Podcast Notes Playlist: Signal From The Noise: By Podcast Notes

Discover the secrets to mastering public speaking with expert vocal delivery techniques and strategic pauses. Dive into the connection between neuroscience and visual perception, along with critiques of elite universities by Peter Thiel. Learn about Palantir’s founding in a post-9/11 context and explore the role of community in health and fitness. Uncover the complexities of Native American history while assessing how contemporary communication challenges affect personal development. Embrace optimism and rapid learning in today’s information-heavy world.

Discover the fascinating blend of ancient and modern life in Tokyo, from the vibrant energy of Tsukiji's Outer Market to the intimate world of sushi craftsmanship. Explore Akihabara's transformation from a post-war black market to a pop culture icon, and uncover the urban legends surrounding the infamous Microchip Bandits. Experience the tranquility of Asakusa and the historical richness of Sensoji Temple, inviting reflection on personal connections to Tokyo's diverse identity.

Get more notes at https://podcastnotes.org Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Get more notes at https://podcastnotes.org Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Discover the power of mental models to enhance your decision-making skills. Explore how direction matters more than speed and learn to reduce distractions using concepts like Hanlon's Razor and George's Maxim. Delve into the importance of distinguishing between meaningful information and noise in a data-saturated world. Embrace public commitment for better accountability while questioning assumptions that shape your perception. Finally, unlock innovative thinking by understanding base rates in decision-making.

Get more notes at https://podcastnotes.org Podcast Notes Premium Collection: Huberman and SleepGet the FULL NOTESIntro to Sleep* Sleep cycles & Architecture: non-REM and REM play for brain domination throughout the night in 90-minute cycles – this is the standard architecture of sleep* Ratio of non-REM and REM throughout the night: the first half of the night is dominated by non-REM deep sleep; the second half of our sleep is dominated by REM sleep* Not everyone’s sleep cycles are 90 minutes: sleep architecture is fairly consistent within a person, but can be different across people* Non-REM Sleep: Non-REM deep sleep is divided into four stages, increasing in the depth of sleep: stages 1 and 2 are light stages of non-REM deep sleep; stages 3 and 4 are deep stages of non-REM deep sleep* In stages 1 and 2: the heart rate begins to drop, and brain wave activity slows down* In stages 3 and 4: the heart rate is low, cells in the cortex fire together then go silent* During non-REM deep sleep, we get autonomic restoration and regulation of heart rate and blood pressure* Hypnogogic Jerks: during stage 1 you experience mini dreams s you’re starting to drift off and can almost wake yourself up in this stage – sometimes you experience a jerk in your body as a result of loss of proprioceptive feedback* ​Don’t miss these notes about how Salvador Dali used the hypnogogic state to be creative (Slumber with a Key)​* …​​Quantity, Quality, Regularity, and Timing (QQRT): The macros of sleep* Quantity: the average adult needs between 7-9 hours of sleep per night – but the reality is more complex* Quantity alone doesn’t tell the full story* …Carbs, Caffeine and THC* Carbs in AM vs. PM: research does seem to support that your body is better able to metabolize carbohydrates in the morning versus evening if you’re concerned about your blood sugar and metabolic health* Eating Before Bed: In gener…Sleep Supplements* Magnesium Threonate or Glycinate, 145mg, 30-60 minutes before sleep* Magnesium chloride can be effective for bioavailability by way of muscle relaxation* Apigenin: 50mg, 30-60 minutes before sleep* Theanine: 100-400mg, 30-60 minutes before sleep (Do NOT take Theanine if you are prone to night terrors or sleepwalking)* Inositol* Glycine: 1.5-2gPhosphatidylserine will dampen cortisol response* Check out the full Momentous Huberman sleep stack & use promo code PODCASTNOTES for 15% off at checkout!Sleep Tips* 1. Do Nothing! If you are struggling with sleep and had a bad night of sleep, do not sleep in later, do not go to bed earlier, do not increase caffeine intake, do not compensate with a nap* 2. Time rescheduling/sleep restriction therapy: if you are spending too much time in bed, your brain is not efficient; it’s like being in the gym for hours a day but spending most of the time scrolling on your phone – you’re not really getting a good workout like if you know you only have 45 minutes to workout* 3. Don’t underestimate the importance of a winddown routine: whatever you enjoy for relaxation, build it into your regimen to help you decelerate* 4. Do NOT count sheep, instead take yourself on a mental walk: counting sheep actually makes you stay awake longer; instead, get your mind off itself by going through a rudimentary walk with hyper-detail – imagine putting your shoes on, opening the door, crossing the street, imagine the signs you see, look at the flowers, etc.