The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

tags:: #source/book Entrepreneurship Productivity on/happiness
author:: Naval Ravikant Jack Butcher
read:: true

Retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for an imaginary tomorrow. When today is complete, in and of itself, you're retired. (Page 78)

I think the smartest people can explain things to a child. (Page 95)

It's actually really important to have empty space. If you don't have a day or two every week in your calendar where you're not always in meetings, and you're not always busy, then you're not going to be able to think.

You're not going to be able to have good ideas for your business. You're not going to be able to make good judgments. I also encourage taking at least one day a week (preferably two, because if you budget two, you'll end up with one) where you just have time to think.

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. (Page 98)

Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are. (Page 101)

I never ask if I like it" or "I don't like it." I think "this is what it is" or "this is what it isn't."

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.

I'm "always working." It looks like work to others, but it feels like play to me. And that's how I know no one can compete with me on it. Because I'm just playing, for sixteen hours a day. If others want to compete with me, they're going to work, and they're going to lose because they're not going to do it for sixteen hours a day, seven days a week.

If you want to make the maximum amount of money possible, if you want to get rich over your life in a deterministically predictable way, stay on the bleeding edge of trends and study technology, design, and art-become really good at something.

Without hard work, you'll develop neither judgment nor leverage.

You have to put in the time, but the judgment is more important. The direction you're heading in matters more than how fast you move, especially with leverage. Picking the direction you're heading in for every decision is far, far more important than how much force you apply. Just pick the right direction to start walking in, and start walking.

The more you know, the less you diversify. (Page 106)

I think a lot of modern society can be explained through evolution, One theory is civilization exists to answer the question of who gets to mate. If you look around, from a purely sexual selection perspective, sperm is abundant and eggs are scarce.

It's an allocation problem.

Literally all of the works of mankind and womankind can be traced down to people trying to solve this problem. (Page 107)

Microeconomics and game theory are fundamental. I don't think you can be successful in business or even navigate most of our modern capitalist society without an extremely good understanding of supply-and-demand, labor-versus-capital, game theory, and those kinds of things.

I just don't believe in anything from my past. Anything. No memories. No regrets. No people. No trips. Nothing. A lot of our unhappiness comes from comparing things from the past to the present. (Page 134)

A happy person isn't someone who is happy all the time. It's someone who effortlessly interprets events in such a way that they don't lose their innate peace. (Page 136)

Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want. (Page 138)

A calm mind, a fit body, and a house full of love.

These things cannot be bought.
They must be earned.

The three big ones in love are wealth, health, and happiness.

We pursue them in that order, but their importance is reverse.

Don't take yourself too seriously. You're just a monkey with a plan.

To me, 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. The fewer desires I can have, the more I can accept the current state of things, the less my mind is moving, because the mind really exists in motion toward the future or the past. The more present I am, the happier and more content I will be. If I latch onto a feeling, if I say "oh, I'm happy now" and I want to stay happy, then I'm going to drop out of that happiness. Now, suddenly, the mind is moving. It's trying to attach to something. It's trying to create a permanent situation out of a temporary situation.

Real happiness comes as a side effect of peace.

The advantage of meditation is recognizing just how out of control your kind is. It is like a monkey flinging feces, running around the room, making trouble, shouting, and breaking things. It's completely uncontrollable. (Page 175)

The real truths are heresies. They cannot be spoken. Only discovered, whispered, and perhaps read.