The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness

Product Information

Pursue your genuine curiosity and passion rather than whatever is hot right now. Specific knowledge is often highly technical or creative and cannot be outsourced or automated. If I saw a guy with a bad hair day, I would at first think “Haha, he has a bad hair day.” Well, why am I laughing at him to make me feel better about myself? And why am I trying to make me feel better about my own hair? Because I’m losing my hair, and I’m afraid it’s going to go away. What I find is 90 percent of thoughts I have are fear-based. The other 10 percent may be desire-based.

I wanted to be a scientist. That is where a lot of my moral hierarchy comes from. I view scientists as being at the top of the production chain for humanity. The group of scientists who have made real breakthroughs and contributions probably added more to human society, I think, than any single other class of human beings.” Read enough, and you become a connoisseur. Then you naturally gravitate more toward theory, concepts, nonfiction.” I would combine radical honesty with an old rule Warren Buffett has, which is praise specifically, criticize generally.” The single word ‘leverage’ is a fantastic summary of ways to extend your impact beyond a linear, hourly input-output. If you can only earn with your own hourly time, the only way to build wealth is incredibly deep specialization (doctor, lawyer, etc). By creating and using leverage (through money, employees, or products) you can create more value for more people in the same amount of time. I have lowered my identity. I have lowered the chattering of my mind. I don’t care about things that don’t really matter. I don’t get involved in politics. I don’t hang around unhappy people. I really value my time on this earth. I read philosophy. I meditate.”

As you get older, the sum of preferences you’ve accumulated is very, very large. These habitual reactions end up as runaway freight trains controlling your mood. We should control our own moods. Why don’t we study how to control our moods? What a masterful thing it would be if you could say, “Right now I would like to be in the curious state,” and then you can genuinely get yourself into the curious state. Or say, “I want to be in a mourning state. I’m mourning a loved one, and I want to grieve for them. I really want to feel that. I don’t want to be distracted by a computer programming problem due tomorrow.” The winners of any game are the people who are so addicted they continue playing even as the marginal utility from winning declines.” If something is your number one priority, then you will do it. That’s just the way life works. If you’ve got a fuzzy basket of ten or fifteen different priorities, you’re going to end up getting none of them.” You will not get rich by renting out your time. To gain financial freedom, you must own equity—a piece of a business. Give society what it wants but does not yet know how to get at scale. 2. Build Judgment If you want to be wealthy, you want to figure out which one of those things you can provide for society that it does not yet know how to get but it will want and providing it is natural to you, within your skill set, and within your capabilities.”

If you are fundamentally building and marketing something that is an extension of who you are, no one can compete with you on that.” PRODUCTS: In our environment, the final form of leverage is new: products with no marginal cost of repetition. Books, media, movies, and code are all examples of this. Permissionless leverage in the form of code is perhaps the most potent. You only need a computer to produce, and you don’t need anyone’s permission.

Key Highlights

All you should do is what you want to do. If you stop trying to figure out how to do things the way other people want you to do them, you get to listen to the little voice inside your head that wants to do things a certain way. Then, you get to be you.”