The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant
by Eric Jorgenson
"The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness" by Eric Jorgenson is a collection of insights and wisdom from Naval Ravikant, an entrepreneur who founded and operated AngelList (software company that connects startups with investors and limited partners to help them raise money and grow) and Angel investor (Naval invested in over 200 early-stage startups including major Unicorn companies such as Uber, Twitter and Stack Overflow). Naval is known for generously and openly sharing his deep thoughts on startups, wealth, and personal growth and is active on Twitter as well as other social media, and has done podcasts with Joe Rogan, Tim Ferriss and Shane Parrish.
The book was written by Eric Jorgenson (an author and an entrepreneur in publishing) distills Naval's philosophy, which he collected through Naval’s Twitter, Blog Posts and Podcasts, into a concise guide providing actionable advice and philosophies that aim to guide readers toward building and living a richer, more fulfilling life.
The book is organized around several core concepts:
Wealth Creation and Financial Freedom through the Internet: Naval's approach to wealth emphasizes that wealth is not about seeking money but creating assets that earn money while you sleep. He advocates for leveraging technology and the internet to find your perfect career or to build scalable digital businesses that aligns with your unique skillset and interests. Since the internet has broadened the amount of careers there are and the amount of opportunities there are down to the micro-niche, everyone can find doing something that aligns with their curiosities and passions.
Code and online media are permissionless leverage. You can get started with minimal costs, you just need a laptop and an internet connection, you don’t need anyone’s permission to build (as opposed to accessing capital and labor where you are dependent on workers and investors), and the internet runs globally, 24/7 so you can make money and find customers from across the world while you sleep if you have created valuable software or digital media. Furthermore software and digital media have a zero marginal cost of replication (For example if you want to sell a physical hardcopy book, there are costs for printing each book. However, with an ebook, there are no material costs since it is just digital media).
Ultimately, it is best to own a piece of a business as an investor or to create your own business as an entrepreneurship since you will get rich through ownership of assets and not through a job where you work for someone else and sell your time for money. Naval also says to play long-term games in life and in business rather than short-term games. For example, staying in the same industry for decades, making relationships that are long-term and not focusing on noise such as social status.
Physical Wellbeing, Happiness and Authenticity: According to Naval, happiness is a state that can be cultivated through self-awareness and meditation. He speaks about detaching from external outcomes and focusing on internal satisfaction. Naval also places a high priority on physical and mental health, viewing them as foundational to achieving any other kind of success.
He recommends a clean diet, workout routine, meditation practice, as well as cutting out instant gratification from alcohol, drugs and other physical vices as well as detoxing from digital vices such as social media, video games, etc. He says that the habits you build, such as those mentioned earlier shape your physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing and determine the quality of your life.
He also recommends finding work that aligns with your values and interests. He also says that by doing so not only will you be more personally and professionally fulfilled but you will also probably be good at what you are doing since you would be innately passionate and possibly talented at it.
"No one in the world is going to beat you at being you." [Naval Ravikant]
And going one step further, trusting your own inner voice and gut and not being distracted by all the external noise in society (your parents, family, friends, social media, traditional societal norms, etc.). By being yourself unconditionally, you are able to think your own thoughts, come to your own conclusions and live an authentic life that is truly and uniquely yours. You are also less stressed and anxious if you are not constantly worrying about other’s expectations of you.
Continuous Learning, Curiosity and Mental Models : Continuous learning and curiosity are central to Naval’s philosophy. Being a voracious reader himself, Naval encourages constant and broad reading and using the leverage of the internet to learn and create value without the need for traditional gatekeepers. He says to keep learning and compounding skills and knowledge and iterating (applying the knowledge and skills no matter how bad you start out) because the compound interest accrues and pays dividends later on (you become more and more knowledgeable, skilled and valuable in the marketplace and you build a richer intellect and mental world).
The more you read and the more broadly you read, the more of a creative and free thinker you become, the more life skills you gain and the more capable you become in life and in the marketplace. It becomes easier for you to pick up new knowledge and build upon the foundations you already have the more you learn and the more you know and it becomes easier for you to solve problems creatively.
"If you’re a perpetual learning machine, you will never be out of options for how to make money. You can always see what’s coming up in society, what the value is, where the demand is, and you can learn to come up to speed." [Naval Ravikant]