* 5. Remove …* Monophasic sleep: Single bout of sleep in 24 hour period* Biphasic sleep: Two bouts of sleep in 24 hour period* Polyphasic sleep: …​Napping* Naps are a Double-Edged Sword: If you struggle with sleep at night, do not nap during the day in order to build up sleepiness and hopefully sleep at night* ​Cons of Napping: Naps remove sleep pressure (adenosine) so if you struggle with sleep, you are setting yourself up for worse sleep because you’ve removed some of the sleepiness you need* ​Pros of Napping: If napping does not disrupt your sleep and leaves you feeling better, go ahead and nap but be cautious of napping too late which can disrupt sleep* ​Are Naps Right F…* ​Super Charged Nap: Swig espresso right before napping + nap 20 minutes + cold water to hands and face upon waking + immediate daylight 5-10 minutes outside​3 Ways Sleep is Essential for Learning:​* 1: We need sleep before learning to start the initial imprint and laying the tracks; sleep before learning is critical* 2: We also need sleep after learning to cement the information in our brain* 3: We need sleep to integrate the new information with previously learned information we have stored* ​Exactly How Much an All-Nighter Impacts Memory: Pulling an all-nighter leads to deficits of up to 40% in making new memories* …* Symptoms of REM Sleep Deprivation: Paranoia, hallucination, aspects of psychosis (with enough time)* Bad Sleep, And Then: When sleep deprived, you’re excessively reactive and hypersensitive, particularly to reward-based activities – dopamine circuits are overactive when you are underslept* Sleep and Addiction: A lack of sleep is associated with addiction potential AND relapse if trying to abstain* REM Sleep Killers: Alcohol, THC* One Possible Mechanism for PTSD: The brain is trying to process the traumatic experience but fails, so the brain tries again the next night, and the next – until …Brain Features of REM:* (1) Electrical brain wave activity in the cortex is similar to that when you are awake;* (2) There are unique pulses from the brain stem ultimately to the occipital cortex (linked to rapid eye movements);* (3) Motor regions, visual regions, memory-related structures, and emotional-related structures of the brain all light up* (4) The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (responsible for inhibition and planning) activity is suppressed during REM* Functions of REM sleep: (1) Creativity; (2) Emotional & mental wellness – REM sleep is overnight therapy* …* (1) Consistently rehearse the notion that you will remember your dreams and you will take control of your dreams – if you do this enough, the probability you will induce lucid dreams is high* (2) Rehearse something (like flicking a light switch on and off) over and over; Then, when this appears in your dream you can take control* …Get the FULL NOTES Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Get more notes at https://podcastnotes.org Time Saved This Week: 8 Hours, 53 Minutes​NEW Premium Notes​​David Deutsch: Chemical Scum that Dream of Distant Quasars | TED ​​In this TEDTalk from 2005, David Deutsch (​@DavidDeutschOxf​) was tasked with going out on a limb and saying something surprising. The result? A profound exploration titled Chemical Scum That Dream of Distant Quasars where he redefines humanity’s place in the universe and celebrates the limitless potential of human knowledge. Though the title might sound nerdy or even a bit intimidating, these Premium Podcast Notes break down every element of this groundbreaking TED Talk, revealing powerful principles of problem-solving that could transform how you see your role in fostering the endless growth of knowledge and shaping a better future.Scott Galloway on How Stoicism Can Benefit Young Men | Daily Stoic with Ryan HolidayScott Galloway on "Intergenerational Theft" and why Stoicism can help young men who are struggling now more than ever. Go Premium to learn why young men are struggling, how to protect the middle class, the value of being a Nation, how to be successful, truths about money and more.​Mike Cernovich – Escaping Sam Altman’s Techno-Slavery | Zero Hour with James Poulos​Mike Cernovich discusses Sam Altman's Techno-Gnostic archetype, secular fatalism, Greco-Roman principles, consciousness, and more. This is not your average podcast and not to be missed.​Upgrade to ​Premium ​to Get 3 Premium Notes Every Week, the Full Newsletter, Playable Timestamps, AI Powered Answers, Unlock 500+ Premium Posts, No Ads and MORE​Go PREMIUMTop Premium Takeaways Of The Week​David Deutsch: Chemical Scum that Dream of Distant Quasars | TED ​​​Is Earth Special? Two Possible Theories…​* Theory #1: Earth is very untypical and uniquely suited...* “Spaceship Earth” = ...* If we destroy the ...* Theory #2: Earth is typical and human beings are not ...* “The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet, orbiting around a very average star in the outer suburb of ...” – Stephen Hawking* Key Takeaway: “So, especially if you regard them as deep truths to form cornerstones of your world view and inform your life-decisions, they appear somewhat in ...” – David Deutsch​Earth is Very Not Typical: ​“Deep, intergalactic space is completely dark. It is so dark that if you were to look at the nearest star to you, and that star were to explode as a supernova, and you were staring directly at it at the moment when its light reached you, then ...”– David Deutsch​Humans are Very Special Chemical Scum: ​“Therefore we are chemical scum that’s different. This chemical scum has universality. Its structure contains, with ever-increasing ...” – David Deutsch* “The fact that the laws of physics permit – and even mandate – ...” – David Deutsch​3 pre-requisite resources for the open-ended creation of knowledge:​* Matter: the growth of knowledge is a ...* Energy: the inputs required to ...* Evidence: the laws of physics saturate the ...​Resources are abundant, knowledge is scarce:​ If something isn’t forbidden by the ...​Our Sacred Responsibility as Humans: ​“Species go extinct. All the time. Civilizations end. The vast majority of all species and all civilizations that have ever existed are now history. If we want to be exceptions ...” – David Deutsch​Scott Galloway on How Stoicism Can Benefit Young Men | Daily Stoic with Ryan Holiday​​The Epicenter of Today’s Problem:​ For the first time in the nation’s three-century history, a thirty-year-old person today is doing worse than ...