6 takeaways from “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant.”
A few days back, I came across a podcast. I discovered “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant.” I was fascinated by his personality, and I was awestruck by his wisdom. After this video, I decided to read this book called “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant.” I completed this book in 3 days (because it was too interesting to be read slowly). It was like finding a pot of gold (gold for the soul). It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read.
Naval Ravikant is an icon in Silicon Valley and startup culture around the world. He founded multiple successful companies (Epinions during the 2000 dot-com crash, AngelList in 2010). Naval is also an angel investor, betting early on companies like Uber, Twitter, Postmates, and hundreds more. More than a financial success, Naval has been sharing his own philosophy of life and happiness, attracting readers and listeners throughout the world. Naval is broadly followed because he is a rare combination of successful and happy. After a lifetime of study and application of philosophy, economics, and wealth creation, he has proven the impact of his principles.
Here are my 6 takeaways from the book -
- We live in a world with Infinite Leverage
You have permissionless leverage in today’s world to reach the masses, earn lots of money, to make an impact in this world. It's like 7 billion media companies exist through Youtube, Twitter, FB, Insta, etc. The Internet has created spaces that can be used in countless ways. We are living in the most resourceful time ever. This lets you escape the competition through authenticity.
One example of infinite leverage — Being a youtuber. Because of the pandemic, Youtubers have gained a lot of attention. We saw many new and authentic knowledge spreaders on Youtube in the past year. So, find your niche, make your own space on the internet and reach the masses.
2. Happiness is a skill
Just like fitness, nutrition is a skill; happiness is also a skill. He mentions happiness can be learned. Happiness is a default state. We need to be more observant of what makes us happy and what doesn’t (both are equally important). He says I have 100s of ways to make myself happy. He has his formula for happiness -
Happiness = Health + Wealth + Good Relationships
There are 7 billion definitions of happiness. It is essential to do trial and error experiments on whats makes u happy and what doesn’t. (You have to be honest in these experiments as many times people get happy because of society's things). So figure it out, whether it is meditation, a good sleep, a good drive, or anything that sets you in peace.
3. Value of time
Time is the most valuable thing we have. He mentions that you should be conscious of what your time is being spent no matter what thing you are doing. Let it be exercising, meditating, meeting people, a party, a job; one should be conscious of spending time. You are not just the sum of 5 people you spend the most time with. You are the person who spends their time on everything that you do. Every moment is equally important.
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, which doesn’t mean you chase some stupid desire for your entire life. What it means is every second you have on this planet is very precious, and it’s your responsibility to make sure you’re happy and interpreting everything in the best possible way.
We read, exercise, interact with people, and all the other thousand things we do, we should spend our time consciously (not compulsively). So don’t read that book that doesn’t interest you, don’t be with that person who has negative vibes, don’t do anything which doesn't feel right to you. It’s a short span of life.
4. Fundamentals are most important
Questioning the simplest of things is a superpower. He mentions that understanding the fundamentals of anything helps in getting better at anything you do.
If you can’t rederive concepts from the basics as you need them, you’re lost. You’re just memorizing.
Let it be anything. Whether you are looking to find philosophical answers, trying to learn about stock markets, or learning martial arts, fundamentals make you confident to go and learn anything in this world. He mentions that for learning anything, get to basic and read the oldest book possible on that topic. Often, the one who asked and realized the original answers to something has the greatest impact on that skill. After that, everything else is rederived from that basic knowledge.
5. Own equity
To get rich, renting out your time is the least efficient way to earn money. Owning equity is the best way to earn money and solve your money problems. And by equity, it could mean owning any shares of any company, being the owner of any company, having IP (which keeps producing money without doing new work), having real estate, etc.
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.
6. Compounding effect works on everything in life
It’s just not the stock market where compounding works; it works in every activity of life. We have books written on the effect of compounding (like Atomic Habits).
But for effect on compounding, you need to choose what activity you want to develop yourself in. It may be fitness; it may be spirituality; it may be coding. So first step is to figure out what interests you the most. Find that niche and work on that like you have to be the best at doing that thing. If one finds such interests, it helps in hyper-focusing, and interest automatically generates consistency, motivation, and discipline to do that activity.
Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world.
Albert Einstein
