#SoGv2 - 05 - LifeTips from Naval Ravikant
#LifeLessons from Naval - Part 1 (#SoGv2 - 05)
Good evening. Here's the SoGv2 for the day. There isn't much to report for the day and I am going to disappoint you. I have been busy with work and did not get time to think about what to write.
But, keeping with the tradition of making this useful to you, here are my notes (and some comments) from the conversation between Naval and Joe. If you haven't seen this podcast, go see it now. These are the best 2 hours that you would spend in this year. PS: Joe's podcast is what I want to be to able to take inspiration from, for mine.
And when you are done with this, go listen to Naval talk to Shane. And Naval talk to Tim. Apart from these podcasts, consume everything that Naval has spoken, recommended or tweeted.
So, here are my transcript and notes from the conversation between Naval and Joe (this is incomplete - I am yet to digest the entire thing). The ones that I am highlighting are worth obsessing over.
Here goes...
What makes Naval interesting?
Combine things that you are not supposed to combine. Dancing ear on a unicycle.
Specialization / Focus
Specialisation is for insects.
Ancient Romans had an arc to life - student, warrior, businessman, philosopher. Rich life.
Don't believe in trying to do one thing. SG note - However, in life, I’ve been told by everyone around me that I need to focus and do that one thing well.
Mountain climbing. You spent a lot of time to reach 2/3rd of the way up and even though the peak is distant, you don't want to restart. It is painful!
Greatest people have the ability to do things start over.
Ability to start over.
Lives for the aha moment when two things connect and you find the answer.
Knowledge
Answers, covers (trap doors), memorised things
You have to know it well enough to teach.
“Don't give me the lecture. Don’t give me a book. Give me a blog. Tweet. I already know.”
Read
Read best 100 books over and over rather thousands.
Attention span vs multitask well.
Rather than the number of books read, evaluate the concepts understood.
Social media
You show off the best parts of your life.
Signalling vs looking at self in true sense.
Celebs are miserable.
Compliments build your self-image. Easy to get attacked. And once you get attacked, you get miserable.
Rich and anonymous. Not poor and famous.
Anonymity is a privilege.
How to get rich without getting lucky
Timeless principles of wealth creation
Three things that everyone wants - wealthy, happy, fit (Fitness - cant teach)
Naval tries to inspire you and get you hooked on the principles that he came up when he was young.
Leverage (we live in the age of infinite leverage)
Long-term
Build value
Doesn’t like to say things twice
If you have something new, say it. Otherwise, it’s been said already better.
Done already on wealth. Will do on happiness.
You don't want to be the guy that is successful but is high-stress.
You gotta be coolest in the room when there’s a crisis. And you figure out the correct answer.
Social contracts
Humans have a need to be consistent. You tell the world and then you get forced into doing things.
Happiness
Happiness is a choice. Just like fitness is a choice, working hard and making money is a choice etc.
If you’re so smart, then you find happiness.
If you are so smart, why can't you change what's in your head?
Desire - a contract that you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.
When I am unhappy, I look at the desire that is not being unfulfilled.
Don't pick random desires (my coffee is cold etc). Pick one overwhelming desire and suffer over it. Let others go. Don’t get worked up by every small thing.
Unhappy people are busy in their minds.
Sense of self is too strong.
Clear, calm, cool, collected mind
We live in the age of infinite leverage
Actions can be multiplied a 1000 fold - code, podcast, write, decisions
Clear mind = better decisions
Peak performance = tame your mind and body.
Work and output
Work is not linear (output is not equal to input)
Lion (not a cow - not graze all day). Hunt like lions.
Intellectual athlete - train hard, sprint, rest, reassess, feedback, train, loop
Machines work 9 to 5. Humans don't.
You won’t get rich by renting out your time.
Own a business.
Equity (owner, investor, shareholder, brand) to gain your financial freedom
Working for self
Information age will reverse Industrial Age in 100 years
When we were hunter-gatherers, no hierarchy
If someone can tell you when to be at work and what to wear and how to behave, you are not free.
How? Internal transaction cost vs external transaction cost
How hard is to do things externally, I rather keep it house
IT is making is easy to send things external
Gig economy (events is like that)
In future, high-quality work will be available to select people. Like how Hollywood works already. We are the most productive in this manner.
You pick work you want to, at when you want to and with who you want to
Rated.
Highest calling - when Naval can tell his team that he will help them start their respective things. SG - THIS IS WHAT I ALREADY DO!
Cars and machines will be done by robots
Happiness and size of companies will be correlated.
Universal basic income
Non-solution to a non-problem
Automation frees people for creating work
New jobs are created - more creative are jobs
How quickly can you retrain people?
UBI
Bankrupt the country
It's not about money but about meaning. UBI doesn’t solve meaning.
Who do you give it to? Once you have to filter, you are back to filtering etc.
