Smart Friends

Naval Ravikant, an entrepreneur and author known for his deep insights into wealth and happiness, shares his philosophy on self-reliance and personal growth. He emphasizes that life is a single-player game—no one is responsible for your success but you. Topics like prioritizing health through daily exercise, the mental clarity gained from meditation, and the transformative power of good habits are explored. Naval advocates for self-discovery and pursuing personal passions, reminding listeners that true freedom comes from within.

Naval Ravikant, a renowned entrepreneur and author, shares his transformative insights on happiness and personal well-being. He emphasizes that happiness is a learned skill, not just a fleeting emotion. Through practical strategies, Naval discusses how to overcome negative comparisons and societal pressures. He highlights the importance of acceptance and cherishing the present moment, revealing that managing desires can lead to inner peace. His thoughts on aligning happiness with personal growth create a compelling framework for a fulfilling life.

Naval says building good judgement is a foundation to building wealth and getting rich. But how do we build judgement? How do we get smarter? Become wiser? Make better decisions? This episode focuses on Naval’s advice for learning to learn, learning to think, learning to see reality. This helps you make good business decisions, investment decisions, and good partnership decisions. We talk about Naval’s favorite books, mental models, and his techniques for reading. By the end of this episode, we hope you are a little calmer, a little wiser, and more assured in your path. Huge thanks to Sky King for his help. If you need help with podcast growth or monetization go to modernstoa.co or hit him up on twitter @consumersky Artwork and illustrations by Jack Butcher of @VisualizeValue Shownotes: Important Quotes from the podcast on Judgement and thinking clearly: Wisdom applied to external problems is judgement - Naval “Clear thinker” is a better compliment than “smart.” - Naval Ravikant Clear thinkers appeal to their own authority. - Naval The really smart thinkers are clear thinkers. They understand the basics at a very, very fundamental level. I would rather understand the basics really well than memorize all kinds of complicated concepts I can’t stitch together and can’t rederive from the basics. If you can’t rederive concepts from the basics as you need them, you’re lost. You’re just memorizing. - Naval Ravikant Very smart people tend to be weird since they insist on thinking everything through for themselves. A contrarian isn’t one who always objects—that’s a conformist of a different sort. A contrarian reasons independently from the ground up and resists pressure to conform.  Cynicism is easy. Mimicry is easy. Optimistic contrarians are the rarest breed. - Naval RavikantImportant Quotes from the podcast on Wealth, Business, and Entrepreneurship:You don’t get rich by spending your time to save money. You get rich by saving your time to make money. - Naval Ravikant One definition of a moment of suffering is “the moment when you see things exactly the way they are.” This whole time, you’ve been convinced your business is doing great, and really, you’ve ignored the signs it’s not doing well. Then, your business fails, and you suffer because you’ve been putting off reality. You’ve been hiding it from yourself. - Naval The more desire I have for something to work out a certain way, the less likely I am to see the truth. Especially in business, if something isn’t going well, I try to acknowledge it publicly and I try to acknowledge it publicly in front of my co-founders and friends and co-workers. Then, I’m not hiding it from anybody else. If I’m not hiding it from anybody, I’m not going to delude myself from what’s actually going on. - Naval RavikantImportant Quotes from the podcast on Leverage:In an age of leverage, one correct decision can win everything. - Naval You have to put in the time, but the judgment is more important. The direction you’re heading in matters more than how fast you move, especially with leverage. - Naval Ravikant Charisma is the ability to project confidence and love at the same time. It’s almost always possible to be honest and positive. - Naval I think people have a hard time understanding a fundamental fact of leverage. If I manage $1 billion and I’m right 10 percent more often than somebody else, my decision-making creates $100 million worth of value on a judgment call. With modern technology and large workforces and capital, our decisions are leveraged more and more. - Naval Ravikant

Naval Ravikant, an entrepreneur and angel investing guru, shares his wealth-building insights and principles. He differentiates between true wealth and mere money, emphasizing that wealth comes from valuable assets and authentic passions. Naval discusses the power of specific knowledge and the evolution of leverage, advocating for a focus on technology and creativity. He also highlights the importance of life choices and reputation in career success, while exploring the journey toward happiness beyond financial gains. Prepare for a thought-provoking dive into wealth creation!

I built the Almanack of Naval Ravikant or Navalmanack entirely out of transcripts, Tweets, and talks Naval has shared. Every attempt is made to present Naval in his own words. However, there are a few important points.    The transcripts have been edited for clarity and brevity (multiple times).   Not all sources are primary (some excerpts are from other writers quoting Naval).   I can’t be 100 percent certain of every source’s authenticity.   Concepts and interpretations change over time, medium, and context.   Please verify phrasing with a primary source before citing Naval from this text. Please interpret generously.   By definition, everything in this book is taken out of context. Interpretations will change over time. Read and interpret generously. Understand the original intent may be different than your interpretation in a different time, medium, format, and context.  In the process of creating this book, I may have mistakenly re-contextualized, misinterpreted, or misunderstood things. As content passed through time, space, and medium, some phrasing may have shifted in flight. Every effort has been made to maintain the original intent, but errors are (very) possible.  Interviews have been transcribed, edited, rearranged, and re-edited for readability. I did my best to keep Naval’s ideas in his own words.  All brilliance in this book is Naval’s; any mistakes are mine.Huge thanks to Sky King for his help. If you need help with podcast growth or monetization go to modernstoa.co or hit him up on twitter @consumerskyArtwork and illustrations by Jack Butcher of @VisualizeValue If you don’t have time for the podcast here are a few important quotes from the prologue of The Almanack of Naval. Naval Ravikant has changed my life for the better, and if you approach the following pages like a friendly but highly competent sparring partner, he might just change yours. - Tim Ferriss “Naval is one of the smartest people I have ever met and he is one of the most courageous.” - Tim Ferriss  “I’ve learned a few things, and some principles. I try to lay them out in a timeless manner, where you can figure it out for yourself. Because at the end of the day, I can’t quite teach anything. I can only inspire you and maybe give you a few hooks so you can remember.” - Naval Ravikant “Naval is one of the people I call most for advice” - Tim Ferriss “Books make for great friends, because the best thinkers of the last few thousand years tell you their nuggets of wisdom.” - Naval Ravikant “I take Naval seriously because he: Questions nearly everything Can think from first principlesTests things wellIs good at not fooling himself Changes his mind regularly Laughs a lot Thinks holistically Thinks long-term And…doesn’t take himself too goddamn seriously.  That last one is important” - Tim Ferriss