* “When the majority of kids aren’t doing as ...” – Scott Galloway​The nation is a feature, not a bug:​ The most successful people in tech should have more ...​Understanding Power Laws and the Pareto Principle:​ A very small percentage of people will ...​Advice for young people on how to be successful​: Put yourself in rooms of ...​The trope “money can’t buy happiness” is a myth:​ Studies show that middle-income people are ...​Young Men Are In Trouble: ​Young men in America are ...* 4x more likely to kill themselves* Four out of five suicides involve men* There is a certain amount of resentment and ...​Understanding Stoicism: ​Stoicism is a philosophy that teaches ...​Why Billionaires Become Billionaires (narrative violation): ​Generally, billionaires are good high-character people; one of ...​Emotional advice from Scott: ​* If something moves you, lean into that emotion and learn how to cry* Figure out a way to ...* Lean into feeling your ...* To not lean into ...* You will get to know ...​Mike Cernovich – Escaping Sam Altman’s Techno-Slavery | Zero Hour with James Poulos​​The Fallacy of Pendulum Theory:​ There is no law of the universe that says things have to swing back and forth between ...* The political right tends to have a certain ...​America has submitted to its base-lower impulses ​* Book recommendation:​ Nicomachean Ethics​ by Aristotle* Many Americans have lost touch with what ...* It would be one thing if people turned away from God but...​The Source of Society's Problems:​ Alienation from the divine is...* Understand that there are ...​Techno-Gnostics​ refers to a perspective or philosophy combining elements of technology with ...* We can’t just take our consciousness, ...​The Harsh Truth About Sam Altman: ​“Sam Altman is a gnostic, but he doesn’t realize that he’s 2,000 years too late. Hating your body and thinking that your body is gross is not some sort of new thing.” – Mike Cernovich* “Sam Altman hates being a human and wishes he didn’t live in a body and wants to upload himself into a Warhammer machine. People like that – I think we should dismiss ...” – Mike Cernovich* Like Altman, the materialistic Soviets also hated the body and ...​​Upgrade to Premium to Read the Full Newsletter, Playable Timestamps, AI Powered Answers, Unlock 300+ Premium Posts, No Ads and MORE​​Go PREMIUM​Jensen Huang – Founder of Nvidia | Founders Podcast with David Senra ​What "Strategy" Actually Means: Strategy is not words; strategy is actionWhat "Mission" Actually Means: The Mission is the Boss. Nvidia exists to serve a mission and not for the sake of perpetuating its existenceShip the Whole Cow: Nvidia found ways to package and sell hardware that it previously would have discarded; this helped it mitigate low-end market competition and insulate itself from the innovator’s dilemmaComplacency kills: The enemy is not the competition, but the company falling victim to complacency – both real and imaginedJensen’s keys to success:(1) He puts in more effort than his peers and (2) He has a willingness to tolerate more suffering than those around him* Greatness does not come from intelligence; it comes from character, which can only be earned from overcoming adversities and developing perseveranceHistory’s greatest founders spend a lot of time teaching within their organization* Founders Thread: “If you’re not spending 90% of your time teaching, then you’re not doing your job.” – James Sinegal of Costco* Founders Thread – Apple is Steve Jobs with 10,000 lives* The best founders are evangelists for their companies; examples include Steve Jobs,​ Palmer Luckey​, and Sir James DysonThe Whiteboard Method: Using a whiteboard is the primary form of communication in Nvidia meetings; everyone must demonstrate their thought process in real-time, and be willing to eventually erase an idea – no matter how good it isGo Fast or Die: “You can drive great people away by making the speed of decision-making really slow. Why would great people stay in an organization where they can’t get things done? They look around and say, ‘Hey, I love the mission, but I can’t get my job done because the speed of decision-making is too slow.”Value of A flat organizational structure(1) Enables employees to act with more independence and (2) Filters out low-performing employees who are unaccustomed to thinking for themselvesF Your Feelings: Jensen tortures people into greatness: The quality of the work is the most important thing, not people’s feelings* “I wake up every morning, look at myself in the mirror, and say: ‘You suck.’” – Jensen Huang* “I don’t like giving up on people. I’d rather torture them into greatness.” – Jensen HuangThe Speed of Light in Practice:* Break down each component task of a project and assign a target time to completion for it* Assume no delays, no queues, and no downtime so that you can set the theoretical maximum, i.e. the Speed of Light* Instead of judging performance relative to your past performance or against the competition, judge yourself against the speed of light and the law of physicsTop Five Things (T5T) email* Every employee, at all levels, sends an email with the top five things that they are working on, or the top five things they are observing in the market (customer pain points, a competitor’s strategy, new developments in technology, or project delays)* Each email contains five bullet points, and the first word in each bullet is an action word, such as finalize, build, or secure* Each department labels each email in the email’s subject lineWinston Churchill Would have Loved Twitter/X– He limited