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

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You’re a living creature. There are things you do. You locally reverse entropy. That’s why you’re here.” Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion rather than whatever is hot right now.”

Embrace accountability, and take business risks under your own name. Society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage. [...] The fundamental delusion: There is something out there that will make me happy and fulfilled forever.” If you’re a slow reader, read one hour per day; it will likely put you at the upper echelon of human success within seven years. If you’re a fast reader, slow down; it’s not a race. The better the book, the slower it should be absorbed. I think the most common mistake for humanity is believing you’re going to be made happy because of some external circumstance.” Money is not going to solve all of your problems, but it’s going to solve all of your money problems.”Specific knowledge is sort of this weird combination of unique traits from your DNA, your unique upbringing, and your response to it. It’s almost baked into your personality and your identity. Then you can hone it.” I think business networking is a complete waste of time. And I know there are people and companies popularizing this concept because it serves them and their business model well, but the reality is if you’re building something interesting, you will always have more people who will want to know you. Trying to build business relationships well in advance of doing business is a complete waste of time. I have a much more comfortable philosophy: “Be a maker who makes something interesting people want. Show your craft, practice your craft, and the right people will eventually find you.” I would combine radical honesty with an old rule Warren Buffett has, which is praise specifically, criticize generally.” Making money was a means to an end. I’m much more interested in solving problems than I am in making money.” The really smart thinkers are clear thinkers. They understand the basics at a very, very fundamental level.”

You need leverage to get rich. Leverage can be found in labor and capital, as well as in code and the media. However, these aspects are only beneficial if you have earned the trust of others. As a result, establishing trust is critical, and you should do so as much as possible under your own name. Accept responsibility for your actions and take commercial risks in your own name; society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage.

3. Learn the Skills of Decision-Making

Money is good as a form of leverage. It means every time you make a decision, you multiply it with money.” Retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for an imaginary tomorrow. When today is complete, in and of itself, you’re retired.” One day, I realized with all these people I was jealous of, I couldn’t just choose little aspects of their life. I couldn’t say I want his body, I want her money, I want his personality. You have to be that person. Do you want to actually be that person with all of their reactions, their desires, their family, their happiness level, their outlook on life, their self-image? If you’re not willing to do a wholesale, 24/7, 100% swap with who that person is, then there is no point in being jealous. You don’t make any decisions. You don’t judge anything. You just accept everything. If I do that for ten or fifteen minutes while walking around, I end up in a very peaceful, grateful state. Choiceless Awareness works well for me.[6]

You don’t get rich by spending your time to save money. You get rich by saving your time to make money.“ Buddhists talk about awareness versus the ego. They’re really talking about how you can think of your brain, your consciousness, as a multilayered mechanism. There’s a core-base, kernel-level OS running. Then, there are applications running on top. (I like to think of it as computer and geek speak.)If you have nothing in your life, but you have at least one person that loves you unconditionally, it’ll do wonders for your self-esteem.” On the other side, I do know evolution is true. I do know we are evolved as survival and replication machines. I do know we have an ego, so we get up off the ground and worms don’t eat us and we actually take action. Rational Buddhism, to me, means understanding the internal work Buddhism espouses to make yourself happier, better off, more present and in control of your emotions— being a better human being.”