I've been studying @naval for years now.
I've read "The Almanack," listened to the full 3.5 hours of "How to Get Rich," absorbed his best podcasts, pondered countless tweets, and more.
Here are 20 highlights you should know (thread 👇):
"Answers to all the great questions are paradoxes … Pursuing them is actually really useful because then it gives you certain intrinsic understanding in your life that brings a level of peace." — @naval
"I think the closest I can articulate ... is to keep growing and learning in the short period of time that you have. To seek truth and to accept things the way they are. To see the world the way it really is. Then, just to live your life." — @naval
If @naval could put on thing on a billboard, it would be:
"Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want."
"I think the most common mistake for humanity is believing you’re going to be made happy because of some external circumstance." — @naval
@naval's most surprising discovery in the last five years is that peace & happiness are skills & choices:
"The most important trick to being happy is to realize happiness is a skill you develop and a choice you make. You choose to be happy, and then you work at it."
"Peace is happiness at rest, and happiness is peace in motion. You can convert peace into happiness anytime you want. But peace is what you want most of the time. If you’re a peaceful person, anything you do will be a happy activity." — @naval
"You have to be very careful because sometimes the voices talking in your head that you think is you is actually social programming." — @naval
"Life is really a single-player game. It’s all going on in your head. Whatever you think and believe will very much shape your reality." — @naval
- What you do
- Who you spend time with
- Where you live
Big Getting Rich Decisions:
- Knowing what to do
- Who to do it with
- When to do it
- Health (Physical, Mental, Spiritual)
- Happiness
- Love / Family
- Mission / Work
- Wealth
"Becoming a perpetual learner. You have to know how to learn anything you want to learn." — @naval
Ultimate Meta-Skill:
"Reading (learning) is the ultimate meta-skill and can be traded for anything else." — @naval
- Reading
- Writing
- Arithmetic
- Persuasion (which is talking)
- Computer Programming (an applied form of arithmetic)
- Execution (getting things done, solving problems)
- Wealth creation / making money
- Read originals & classics
- Read the greats in math, science, philosophy
- Microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, computers
- Evolution, thermodynamics, information theory, complexity
"Money is not going to solve all of your problems; but it’s going to solve all of your money problems." — @naval
Wealth:
"My definition of wealth is oriented toward businesses and assets that can earn while you sleep." — @naval
"You’re probably not going to create wealth through work. There are many reasons for that, but the most basic is because your inputs are very closely tied to your outputs. You can’t earn non-linearly." — @naval
- Creating something new from scratch
- Predicting that society will want it
- Figuring out how to scale it and get it to everybody in a profitable, self-sustaining way
- You love to do it
- It’s natural and authentic to you
- You know how to do it the best
- Society wants it but doesn’t know how to get it
- Demonstrated judgment
- High accountability
- Leverage
- Long timescale
"The combination of the three should be your overwhelming goal. The most important thing for any entrepreneur is to find founder-product-market fit." — @naval
"Impatience with actions, patience with results. I think that’s a good philosophy for life." — @naval
All the benefits & returns in life come from compounding:
- Wealth
- Relationships
- Love
- Health
- Habits
- Learning
- Reading
- Knowledge
- Creating
More from Life
Like company moats, your personal moat should be a competitive advantage that is not only durable—it should also compound over time.
Characteristics of a personal moat below:
I'm increasingly interested in the idea of "personal moats" in the context of careers.
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) November 22, 2018
Moats should be:
- Hard to learn and hard to do (but perhaps easier for you)
- Skills that are rare and valuable
- Legible
- Compounding over time
- Unique to your own talents & interests https://t.co/bB3k1YcH5b
2/ Like a company moat, you want to build career capital while you sleep.
As Andrew Chen noted:
People talk about \u201cpassive income\u201d a lot but not about \u201cpassive social capital\u201d or \u201cpassive networking\u201d or \u201cpassive knowledge gaining\u201d but that\u2019s what you can architect if you have a thing and it grows over time without intensive constant effort to sustain it
— Andrew Chen (@andrewchen) November 22, 2018
3/ You don’t want to build a competitive advantage that is fleeting or that will get commoditized
Things that might get commoditized over time (some longer than
Things that look like moats but likely aren\u2019t or may fade:
— Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) November 22, 2018
- Proprietary networks
- Being something other than one of the best at any tournament style-game
- Many "awards"
- Twitter followers or general reach without "respect"
- Anything that depends on information asymmetry https://t.co/abjxesVIh9
4/ Before the arrival of recorded music, what used to be scarce was the actual music itself — required an in-person artist.
After recorded music, the music itself became abundant and what became scarce was curation, distribution, and self space.
5/ Similarly, in careers, what used to be (more) scarce were things like ideas, money, and exclusive relationships.
In the internet economy, what has become scarce are things like specific knowledge, rare & valuable skills, and great reputations.
To celebrate, here are the 22 best threads I’ve found on Twitter this year.
Mostly about:
•Life/purpose
•Startups
•Entrepreneurs
•Writing
•Clarity of thought
If I see more interesting threads, I will add to this list.
Enjoy!
1. @ryanstephens: Need tips on growing a newsletter, mastering Twitter, writing online?
@ryanstephens breaks down a podcast discussion between @davidperell and @nathanbarry
Here’s what you can
"The Writing Guy" @david_perell recently joined the re-launch of @Nathanbarry's podcast to discuss growing your newsletter, mastering Twitter, writing online and monetizing your efforts.
— Ryan Stephens \U0001f943 (@ryanstephens) December 16, 2020
Here's what you can learn from him.
THREAD
2. @jackbutcher: How to separate your time from your income
•Explore the market
•Build equity
•Build products and services
•Scale your reputation
•Break the matrix
A fantastic thread complete with helpful
Divorce your time and income: (thread)
— Jack Butcher (@jackbutcher) July 18, 2020
3. @AlexAndBooks_: I love to read.
Here is a great thread on 10 fantastic books.
Includes a short summary of each.
Don’t just take it from me, this is straight from the legend: @AlexAndBooks_
I read 55 books in 2020.
— Alex and Books \U0001f4da (@AlexAndBooks_) December 29, 2020
Here are my top 10 favorites and a short summary of each.
(thread) \U0001f9f5 pic.twitter.com/yRyOFEygQ0
4. @m_franceschetti My biggest revelation in 2020 was the importance of sleep.
Here, @m_franceschetti founder of @eightsleep gives us his eight sleep hacks to improve sleep for 2021.
Do these and your productivity will
Sleep is always my top priority, and will continue to be in 2021. It is foundational to all health.
— Matteo Franceschetti (@m_franceschetti) January 4, 2021
I\u2019ve compiled a list of my top 8 sleep hacks that I use everyday to improve my sleep. If you are trying to improve your sleep in 2021, this thread is for you. \U0001f447