?
Remove status rewards to expose the outcome you actually value
- Difficulty
- Starter
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 97%
Sivers uses one counterfactual question to strip social decoration from a decision: would you still do it if nobody knew? Take the proposed activity and mentally remove the camera, announcement, admiration, and future story. Then observe whether the experience or outcome itself still attracts you. If the desire collapses, social display may be doing most of the motivational work; if it remains, the choice has a stronger intrinsic basis. Sivers applies the filter to a person who wanted to visit every country and to his own interest in Dubai, including whether its tax treatment was secretly the attraction. The question is diagnostic rather than absolute: some worthwhile actions are public by nature, but the test clarifies which reward is actually driving the choice.
Origin
Extracted from The Tim Ferriss Show as a question Derek Sivers uses to strip away choices made for how they look to others.
Core principles
- 01Impression management can decorate a choice without serving its real outcome
- 02Removing visibility clarifies intrinsic motivation
- 03A weakened desire is useful evidence, not an automatic veto
How to run it
- 1
State the choice
Describe the activity and the outcome you believe you want from it.
- 2
Erase the audience
Imagine you cannot photograph, announce, display, or later tell anyone about the choice.
Pro tip Make the thought experiment permanent rather than merely private for a week.
- 3
Observe the remaining pull
Notice whether the activity itself is still desirable once recognition disappears.
Watch out Do not confuse reduced excitement with definitive proof that the choice is worthless.
- 4
Name the true reward
Identify whether the surviving motive is experience, learning, utility, belonging, money, or status.
- 5
Decide deliberately
Keep, redesign, or abandon the choice based on the reward you actually value.
In the wild
When someone told Sivers he wanted to visit every country, Sivers suggested bringing no camera and telling nobody. He used the imagined loss of recognition to test whether the travel itself remained appealing.
→ The counterfactual isolates travel from the status of completing and displaying it.
Common mistakes
Treating publicity as contamination
The question reveals motivation; it does not mean every visible or shared activity is invalid.
Giving the socially desirable answer
The filter only works when you honestly notice whether the private version still attracts you.
Is it for you?
Best for
People evaluating travel, projects, purchases, or lifestyle decisions with a visible status component.
Not ideal for
Decisions whose legitimate purpose inherently requires an audience, accountability, or public communication.
From the transcript
“ask yourself would I still do this if nobody knew”
“don't bring a camera and don't tell anyone that you're doing this is it still appealing to you now probably not”
“would I still live here if the taxes were like 50% I was like yeah”
From the episode
#777: Derek Sivers, Philosopher-Entrepreneur — The Greatest Year of His Life
Derek Sivers