The Almanack of Naval Ravikant – Eric Jorgenson

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant – Eric Jorgenson

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Main Take-Aways

• What you want in life is to be in control of your time .
• Play stupid games , win stupid prizes .
• Figure out what you’re good at , and start helping other people with it . Give it away . Pay it forward .
• If all your beliefs line up into neat little bundles , you should be highly suspicious .
• Don’t take yourself so seriously . You’re just a monkey with a plan .
• You’re born , you have a whole set of sensory experiences and stimulations ( lights , colors , and sounds ) , and then you die . How you choose to interpret them is up to you — you have that choice .
• Today , the way we think you get peace is by resolving all your external problems . But there are unlimited external problems . The only way to actually get peace on the inside is by giving up this idea of problems .
• All the real scorecards are internal .
• You’re going to die one day , and none of this is going to matter . So enjoy yourself . Do something positive . Project some love . Make someone happy . Laugh a little bit . Appreciate the moment . And do your work .
• I never met my greatest mentor . I wanted so much to be like him . But his message was the opposite : Be yourself , with passionate intensity .
• Most of our suffering comes from avoidance .
• When you really want to change , you just change .
• Value your time . It is all you have . It’s more important than your money . It’s more important than your friends . It is more important than anything . Your time is all you have . Do not waste your time.
• The reality is you’ve been dead for the history of the Universe , 10 billion years or more . You will be dead for the next 70 billion years or so , until the heat death of the Universe .
• “ Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed . You will never be lovelier than you are now , and we will never be here again . ” — Homer , The Iliad