Slide to socialism
Now you can educate people in mass using internet
We are not close to general AI
Cassandra complex and God Complex
We can solve problems with large sets of data but it is not sexy to talk about those
we don't know how intelligence / brains work. How can we then create general AI?
Need the environment and context to be able to be generally intelligent
Creativity is the last frontier
Automation will take over all non-creative things
Capitalism
Problems
Monopoly
Crony capitalism
Bankers have raped society
Privatise the gains, socialise the losses
Free market / exchanges / trade
Equal opportunity vs equal outcomes
Suffer consequences of a bad choice, enjoy the consequences of good choice
Podcast - everyone wins, value is positive
We must play positive-sum, ethical games
Looters get socialists to say burn the system down
Not destroy the engine of progress
We are socialists at the head, capitalist from heart
NNtaleb
Family - communist
Friends - socialist
Federal - libertarian
Larger the group, different interests, less trust, better incentives are aligned
Income Equality
Flip it. Outcome inequality
Society should give everyone equal opportunity
Example - retraining program. Every 4 years, take a year off and learn whatever and we’d pay
Creative, long-term profession
Effort inequality - they put in more effort!
Privilege
85% of people are dead!
Broadcast
Everyone with a twitter handle has the ability to broadcast
people put effort to put long posts - can you work on yourself with that kind of effort?
No one wants to be seen as a horrible person?
If you want to see who rules over you, see who you are not allowed to criticise
Ability to broadcast
Can spread without understanding anything in depth
Easy to get mobs going but have to learn how to manage that
Foot-soldier of mobs
Anti-mob tactics
If your twitter is full of politics, do I want to be your friend?
Twitter etc are addictive. If you get addicted, you would get fucked.
Modern life - stand alone. There is no religion / country / meaning. When they attack you, you don't know what to do.
Large factories that are working to make you addicted to temptations. You stand alone. Modern people need to work on resisting temptations. Draw your boundaries. No one to help you.
Our generation is transition generation. Next generation will be better.
Media is getting more desperate. To CNN - commoditised. Internet - fact - news - immediate.
News has become commoditised
The illusion of objectivity is lost. No neutral opinions.
Internet is a giant aggregator. One large and then the long tail.
Everyone is a journalist.
Most powerful people are the ones that are writing the algorithm for Twitter / Facebook / Google
They can't be seen as mere carriers
Govt will control the large publishers
Pressurise / scare
Suppress the others
Conquest law - https://www.econlib.org/the-vodnoy-paradox/
Decentralised media - that is not controlled by anyone
Will happen in 10 years or so
Decentralised platform
Leviathan slouches left
Technology empowers the individual
University
Smartest people - professors - hard sciences - scientists are high priests
Had legitimacy
Was between physical science and social sciences
Physical sciences are losing the war
Blank slate theory - https://prezi.com/ywjctufemijp/skinners-blank-slate-theory/
People have their mind made up and they don't have the data
Test of a good system? Build a system and hand it over to the other side to run it for a decade.
Mental health
Belief
All your beliefs are socialised - taken from other people
If you want to be a clear thinker, remove politics
I modern lives, all diseases are diseases of abundance, not of scarcity
Everyone is trying to program everyone else
Turn society off
All the man’s problem arise cos he can't sit by himself in the room for 30 mins alone
iPhone - boredom was dead!
I was proud that brain was working all the time.
Want to rest your mind
Learn solitary thing
Superpower of learning to be alone and enjoying it. - MUST Do
Meditation
Meditation has become signalling
“Art of doing nothing”
Self-therapy
In life, you have things buried in your head and because they are unresolved, you start thinking of those as you sit to meditate. As you start solving those, you clear your head. And at a point when you have nothing else to resolve, is the bliss.
Not use an app.
Concentration is a technique that allows you to focus to the extent that you even drop the thing that you are concentrating on.
An hour a day - SGNote - must do!
Every psychedelic state that drugs give you, can be achieved from meditation
Transcendental meditation
End up at peace
Its easier to change yourself is to change the world. And that's the best way to change the world is to live best!
Environment - SG Note - I need to start thinking about this
Green technology
Biodegradable
Elon Musk
Don't ask people to not grow.
People are NOT going to let go of economic growth
Has identified the right problem and bad solutions
Make innovation and technology affordable
Bunch of solutions that have a trade-off.
if it is your property, you take care of it
Contd... (Part 2 tomorrow)
So, this is about an hour and a half into the podcast.
I'll see the remainder tomorrow and send more notes (and skip the #5onFriday piece) - this is worth its weight in gold. And hopefully, refine notes, add thoughts and add context. I will also try to add links of other summaries that have been going around. This conversation is insane and you HAVE to consume it.
That's it for the day! It was a long one.
Thank you for your time!
With gratitude,
@saurabh
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TAGS: Naval Ravikant, Joe Rogan.
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