Phil Libin on Building Evernote and Big Ideas

TL;DR

Evernote works as an external brain by capturing documents, articles, photographs, voice notes, and other information in a searchable system. Phil Libin’s account shows that a compelling product can begin with a personal need, become understandable through a concrete demonstration, and gain early traction when trusted users share their genuine experiences.

Transcript

Optimal minimal At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Can I ask you a personal question? No, we're just sitting in a perfect kind of- What if I give you algorithm? I'm a cybernetic organism living tissue over metal endoskeleton. The Tim Ferriss Show. This episode is brought to you by 99designs, your one... Read More

Key Insights

• Evernote is an external brain for capturing documents, online articles, lists, voice notes, photographs, and other information. Its search capabilities help users retrieve stored material later, reducing the need to remember where every individual item was filed.
• Optical character recognition makes photographed text searchable inside Evernote. Ferriss understood the product’s practical value after Libin photographed a menu and demonstrated that its words could subsequently be found through search.
• Search can reduce the burden of manual organization. Ferriss scanned business cards, legal documents, accounting records, receipts, and other paperwork because searchable text allowed him to retrieve materials without designing an elaborate filing structure first.
• User recommendations introduced Ferriss to Evernote while he was revising The 4-Hour Workweek. He repeatedly asked Twitter followers for the best tools for different tasks, and Evernote appeared often enough to prompt him to investigate the product.
• A concrete demonstration can explain a broad product better than an abstract description. Ferriss initially struggled to understand where to begin with Evernote, but seeing a photographed menu become searchable gave him an immediate and memorable use case.
• Evernote’s elephant logo represents memory because elephants are associated with never forgetting. Libin says the elephant is gray because elephants are gray, while the green background represents the grass found in the animal’s natural habitat.
• Phil Libin grew his beard to look older and kept it for 20 years. He later shaved it because, after two decades, he decided it was time to start trying to look younger instead.
• The interview is framed around extracting transferable lessons from high performers. Ferriss says his approach examines routines, morning rituals, favorite books, behaviors, and habits that listeners can borrow to improve their professional and personal lives.

Questions & Answers

Q: What is Evernote used for?

Evernote is used as an external brain for capturing and retrieving information such as documents, online articles, lists, voice notes, photographs, receipts, menus, contracts, business cards, and administrative records. Users can store material for later access, including offline reading, and search captured text instead of depending entirely on memory or a complex manual filing system.

Q: How does Evernote make photographed documents searchable?

Evernote can process photographs of text with optical character recognition, allowing words within photographed items to be found later through search. Ferriss describes using an iPhone to capture receipts, menus, and contracts. His understanding of the product changed when Libin photographed a menu and soon demonstrated that the text in the image could be searched.

Q: How can Evernote help create a paperless life?

Evernote can support a paperless workflow by storing digital captures of business cards, legal paperwork, accounting documents, receipts, menus, and contracts. Ferriss scanned these materials to reduce paper clutter in his home. Because the captured text was searchable, he did not need to carefully organize every document before expecting to retrieve it later.

Q: How did Tim Ferriss discover Evernote?

Tim Ferriss discovered Evernote while revising The 4-Hour Workweek and asking his Twitter followers which tools were best for different tasks. Evernote kept appearing in their responses, which made him investigate what seemed like a software Swiss Army knife. That interest led to a meeting with Phil Libin and a practical demonstration of searchable photographed text.

Q: What demonstration convinced Tim Ferriss to use Evernote?

Phil Libin photographed a menu displayed on a wall and then showed that the words in the image could be searched. That demonstration gave Ferriss a clear starting point for understanding Evernote. He subsequently used it to remove paper clutter, capture information for his books, and manage documents without relying on extensive manual organization.

Q: Why does Evernote use an elephant and a green background?

Evernote uses an elephant because elephants are associated with strong memories and the idea that they never forget. Libin says the elephant is gray simply because that is the natural color of elephants. The green background represents grass, placing the animal in what he jokingly describes as its natural habitat rather than reflecting an elaborate branding theory.

Q: Why did Phil Libin shave his longtime beard?

Phil Libin says he had worn the beard for 20 years. When he originally grew it, his goal was to make himself look older. Two decades later, he decided that it was time to pursue the opposite effect and try to look younger, so he removed the facial hair that had become part of his recognizable appearance.

Q: What topics does Tim Ferriss plan to explore with Phil Libin?

Ferriss introduces a wide-ranging discussion covering Evernote’s origin, creating technology for personal needs, major realizations, long-term thinking, artificial intelligence, stoicism, electrical brain stimulation, and lessons Libin learned from Jeff Bezos, Reid Hoffman, and Hiroshi Mikitani. Ferriss also promises lighter subjects, including food in Singapore and Tokyo and Libin’s enthusiasm for Goat Simulator.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Phil Libin, Evernote’s co-founder and executive chairman, joins Tim Ferriss to discuss Evernote, entrepreneurship, performance, and the moments that helped shape his ideas. Ferriss frames the conversation as an effort to extract useful routines, behaviors, books, and lessons that listeners can apply in their professional and personal lives.

• Evernote is presented as an external brain for capturing and retrieving information. Ferriss uses it repeatedly for notes, book research, online material, receipts, menus, contracts, business cards, and administrative paperwork. Photographing text and making it searchable allows users to reduce physical clutter without manually organizing every captured item.

• Ferriss discovered Evernote after repeatedly asking his Twitter followers to recommend tools while revising The 4-Hour Workweek. Recommendations led to a meeting with Libin, where a demonstration involving a photographed menu made the product’s value immediately clear. Ferriss later recommended Evernote and became an advisor to the company.