Building Wealth

• Getting rich is about knowing what to do , who to do it with , and when to do it .
• You’re not going to get rich renting out your time . You must own equity — a piece of a business — to gain your financial freedom .
• You will get rich by giving society what it wants but does not yet know how to get . At scale .
• Pick an industry where you can play long – term games with long – term people .
• Play iterated games . All the returns in life , whether in wealth , relationships , or knowledge , come from compound interest .
• Learn to sell . Learn to build . If you can do both , you will be unstoppable .
• When specific knowledge is taught , it’s through apprenticeships , not schools .
• Embrace accountability , and take business risks under your own name . Society will reward you with responsibility , equity , and leverage .
• If you can’t code , write books and blogs , record videos and podcasts .
• Reading is faster than listening . Doing is faster than watching .
• Become the best in the world at what you do . Keep redefining what you do until this is true .
• Society will pay you for creating things it wants . But society doesn’t yet know how to create those things , because if it did , they wouldn’t need you . They would already be stamped out .
• Specific knowledge cannot be taught , but it can be learned .
• Most of life is a search for who and what needs you the most .
• Society , business , & money are downstream of technology , which is itself downstream of science . Science applied is the engine of humanity .
• Basically , when you’re competing with people , it’s because you’re copying them . It’s because you’re trying to do the same thing . But every human is different . Don’t copy .
• The most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner.
• Compound interest also happens in your reputation . If you have a sterling reputation and you keep building it for decades upon decades , people will notice . Your reputation will literally end up being thousands or tens of thousands of times more valuable than somebody else who was very talented but is not keeping the compound interest in reputation going .
• Intentions don’t matter . Actions do . That’s why being ethical is hard .
• Embrace accountability and take business risks under your own name . Society will reward you with responsibility , equity , and leverage .
• So to get these things , you have to build credibility , and you have to do it under your own name as much as possible , which is risky . So , accountability is a double – edged thing . It allows you to take credit when things go well and to bear the brunt of the failure when things go badly .
• When you put your name out there , you take a risk with certain things . You also get to reap the rewards . You get the benefits .
• There’s not really that much to fear in terms of failure , and so people should take on a lot more accountability than they do .
• Without ownership , when you’re sleeping , you’re not earning . When you’re retired , you’re not earning . When you’re on vacation , you’re not earning . And you can’t earn nonlinearly .
• Essentially , you’re working for somebody else , and that person is taking on the risk and has the accountability , the intellectual property , and the brand . They’re not going to pay you enough . They’re going to pay you the bare minimum they have to , to get you to do their job . That can be a high bare minimum , but it’s still not going to be true wealth where you’re retired but still earning .
• Ownership is really important .
• I think the meaning of life is to do things for their own sake .
• You want to know how to do something other people don’t know how to do at the time period when those skills are in demand .
• If they can train you to do it , then eventually they will train a computer to do it .
• The final form of leverage is brand new — the most democratic form . It is : “ products with no marginal cost of replication . ” This includes books , media , movies , and code . Code is probably the most powerful form of permissionless leverage . All you need is a computer — you don’t need anyone’s permission .
• Probably the most interesting thing to keep in mind about new forms of leverage is they are permissionless . They don’t require somebody else’s permission for you to use them or succeed .
• Whenever you can in life , optimize for independence rather than pay . If you have independence and you’re accountable on your output , as opposed to your input — that’s the dream .
• What you want in life is to be in control of your time .
• If you have specific knowledge , you have accountability and you have leverage ; they have to pay you what you’re worth .
• Learn to sell , learn to build . If you can do both , you will be unstoppable .
• I would love to be paid purely for my judgment , not for any work .
• Judgment — especially demonstrated judgment , with high accountability and a clear track record — is critical .
• Thanks to the internet , opportunities are massively abundant .
• No one is going to value you more than you value yourself .
• Status is a zero – sum game .
• Play stupid games , win stupid prizes .
• There are basically three really big decisions you make in your early life : where you live , who you’re with , and what you do .
• Figure out what you’re good at , and start helping other people with it . Give it away . Pay it forward .