the size of memos that his staff could send him and told them that it was “slothful” not to compress your thoughtsHenry Singleton, cofounder of Teledyne, on planning:* 1. Flexibility over rigid plans* 2. Daily steering over long-term planning* 3. Excessive planning constraints freedom of action* 4. Recognize that the world is complex and avoid counterproductive planning* 5. Be skeptical of the herdEducating the Marketplace: If you are doing something brand-new, you must spend a lot of time and resources on educating the market about your new idea or invention​ Dr. Brian Keating: Charting the Architecture of the Universe & Human Life | Huberman Lab ​Fun fact #1: We didn’t have accurate clocks until the 1700s. Before that, keeping time on a ship or in different time zones was nearly impossibleFun fact #2: The Gutenberg Bible was used as a standard for vision quality in the past. They would test eyesight by making people read it from a certain distance since it had a fixed font size. This was way before modern eye chartsPineal Gland (get rid of that flouride): Most animals have a pineal gland that secretes melatonin based on light. “This is the intrinsic clock-keeping mechanism of all mammalian species and reptiles.” – Huberman* Birds have thin skulls, so light can pass right through to the pineal gland* Humans are different: Our pineal gland is buried deep in the brain, so light doesn’t reach it directly. Instead, light info gets passed from the eyes through a pathway to the pineal gland.Gender Symmetry: Women are more symmetrical than menEyes Are Outside Brains: Retinas, which line the back of the eyes, are part of the central nervous system and were squeezed out of the brain during early development* Eyes are the only portion of your brain that reside outside the cranial vaultHubble made two major discoveries: that the Milky Way isn’t the entire universe, and that the universe is expanding“The Big Bang is not the origin of time and space, it’s the origin of the first elements in the periodic table.” – BrianThe best places in the Northern Hemisphere to see spectacular nighttime views:* Yosemite High Country in August for meteor showers would be a great option* Anywhere 20-40 miles from a large city should be fine. Even in San Diego, there are two dark sky communities: Julian and Anza-Borrego DesertPanspermia—the idea that life might’ve come from elsewhere in the universe. Basically, genetic material could’ve traveled from one astronomical object to another. This is not something scientists can prove right now, especially with the lack of life evidence elsewhere​Tools for Managing Stress & Anxiety | Huberman Lab Essentials ​How breathing affects heart rate:* Inhale:* When you inhale (through the nose or mouth), the diaphragm moves down, and the lungs expand* The heart gets slightly bigger in that expanded space* This increased space causes blood to move more slowly through the heart* A group of neurons called the sinoatrial node in the heart detects the slower blood flow and sends a signal to the brain* The brain then signals the heart to speed up* A longer or more vigorous inhale will make your heart beat faster* Exhaling:* When you exhale, the diaphragm moves up, and the heart becomes smaller and more compact* Blood flows faster through the smaller heart space* The sinoatrial node detects the faster blood flow and signals the brain* The parasympathetic nervous system sends a signal back to the heart to slow down* A longer or more vigorous exhale will make your heart rate slow downThe physiological sigh: two deep inhales through the nose (no exhale in between), followed by a full exhale to the lungs empty (through the mouth) is the fastest way to calm downWhy short-term stress is good:* Pupil dilation and optical changes help enhance vision* Heart rate quickens, improving blood flow and readiness* Cognition sharpens, bringing certain brain areas online to focus better* Narrowed focus supports duration-path-outcome analysis. It allows you to evaluate your environment and decide what to do* It primes the immune system to combat bacterial or viral infectionsTool: eye dilation* Without moving your head or eyes, shift from tunnel vision to panoramic vision (see more of your surroundings)* This activates circuits in the brainstem associated with calming and reduces alertness/stress* For example: While running or cycling at max capacity or 80–90% of your maximum effort, practice dilating your gazeBest tools to modulate long-term stress:* Regular exercise (who would’ve thought!)* Prioritizing good sleep* Using real-time tools to manage stress response (e.g., breathing exercises)* Social connection (one of the most effective ways to combat long-term stress)​Theanine​ (L-theanine):* Recommended dose: 100–200 mg, 30–60 minutes before sleep* Benefits:* Enhances the transition into sleep and improves sleep depth.* Increases GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter* Reduces activity in the forebrain, calming thinking and ruminative systems* Stress and anxiety:* Proven to significantly increase relaxation* Shown to have a minor yet notable effect on anxiety​Tyler Cowen – Humans Are The Bottleneck to AI Progress | Dwarkesh Patel ​Cost disease and AI: Cost disease happens when wages rise across the board due to productivity gains in some industries, but sectors like healthcare or education, where productivity is harder to improve, still need to pay higher wages—making their costs go upTech diffusion is universally pretty slow: While people in the Bay Area are the smartest, most dynamic, and most ambitious, they tend to overvalue intelligenceSome kind of demoralization may materialize in the AI future: Full employment is likely to remain, but it is not clear