🧠 Notes on The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

Naval Ravikant is an entrepreneur, philosopher, and investor. His "Navalisms" for building wealth and creating long-term happiness have captivated a massive audience. The Almanack of Naval Ravikant is a collection of Naval’s wisdom and experience from the last ten years, shared as a curation of his most insightful interviews and poignant reflections. These are my favorite ideas and excerpts:

Seeking Wealth

• Seek wealth, not money or status. Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep.
• You’re not going to get rich renting out your time. You must own equity to gain your financial freedom.
• Don't settle for good enough: “You’ll never be rich since you’re obviously smart, and someone will always offer you a job that’s just good enough.”
• No one is going to value you more than you value yourself. Set a high hourly rate on your time and stick to it. If you can hire someone to do it for less than your hourly rate, hire them.

The year I generated the most wealth for myself was actually the year I worked the least hard and cared the least about the future. I was mostly doing things for the sheer fun of it. I was basically telling people, “I’m retired, I’m not working.” Then, I had the time for whatever was my highest valued project in front of me. By doing things for their own sake, I did them at their best.

Seeking Happiness

• Anger is a loss of control over the situation.
• Retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for an imaginary tomorrow. When today is complete, in and of itself, you’re retired.
• Suffering is the moment you see things exactly the way they are.
• The smaller you make your ego, the easier it will be to see reality.
• Be able to uncondition yourself. Take apart your habits and ask, "Does this still serve me?"
• Criticize generally but praise specifically.
• Happiness is there when you remove the sense of something missing in your life. It's the absence of desire, especially the absence of desire for external things.
• Anticipation for our vices pulls us into the future. Eliminating vices makes it easier to be present.
• Don't be jealous unless you're willing to do a 100% swap with that person.
• As you get older, the sum of preferences you’ve accumulated is large. These habitual reactions end up as runaway freight trains controlling your mood.

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.

Seeking Success

• Take risks under your name. Be accountable. Society will reward you.
• Work hard, but remember that who you work with and what you work on is most important.
• Seek knowledge in things that come easier to you than others.
• Escape competition through authenticity. Every person is different.
• Ask yourself: “What is the foundation required for me to learn this?”
• When you know something isn't worthwhile, move on immediately.
• When you find the 1% that matters, go all-in and forget the rest.
• Art is anything done for its own sake.
• Make something interesting people want. Show your craft, practice your craft, and the right people will eventually find you.

When you’re young, you have time. You have health, but you have no money. When you’re middle-aged, you have money and you have health, but you have no time. When you’re old, you have money and you have time, but you have no health. So the trifecta is trying to get all three at once.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe in the form below to get future ones like it delivered straight to your inbox. If Twitter is more your speed, you can follow me there as well. 🔥