• I would rather be a failed entrepreneur than someone who never tried . Because even a failed entrepreneur has the skill set to make it on their own .
• I want to be off the hedonic treadmill .
• Retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for an imaginary tomorrow . When today is complete , in and of itself , you’re retired .
• The way to get out of the competition trap is to be authentic , to find the thing you know how to do better than anybody . You know how to do it better because you love it , and no one can compete with you . If you love to do it , be authentic , and then figure out how to map that to what society actually wants . Apply some leverage and put your name on it . You take the risks , but you gain the rewards , have ownership and equity in what you’re doing , and just crank it up .
• I think the best way to stay away from this constant love of money is to not upgrade your lifestyle as you make money .
• It’s good to be in a smaller company early because there’s less of an infrastructure to prevent early promotion .
• For someone who is early in their career ( and maybe even later ) , the single most important thing about a company is the alumni network you’re going to build .
• The last kind of luck is the weirdest , hardest kind , where you build a unique character , a unique brand , a unique mindset , which causes luck to find you .
• Build your character in a certain way , then your character becomes your destiny .
• In a long – term game , it’s positive sum . We’re all baking the pie together . We’re trying to make it as big as possible . And in a short – term game , we’re cutting up the pie .
• The worst outcome in this world is not having self – esteem . If you don’t love yourself , who will ?
• “ The closer you want to get to me , the better your values have to be . ”
• Your real résumé is just a catalog of all your suffering
• Let’s get them all rich . Let’s get them all fit and healthy . Then , let’s get them all happy .
• The direction you’re heading in matters more than how fast you move , especially with leverage .
• The smartest people can explain things to a child . If you can’t explain it to a child , then you don’t know it .
• You can only make progress when you’re starting with the truth .
• The hard thing is seeing the truth . To see the truth , you have to get your ego out of the way because your ego doesn’t want to face the truth . The smaller you can make your ego , the less conditioned you can make your reactions , the less desires you can have about the outcome you want , the easier it will be to see the reality .
• It’s only after you’re bored you have the great ideas . It’s never going to be when you’re stressed , or busy , running around or rushed . Make the time .
• A contrarian isn’t one who always objects — that’s a conformist of a different sort . A contrarian reasons independently from the ground up and resists pressure to conform . Cynicism is easy . Mimicry is easy . Optimistic contrarians are the rarest breed .
• If all your beliefs line up into neat little bundles , you should be highly suspicious .
• Charisma is the ability to project confidence and love at the same time . It’s almost always possible to be honest and positive .
• What you want is principles . You want mental models .
• Mental models are really just compact ways for you to recall your own knowledge .
• I don’t believe I have the ability to say what is going to work . Rather , I try to eliminate what’s not going to work . I think being successful is just about not making mistakes . It’s not about having correct judgment . It’s about avoiding incorrect judgments .
• Principal – agent problem – When you are the principal , then you are the owner — you care , and you will do a great job . When you are the agent and you are doing it on somebody else’s behalf , you can do a bad job . The less you feel like an agent , the better the job you’re going to do . The more closely you can tie someone’s compensation to the exact value they’re creating , the more you turn them into a principal , and the less you turn them into an agent .
• If you cannot decide , the answer is no .
• If you find yourself creating a spreadsheet for a decision with a list of yes’s and no’s , pros and cons , checks and balances , why this is good or bad … forget it . If you cannot decide , the answer is no .
• If you have two choices to make , and they’re relatively equal choices , take the path more difficult and more painful in the short term .
• Most of the gains in life come from suffering in the short term so you can get paid in the long term .
• You generally want to lean into things with short – term pain , but long – term gain .
• The genuine love for reading itself , when cultivated , is a superpower .
• I don’t believe in delayed gratification when there are an infinite number of books out there to read . There are so many great books .
• Explain what you learned to someone else . Teaching forces learning .
• When you’re reading a book and you’re confused , that confusion is similar to the pain you get in the gym when you’re working out . But you’re building mental muscles instead of physical muscles .
• When solving problems : the older the problem , the older the solution .
• A calm mind , a fit body , and a house full of love . These things cannot be bought . They must be earned .