what humans will be doing or how happy it will make us.The Risks of Progress: War should always be the main concern during a period of rapid technological progress; throughout history, when new technologies emerge, they are turned into instruments of war, and terrible things can happenPREMIUM:* ​David Deutsch: Chemical Scum that Dream of Distant Quasars | TED 2005​* ​Scott Galloway on How Stoicism Can Benefit Young Men | Daily Stoic with Ryan Holiday​* ​Mike Cernovich – Escaping Sam Altman’s Techno-Slavery | Zero Hour with James Poulos​FREE:* ​Jensen Huang – Founder of Nvidia | Founders Podcast with David Senra​* ​Dr. Brian Keating: Charting the Architecture of the Universe & Human Life | Huberman Lab​* ​Tools for Managing Stress & Anxiety | Huberman Lab Essentials​* ​Tyler Cowen – Humans Are The Bottleneck to AI Progress | Dwarkesh Patel​ Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Peter Thiel reveals how he transformed from a conventional law graduate to a tech titan, discussing the student debt crisis and AI's evolution. Marc Andreessen explores Silicon Valley's political shifts and innovation's role in solving major issues. Tim Cook shares insights on leadership, Apple’s climate goals, and addresses child labor concerns. The connection between pain management and resilient parenting is examined, emphasizing mindset and open communication. The podcast also tackles ideological censorship in the digital age and highlights a contrarian view on finance and innovation.

Get more notes at https://podcastnotes.org Product and Media are the Leverage of the New Wealth (Listen) | Episode 21* The most important form of leverage is the idea of products which have no marginal cost of replication (aka product leverage)* You can replicate your efforts without having to involve other humans* Ex. – A podcast* Long ago, to get similar reach, you would have had to give a public lecture* 30-40 years ago – you would have had to get on TV* But today, thanks to the internet, anyone can launch a podcast* Product leverage is how fortunes will be made in the digital age – using things like code or media* Ex. of people who utilized code-based product leverage – Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin* Ex. of media-based product leverage – Joe Rogan, PewDiePie* Combining labor leverage, capital leverage, and product leverage is a magic combination for tech startups (for more on labor and capital leverage, check out these Podcast Notes)* You use the minimum, highest output labor – engineers and product developers* You add capital which you can use for marketing, advertising, and scaling* You then add lots of code, media, and content to get everything out there* Product and media leverage are permisionless – they don’t require someone else’s permission for you to use them or succeed* For labor leverage – someone has to decide to follow you* For capital leverage – someone has to give you money* But coding, writing tweets, making podcasts, YouTubing – these are permissionless* The robot revolution has already arrived – we just keep them in data centers/servers* Think – every great software developer has an army of robots working for him/her at night, while they sleep, after they’ve written the code and they’re just cranking away* Robots do web searching for you* Robots handle customer service inquiries* Over time, this will progress to autonomous vehicles/planes/trucks* Coding is a superpower because it allows you to speak the language of the robots and tell them what to doProduct Leverage is Egalitarian in its Outputs (Listen) | Episode 22* Product (both code-based and media-based) leverage is egalitarian in its outputs* Compare this to labor and capital leverage – which are much less egalitarian* In general – the more of a human element there is in providing a service, the less egalitarian it is* “It’s the nature of code and media output that the same product is accessible to everybody…The best products tend to be at the center, at the sweet spot of the middle class, rather than being targeted to the upper class.” – Naval Ravikant* For example:* Things like Netflix and Facebook – everybody can use* Compare this to Rolex watches or a Lamborghini – using/owning them is much more related to status-seeking* As the forms of leverage have gone from being labor-based and capital-based to being more product/code/media-based – “Most of the goods and services that we consume are becoming much more egalitarian in their consumption”* Things like food – rich people don’t eat better food* Technology and media products have amazing scale economies* “If you care about ethics in wealth creation, it’s better to create your wealth using code and media as leverage. Then those products are equally available to everybody as opposed to trying to create your wealth through labor or capital.” – Naval Ravikant* “If you’re wealthy today, for large classes of things, you tend to spend your money on signaling goods to show other people that you are wealthy, and you try and convert them to status as opposed to actually consuming the goods for their own sake” – Naval RavikantBusiness Models Have Their Own Leverage (Listen) | Episode 23* Some business models give you “free leverage” – Examples:* Scale economies = the more you produce of something, the cheaper it gets to make* Technology and media products have this great quality where they have zero marginal cost of reproduction* Thinks like podcasts and YouTube videos* Ex. – Joe Rogan is working no harder now than he was on podcast #1, but it’s now generating millions more* Then there are network effects businesses* A network effect is when each additional user adds value to the existing user base* Like language – The language becomes more valuable