The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Eric Jorgenson
Summary
Collection of advice from Naval Ravikant, a modern day philosopher imo
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Making money is not a thing you do - it’s a skill you learn
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
Arm yourself w/ specific knowledge, accountability and leverage
Leverage is a force multiplier for your judgment
Productize yourself
Specific knowledge can’t be taught, it must be learned
Technology democratizes consumption but consolidates production. The best person in the world at anything gets to do it for everyone
Escape competition through authenticity
Intentions don’t matter, actions do. That’s why being ethical is hard.
Forget rich vs. poor or white collared vs. blue collared. It’s now leveraged vs. unleveraged
Knowledge workers train like athletes - train and sprint then rest and reassess
Earn with your mind, not your time
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes
3 biggest decisions in life: where you live, who you’re with and what you do
Whether in commerce, science of politics - history remembers the artists
Be a maker who makes something interesting people want. Show your craft, practice your craft and the right people will eventually find you
Judgment is underrated in today’s world
Very smart people tend to be weird since they insist on thinking everything through for themselves
Cynicism is easy. Mimicry is easy. Optimistic contrarians are the rarest breed.
Practice specifically, criticize generally
If faced with a difficult choice and you can’t decide, the answer is no
If you’re evenly split on a difficult decision, take the path more painful in the short term
Read what you love till you love to read
The three big ones in life are wealth, health and happiness. We pursue them in that order, but their importance is reverse
Don’t take yourself so seriously. You’re just a monkey with a plan
Happiness is not about positive or negative thoughts. It’s the absence of desire, especially the absence of desire of external things
There are no external forces affecting your emotions - as much as it may feel that way
Happiness, love and passion aren’t things you find - they’re choices you make
Happiness is being satisfied with what you have. Success comes from dissatisfaction. Choose.
The enemy of peace of mind is expectations drilled into you by society and other people
Embrace death
Be yourself with passionate intensity
To make an original contribution, you have to be irrationally obsessed with something
Most of our suffering comes from avoidance
The greatest superpower is the ability to change yourself
Impatience with actions, patient with results
Grind and sweat, toil and flood, face the abyss. It’s all part of becoming an overnight success.
Advice to my younger self ‘be exactly who you are’
To find a worthy mate, be worthy of a worthy mate - Charlie Munger
Notes from second read through:
You will get rich by giving society what it wants but doesn’t know how to get, at scale
The best person in the world at anything gets to do it for everyone
No one can compete with you on being you. Most of life is searching for who and what needs you the most
Escape competition through authenticity
Intentions don’t matter, actions do
If you don’t own a piece of a business, you don’t have a path to financial freedom
Remember permissioned (labour and capital) vs. permissionless (code and media) forms of leverage
3 biggest decision of your life: where you live, who you’re with and what you do
Figure out what you’re good at and start helping people with it: give it away
Whether in commerce, science or politics - history remembers the artists
Wisdom is knowing th elong term consequences of your actions
If you cannot decide, the answer is no
The 3 big ones in life are wealth, health and happiness. We pursue them in that order but their importance is in reverse
Happiness is not something you inherit or chase but a highly personal shift that can be learned
We are a combination of your habits and the people you spend the most time with
Be yourself with passionate intensity
Impatience with actions, patience with results
There are no ‘adults’. Everyone makes it up as they go along.
***
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Make Something Wonderful
Steve Jobs
Summary
The life of Steve Jobs in his own words
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Make something wonderful and put it out there
‘You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear’
When you’re a stranger in a place, you notice thing you don’t otherwise (Jobs after India trip)
Whenever you start with nothing, always shoot for the moon. You have nothing to lose.
You never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times
Never be afraid to fail. You never achieve what you want without falling flat on your face a few times
We are never taught to listen to our intuitions, to develop and nurture them. But if you do pay attention to these subtle insights, you can make them come true
Creativity equals connecting previously unrelated experiences and insights others don’t see
Believe that some of what you follow with your heart will come back and make your life richer. And it will. And you will gain even firmer trust on your instincts and intuitions
Make your avocation your vocation. Make what you love your work.
The journey is the reward. The reward isn’t in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it’s in crossing the rainbow
To find A+ talent, if experienced, look at their track record and results
The world we know is a human creation and we can push it forward
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do (read whole ad ‘here’s to the crazy ones)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle
Hire people better than you are
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life
It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward, but they make sense looking backwards so you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future
Everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you
***
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