Learning Happiness

• Don’t take yourself so seriously . You’re just a monkey with a plan .
• I believe happiness is really a default state . Happiness is there when you remove the sense of something missing in your life .
• You have to view the negative before you can aspire to and appreciate the positive .
• Happiness is not about positive thoughts . It’s not about negative thoughts . It’s about the absence of desire , especially the absence of desire for external things .
• Happiness to me is mainly not suffering , not desiring , not thinking too much about the future or the past , really embracing the present moment and the reality of what is , and the way it is .
• Everything is perfect exactly the way it is . It is only in our particular minds we are unhappy or not happy , and things are perfect or imperfect because of what we desire .
• You’re born , you have a whole set of sensory experiences and stimulations ( lights , colors , and sounds ) , and then you die . How you choose to interpret them is up to you — you have that choice .
• If you view yourself as a bacteria or an amoeba — or if you view all of your works as writing on water or building castles in the sand , then you have no expectation for how life should “ actually ” be . Life is just the way it is . When you accept that , you have no cause to be happy or unhappy . Those things almost don’t apply .
• Our lives are a blink of a firefly in the night . You’re just barely here . You have to make the most of every minute ,
• Happiness is a choice you make and a skill you develop .
• We spend so much time and effort trying to change the external world , other people , and our own bodies — all while accepting ourselves the way we were programmed in our youths .
• Memory and identity are burdens from the past preventing us from living freely in the present .
• “ Would I rather be having this thought right now , or would I rather have my peace ? ”
• A happy person isn’t someone who’s happy all the time .
• The most common mistake for humanity is believing you’re going to be made happy because of some external circumstance .
• Looking outside yourself for anything is the fundamental delusion .
• Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want .
• To me , the real winners are the ones who step out of the game entirely , who don’t even play the game , who rise above it .
• Peace is happiness at rest , and happiness is peace in motion . You can convert peace into happiness anytime you want . But peace is what you want most of the time . If you’re a peaceful person , anything you do will be a happy activity .
• Today , the way we think you get peace is by resolving all your external problems . But there are unlimited external problems . The only way to actually get peace on the inside is by giving up this idea of problems .
• Training yourself to be happy is completely internal . There is no external progress , no external validation . You’re competing against yourself — it is a single – player game .
• The reality is life is a single – player game . You’re born alone . You’re going to die alone . All of your interpretations are alone . All your memories are alone . You’re gone in three generations , and nobody cares . Before you showed up , nobody cared . It’s all single player .
• All the real scorecards are internal .
• If you’re not willing to do a wholesale , 24 / 7 , 100 percent swap with who that person is , then there is no point in being jealous .
• If you’re present , you’ll realize how many gifts and how much abundance there is around us at all times .
• If you have peace of body , it’s easier to have peace of mind .
• Hedonic adaptation is more powerful for man – made things ( cars , houses , clothes , money ) than for natural things ( food , sex , exercise ) .
• A personal metric : how much of the day is spent doing things out of obligation rather than out of interest ?
• Self – discipline is a bridge to a new self – image .
• In any situation in life , you always have three choices : you can change it , you can accept it , or you can leave it .
• Even if you can’t come up with something positive , you can say , “ Well , the Universe is going to teach me something now . Now I get to listen and learn . ”
• You’re going to die one day , and none of this is going to matter . So enjoy yourself . Do something positive . Project some love . Make someone happy . Laugh a little bit . Appreciate the moment . And do your work .
• 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 .
• I never met my greatest mentor . I wanted so much to be like him . But his message was the opposite : Be yourself , with passionate intensity .
• Your goal in life is to find the people , business , project , or art that needs you the most .
• We evolved for scarcity but live in abundance .
• “ I don’t have time ” is just another way of saying “ It’s not a priority . ”
• The best workout for you is one you’re excited enough to do every day .
• Like everything in life , if you are willing to make the short – term sacrifice , you’ll have the long – term benefit .
• If you make the easy choices right now , your overall life will be a lot harder .
• Most of our suffering comes from avoidance .
• Highlight (yellow) – Meditation + Mental Strength > Location 1686
• They’re trying to get away from the voice in their heads — the overdeveloped sense of self .
• At the very least , I do not want my sense of self to continue to develop and strengthen as I get older . I want it to be weaker and more muted so I can be more in present everyday reality , accept nature and the world for what it is
• Insight meditation lets you run your brain in debug mode until you realize you’re just a subroutine in a larger program .
• You’re born , you have a set of sensory experiences , and then you die .
• When we’re older , we’re a collection of thousands of habits constantly running subconsciously .
• To have peace of mind , you have to have peace of body first .
• If you’re self – aware , you can think , “ ‘ I say I want to do this , but I don’t really because if I really wanted to do it , I would just do it . ”
• When you really want to change , you just change .
• Impatience with actions , patience with results .
• Value your time . It is all you have . It’s more important than your money . It’s more important than your friends . It is more important than anything . Your time is all you have . Do not waste your time.
• People who live far below their means enjoy a freedom that people busy upgrading their lifestyles can’t fathom .
• To me , the mind should be a servant and a tool , not a master . My monkey mind should not control and drive me 24 / 7 .
• The best case is I’m a rat who might be able to look up at the clouds once in a while .
• The modern struggle : Lone individuals summoning inhuman willpower , fasting , meditating , and exercising … Up against armies of scientists and statisticians weaponizing abundant food , screens , and medicine into junk food , clickbait news , infinite porn , endless games , and addictive drugs .
• The real truths are heresies . They cannot be spoken . Only discovered , whispered , and perhaps read .
• What is the meaning and purpose of life ?
• Answer 1 : It’s personal .
• Answer 2 : There is no meaning to life .
• The reality is you’ve been dead for the history of the Universe , 10 billion years or more . You will be dead for the next 70 billion years or so , until the heat death of the Universe .
• There is no answer you could give that wouldn’t have another “ why . ”
• Answer 3 :We’re all one thing . We’re essentially indistinguishable .
• I only want to be around people I know I’m going to be around for the rest of my life . I only want to work on things I know have long – term payout .
• If I can’t treat someone like a peer and if they can’t treat me like peer , I just don’t want to interact with them .
• Try everything , test it for yourself , be skeptical , keep what’s useful , and discard what’s not .
• Like all great profound truths , it’s all paradoxes .
• You’re dying and being reborn at every moment . It’s up to you whether to forget or remember that .
• “ Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed . You will never be lovelier than you are now , and we will never be here again . ” — Homer , The Iliad