the more people who speak it* “Long-term, the entire world is probably going to end up speaking English and Chinese” – Naval Ravikant* It’s thought that the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of nodes of the network* A network of size 10 would have a value of 100, while a network of size 100 would have a value of 10,000* “You want to be in a network effects business” – Naval Ravikant* Things like Facebook, Uber, Twitter, YouTube, Google* “You should always be thinking about how your users or customers can add value to each other because that is the ultimate form of leverage” – Naval Ravikant* When you’re picking a business model, aim to pick one where you can benefit from network effects, low marginal costs, and scale economiesAn Example: From Laborer to Real Estate Tech Company (Listen) | Episode 24* An example from the real estate business* A day laborer on a construction site, unless you’re in a skilled trade, doesn’t have specific knowledge* Even if you’re a carpenter or electrician, other people can be trained to do your job – you can probably be replaced* You don’t have much accountability – “You’re a faceless cog in the construction crew”* They don’t have much, if any, leverage* A general contractor, who someone hires to come and fix/repair their house, has a little more accountability* They’ll make more money than a day laborer, but they take more risk (if the project runs over budget, they’ll eat the loss)* The accountability gives them more potential income* They have labor leverage (people working for them)* A property developer is one level above a general contractor – these are people who go around looking for beaten-down properties which have potential and then buy them to fix them up* They can make a healthy profit by selling a building for 2-3x what they bought it for* A developer has more accountability/risk and much more specific knowledge* They have to know which neighborhoods are worth buying in, which lots are good/bad, and what makes/breaks a specific property* They have capital leverage and labor leverage* Beyond the property developer might be a famous architect/developer where just having your name on a property increases its value* Above that might be a property developer who builds entire communities* Above that – someone who funds real estate through an investment trust* Beyond that – someone (or a team of people) who understands the real estate market and the tech business (how to code/recruit developers/build a good product), and knows how to raise money from VCs* Think – something like Zillow* This team/individual would have all forms of leverage – labor (people working for him/her), code, capital (money from investors)* As you climb the chain – You layer in more knowledge which can only be gained on the job, more accountability/risk-taking, more capital, and more laborJudgment Is the Decisive Skill in an Age of Infinite Leverage (Listen) | Episode 25* First aim to get leverage, and once you have leverage – your judgment becomes the most important skill* How do you get leverage?* Get it permisionlessly – learn to code, create podcasts, become a good writer* Through permission – get people to work for you, or raise capital* “All the great fortunes are created through leverage” – Naval Ravikant* In high leverage positions (like a CEO), most of the time you’re paid based on your judgment ability* Definitions:* Wisdom is knowing the long-term consequences of your actions* Judgment is wisdom on a personal domain (wisdom applied to external problems)* True judgment ability comes from experience* “Intellect without any experience is often worse than useless” – Naval Ravikant* You get the confidence that intellect gives you along with some credibility, but because you had no skin in the game and no real experience….”you’re just throwing darts”* The people with the best judgment are actually among the least emotional* “The thing that prevents you from seeing what’s actually happening are your emotions; our emotions are constantly clouding our judgment” – Naval Ravikant* Let’s sum up:* First, you’re accountable for your judgment* Judgment is the exercise of wisdom* Wisdom comes from experience* That experience can be accelerated through short iterations* “Investment books are sort of the worst place to learn about investment”* To get good at investing, you need broad-based judgment and thinking – the best way to obtain this is to study everything (including a lot of philosophy)* Philosophy makes you more stoic/less emotional and more likely to make better decisions (so you have better judgment)* The more outraged somebody gets, the worse their judgment probably is* “If someone’s constantly tweeting political outrage and seems like an angry person, you don’t want to hand them the keys to your car let alone the keys to your company”Set and Enforce an Aspirational Hourly Rate (Listen) | Episode 26* “No one is going to value you more than you value yourself” – Naval Ravikant* So set a high personal hourly rate and stick to it* Always factor your time into any decision (as well as your personal hourly rate)* So if your personal hourly rate is $60, and you estimate it will take you an hour and a half to return a $40 product, it’s not worth it* You have a finite amount of high-output mental hours each day – “Do you want to use them to run errands and solve little problems or do you want to save them for the big stuff?”