You may have heard of Naval Ravikant from his interview on Joe Rogan, his multiple interviews on The Tim Ferriss Show, or perhaps from his now famous “tweet storm”: how to get rich without getting lucky.

How to Get Rich (without getting lucky):

— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018

Naval is a different type of thinker compared to what I am usually exposed to. Born into poverty in India he moved to NYC in the 80’s where he was raised in a single parent home and the library was his afterschool care while his mom worked. Naval went on to move to San Francisco where he has since been creating start-ups and investing in businesses. What drew me to The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, written by Eric Jorgenson, is that Naval was not making a penny off this project – and it could even be downloaded for free. He doesn’t need the money so all the information he puts out is from a perspective of generosity and a way for him to clarify his thinking through writing and talking outloud. 

Eric did a tremendous job putting together Naval’s thoughts in a coherent and consistent text covering the topics of building wealth, building judgement, learning happiness, saving yourself, and philosophy. If any of these topics are of interest to you I recommend starting with his podcast interviews on the aforementioned shows, and then if you want to learn more pick up the book…and keep reading!

Top 3 Takeaways 

1. Hustle to gain leverage early in your career – then your judgement really matters. Leverage comes from (moving from oldest forms to newest forms) people, capital, products that can be replicated at no marginal cost: broadcast media (podcasts, blogs, books, social media, etc.), and code. Leverage is a force multiplier for good judgement; fortunes require leverage and judgement can be gained through experience and accelerated with foundational learning. 
2. Read the fundamentals – develop a love for reading. Naval believes, and I am certainly guilty of this, that number of books read is a vanity metric. His contention is that it would be better to go through the 100 best books over and over again to really understand foundational concepts than it is to zip through as many books as you can. Here is what he recommends studying the foundations of:

Study microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, mathematics, and computers.

— Naval (@naval) May 31, 2018

3. View meditation as intermittent fasting for the mind. If you are making judgement decisions, just like an athlete rests their body to recover, you too need to rest your mind. 

Meditation is intermittent fasting for the mind.

Too much sugar leads to a heavy body, and too many distractions lead to a heavy mind.

Time spent undistracted and alone, in self-examination, journaling, meditation, resolves the unresolved and takes us from mentally fat to fit.

— Naval (@naval) December 29, 2018