Book Notes, Summary and Review: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson

Naval Ravikant is the co-founder and former CEO of AngelList. He has invested in over 200 companies including Uber and Twitter.

My first time coming across Naval was during his interview on The Joe Rogan Experience. In the podcast, Naval spoke about his philosophy of happiness, of success and of life. Many of the ideas he discussed felt profound and insightful.

Eric Jorgenson's The Almanack of Naval Ravikant collects the wisdom shared by Naval over the years through his Twitter, blog posts and yes, his podcast appearances too. It introduces you to some of Naval's most powerful and helpful ideas in his own words, organized into short sections for easy reference.

Structure of Summary

The book serves as a guide to Naval's two most-explored topics: wealth and happiness. Both of which form their own individual sections in the book, as shown:

Part I: Wealth

1. Building Wealth
2. Building Judgement

Part II: Happiness

1. Learning Happiness
2. Saving Yourself
3. Philosophy

Summary of Part I

1. Building Wealth

The secret to building wealth is to accumulate assets, not money or status.

Seek wealth, not money or status. Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. Money is how we transfer time and wealth. Status is your place in the social hierarchy.

To accumulate assets, you need two skills: how to build and how to sell.

We rely on permissionless leverage, such as code and media, to build things that can be exchanged for money. If we solely rely on permissioned leverage, such as capital and labor, we've to wait for someone to give it to us.

To develop and grow new streams of passive-income, we sell our unique set of knowledge, rather than our time. This set of knowledge is also known as specific knowledge.

Specific knowledge cannot be taught, but can be learnt. It's often highly technical or creative, and cannot be outsourced or automated. If you were taught about it in school, someone else can always replace you. You don't even need to wait for Artificial Intelligence to do that.

The best way to stand out from the crowd, perhaps then, is: to follow your passion. You'll acquire the most knowledge in your field of interest. This repertoire of knowledge and skills you've built over time becomes your set of specific knowledge.

Now that you've built something, or have the knowledge to build something, you need to learn to sell it.

Selling is the art of persuasion. It can come in many forms: communicating, marketing, recruiting, raising money or doing public relations. You need to hone your ability to sell something, it's either what makes or breaks your business.

The main point here is that if you don't know how to build or sell, learn.

2. Building Judgement

Judgement is wisdom applied to external problems. It's knowing the long-term consequences of your actions and then making the correct decisions to capitalize on them.

One way to cultivate our judgement is through reading original, classic books. Expose ourselves to ideas that have stood the test of time.  They've came under the scrutiny of millions of brilliant thinkers before us and have yet to collapse. These are the most robust and valuable ideas that we can learn from.

Summary of Part II

1. Learning Happiness

Happiness is a by-product of peace.

Life is neutral. You make what you want out of it. When you extricate yourself from the allure of desire, your life becomes more neutral. You also inch closer towards a more peaceful state of mind.

A neutral existence is different from a bland existence. Children live a neutral existence. But it's because of this, that they're really immersed in the environment and the moment. They're generally pretty happy as a result.

Happiness is mostly not attained through changing our environment, but through our acceptance that some things are outside of our control. Only when we put down our desire to control everything, can we discover and appreciate the beauty around us and live happier lives.

2. Saving Yourself

Watch your diet, exercise regularly and read more.

All of us aware that developing these habits will reap us amazing benefits in the long-run. But many of us still don't engage in these activities, because either we're lazy or we don't have time.

Both of which are just excuses. Not having time or energy is just another way of saying something isn't a priority. Placing these habits at the top of your priority list is how we circumvent the problem of "not having time and energy".

Moreover, create an environment in which you're better poised to thrive in. In the famous words of Scott Adams: set up systems, not goals. Figure out what kind of working environment you're statistically likelier to succeed in.

3. Philosophy

Naval calls his own philosophy Rational Buddhism.

Rational Buddhism is a school of philosophy where the beliefs from Buddhism are reconciled with science and evolution. All the parts which can't be verified in-person are rejected. It's about understanding the deeper ideas Buddhism espouses to make yourself happier, more in control of your emotions and ultimately, being a better human being.

Another major part of his life philosophy is to live in the moment. To embrace the present, because it's all we have. We're all dying and being reborn at every moment. At the end, it's up to you to decide whether to forget or to remember that.

Wrapping Up

Much of what Naval tells us isn't new.

What makes Naval stand out from the crowd is: how he sells his ideas — he is such a brilliant salesman of complex ideas. He knows how to distill these ancient ideas and package their essence using such succinct yet impactful sentences.

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant might seem like a breezy read, but it's deceptively enriching as well. If you would like to explore new perspectives on building your wealth and happiness, this is the book for you.