* “You can spend your life however you want, but if you want to get rich, it has to be your number one overwhelming desire” – Naval Ravikant* This means it has to come before ANYTHING else* Advice – Look forward to the future and set an aspirational hourly rate* Way back, Naval’s aspirational hourly rate was $5,000/hour (even though he was only making a fraction of this at the time)* Today, Naval estimates he’s actually beaten his goal* “It should seem and feel absurdly high. If it doesn’t, it’s not high enough.” – Naval Ravikant* If you can outsource something for less than your hourly rate, outsource it* Even for things like cooking* Paul Graham has said (directed to Y Combinator startups):* “You should be working on your product, getting product-market fit, exercising, and eating healthy. That’s it. That’s kind of all you have time for while you’re on this mission.”Work as Hard as You Can (Listen) | Episode 27* “If getting wealthy is your goal, you’re going to have to work as hard as you can” – Naval Ravikant* BUT – “Hard work is absolutely no substitute for who you work with and what you work on”* The hierarchy of importance:* “What you work on is probably the most important thing” – Naval Ravikant* AKA Product-Market-Founder fit (how well you personally are suited to a business”* Next – Picking the right people to work with* Third – How hard you work* But – they’re like 3 legs of a stool, if you shortchange any one of them the whole stool is gonna fall down* The order of operations when building a business/career:* First – Figure out what you should be doing* Is there a market that’s emerging that you’re interested in?* Is there a product you could build which would fall in line with your specific knowledge?* Second – Surround yourself with the best people possible* “No matter how high your bar is, raise your bar” – Naval Ravikant* “You can never be working with other people who are great enough. If there’s someone greater out there to work with, you should go work with them.” – Naval Ravikant* A good tip on deciding which startup to work for – Pick the one that will have the best alumni network for you in the future* Third – Work as hard as you can (AFTER you’ve picked the right thing to work on and the right people to work with)* “Nobody really works 80-120 hours a week sustainably at high-output with mental clarity” – Naval Ravikant* Knowledge workers tend to sprint while they’re working on something that they’re inspired/passionate about and then they rest* Sprint —> Rest —> Re-asses —> Try Again* (You end up building a marathon of sprints)* Inspiration is perishable* When you have the inspiration, act on it right then and there – otherwise you probably won’t do it* Be impatient with actions and patient with results* “If I have a problem that I discover in one of my businesses that needs to be solved, I basically won’t sleep until the resolution is in motion” – Naval RavikantBe Too Busy to “Do Coffee” (Listen) | Episode 28* Naval once tweeted – “You should be too busy to do coffee while keeping an uncluttered calendar”* The ONLY way to stay focused and be able to do the most high-impact work/what you’re most inspired about is to constantly, RUTHLESSLY, decline meetings* It’s fine to make connections and “do coffee” early in your career when you’re exploring* But later in your career when you’re exploiting – “You have to ruthlessly cut meetings out of your life”* If someone wants to have a meeting, suggest a phone call* If they want a phone call, suggest an email* When you do have meetings, make it a walking meeting (or a standing meeting), keep them short, and keep them small* “Any meeting with 8 people in it sitting around a conference table – nothing is getting done in that meeting, you’re literally just dying one hour at a time” – Naval Ravikant* When you’ve done something important or valuable, busy people will meet with you* Suggest – “Hey, here’s what I’ve done. Here’s what I can show you. Let’s meet and I’ll be respectful of your time if this is useful to you.”* You HAVE to come with a proper calling card* “Product progress is the resume for the entrepreneur” – Naval Ravikant* You NEED proof of work to get a meeting with a busy person* “A busy calendar and a busy mind will destroy your ability to do great things in this world” – Naval Ravikant* If you want to be able to do great things you need free time and you need a free mind.Keep Redefining What You Do (Listen) | Episode 29* Naval tweeted – “Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true.”* “If you really want to get paid in this world, you want to be number one at whatever it is you’re doing” – Naval Ravikant* Some of the most successful people in the world get paid for just being “them”* Oprah, Joe Rogan, etc. – they’re being authentic to themselves* But – keep changing what you do until you’re number one* It should be something that aligns with your specific knowledge, skill sets, interest, and capabilities* You should be thinking:* “I want to be the best at what I do”* “What I do is flexible, so that I’m the best at it”* (It’s not an overnight discovery, it’s a long journey)* A company should search for product-market fit* An entrepreneur should search for founder-product-market fitEscape Competition Through Authenticity (Listen) | Episode 30* Humans are highly memetic creatures – we tend to copy what everybody else is doing, including our desires* Very often, you get trapped in the wrong game because you’re competing* The best way to escape competition is to just be authentic to yourself* If you’re building and marketing something which is an extension of who you are, no one can compete with you on that* Think – It’s near IMPOSSIBLE to compete with someone like Joe Rogan or Scott Adams* This is easiest to see in art, but even entrepreneurs are authentic (the businesses and product they create should be authentic to their desires and means)* “Authenticity naturally gets you away from competition” – Naval Ravikant* In entrepreneurship, the masses are never right* “If the masses knew how to build great things and create great wealth we’d all already be done. We’d all already be rich by now.” – Naval Ravikant* “Generally, most people will make the mistake of paying too much attention to the competition and being too much like the competition and not being authentic enough” – Naval Ravikant* The great founders tend to be authentic iconoclasts* As Robert Frost said – “Combine your vocation and your avocation” (what you love to do and what you do)* Long term, if you’re good and successful at what you do, you’ll find you’re pretty much doing your hobbies for a living* “Ideally you want to end up specializing in being you” – Naval RavikantPlay Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes (Listen) | Episode 31* When you’re being authentic, competition matters a whole lot less* Silicon Valley tech industry businesses tend to be winner take all* When you see competition, this can make you fly into a rage* You’re often 1 step away from a completely different business, and sometimes you need to take that one step* But you won’t be able to take it if you’re fighting over a booby prize (aka playing a stupid game), blinded by competition* A personal example from Naval:* He was running Epinions (an online product review site independent of Amazon) a while back…* The space eventually turned into Trip Advisor and Yelp* “This is where we should have gone. We should have done more local reviews. There’s more value to having a review for a scarce item (like a local restaurant) than some camera which might have 1,000 reviews on Amazon. But before we could get there, we got caught up in the whole comparison shopping game.” – Naval Ravikant* The whole space went to 0 as Amazon ended up winning the online retail game* “We should have been looking at what the consumer really wanted, and stayed authentic to ourselves – which is reviews, not price comparison” – Naval Ravikant* “We should have gone more and more into esoteric items that needed to be reviewed where customers had less and less data and wanted reviews more badly”* “If we stayed authentic to ourselves, we would have done better” – Naval RavikantEventually, You Will Get What You Deserve (Listen) | Episode 32* Naval tweeted – “Apply specific knowledge with leverage and eventually you’ll get what you deserve”* (You could also add to that, apply: judgment or accountability)* Results take TIME* “If you’re counting, you’ll run out of patience before it actually arrives” – Naval Ravikant* Everybody wants results immediately, but you have to put in the hours* Put yourself in a good position with the specific knowledge, the accountability, the leverage, and your authentic skill set which allows you to be the best in the world at what you do (but you have to enjoy it)* Then just keep doing it, doing it, and doing it, and don’t keep track, and don’t keep count* “On a long enough time scale, you do get paid, but it can easily be 10 or 20 years” – Naval Ravikant* In entrepreneurship, you just have to be right ONCE* And the good news is you can take as many shots on goal as you want (usually every 3-5 years, 10 at the slowest)* Nivi has an equation:* Your eventual outcome = (the distinctiveness of your specific knowledge) x (how much leverage you apply) x (how often your judgment is correct) x (how accountable you are for the outcome) x (how much society values what you’re doing) x (how long you can keep doing it) x (your improvement rate with learning and reading)* But the thing that matters most – find something you’re good at that the market values* If you’re good at it – you’ll keep it up, develop the judgment, and eventually take on accountability (all the other variables fall into place)* “Product-market fit is inevitable if you’re doing something you love to do and the market wants it” – Naval RavikantReject Most Advice (Listen) | Episode 33* “Avoid people who got rich quickly, they’re just giving you their winning lottery ticket numbers” – Naval Ravikant* “The best founders I know listen to and read EVERYONE, but then they ignore everyone and make up their own mind” – Naval Ravikant* They have their OWN internal model of how to apply things to their situation and don’t hesitate to discard information if necessary* Remember – “If you survey enough people, all the advice will cancel to 0”* When you hear a piece of advice/information, ask yourself:* “Is this true?”* “Is this true outside of the context of what that person applied it in?”* “Is it true in my context?”* “Do I want to apply it?”* Reject most advice, but remember you have to listen to/read enough of it to know what to reject and what to accept* Here’s how Naval views the purpose of advice:* “I view it as helping me have anecdotes and maxims that I can then later recall when I have my own direct experience and say, ‘Ah, that’s what that person meant.'” – Naval Ravikant* “90% of my tweets are just maxims that I carve for myself that are then mental hooks to remind me when I’m in that situation again” – Naval Ravikant* Like Naval’s tweet – “If you can’t see yourself looking with someone for life, then don’t work with them for a day”Read the Full Notes at Podcast Notes Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Explore Thomas Sowell’s insights on economic inequality and the unintended consequences of social policies like affirmative action. Learn tips on longevity from Mark Sisson, and discover how to manage finances effectively within couples. Dive into the controversial uses of ibogaine for treating addiction while balancing wellness strategies. Reflect on the ethical challenges of AI technology in warfare and the significance of the U.S. role in global security, plus draw lessons from Dostoevsky’s 'Crime and Punishment' amidst the Ukraine conflict.