The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: Book Notes

Here are my notes taken while reading The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson.

Naval's Life Formulas

Happiness = Health + Wealth + Good Relationships
Health = Exercise + Diet + Sleep
Exercise = High Intensity Resistance Training + Sports + Rest
Diet = Natural Foods + Intermittent Fasting + Plants
Sleep = No alarms + 8-9 hours + Circadian rhythms
Wealth = Income + Wealth * (Return on Investment)
Income = Accountability + Leverage + Specific Knowledge
Accountability = People + Branding + Personal Platform + Taking Risk?
Leverage = Capital + People + Intellectual Property
Specific Knowledge = Knowing how to do something society cannot yet easily train other people to do
Return on Investment = "Buy-and-Hold" + Valuation + Margin of Safety

Be present above all else.
Desire is suffering. (Buddha)
Anger is a hot coal you hold in your hand while waiting to throw it at someone else. (Buddha)
If you can't see yourself working with someone for life, don't work with them for a day.
Reading (learning) is the ultimate meta-skill and can be traded for anything else.
All the real benefits in life come from compound interest.
Earn with your mind, not your time.
99 percent of all effort is wasted.
Total honesty at all times. It's almost always possible to be honest and positive.
Praise specifically, criticize gener-ally. (Warren Buffett)
Truth is that which has predictive power.
Watch every thought. (Ask "Why am I having this thought?")
All greatness comes from suffer-ing.
Love is given, not received.
Enlightenment is the space between your thoughts. (Eckhart Tolle)
Mathematics is the language of nature.
Every moment has to be complete in and of itself.

Happiness is what's there when you remove the sense that something is missing in your life.
A rational person can find peace by cultivating indifference to things outside of their control.
A happy person isn't someone who's happy all the time. It's someone who effortlessly interprets events in such a way that they don't lose their innate peace.
Happiness is being satisfied with what you have. Success comes from dissatis-faction. Choose.
Courage isn't charging into a machine gun nest. Courage is not caring what other people think.
If you can't see yourself working with someone for life, don't work with them for a day.
The enemy of peace of mind is expectations drilled into you by society and other people.
First, you know it. Then, you understand it. Then, you can explain it. Then, you can feel it. Finally, you are it.
Before you can lie to another, you must first lie to yourself.
Inspiration is perishable-act on it immediately.

Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.
You're not going to get rich renting out your time. You must own equity—a piece of a business-to gain your financial freedom.
Arm yourself with specific knowledge, accountability, and leverage.
Specific knowledge is knowledge you cannot be trained for. If society can train you, it can train someone else and replace you.
Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion rather than whatever is hot right.
Reading is faster than listen-ing. Doing is faster than watch-ing.
There are no get-rich-quick schemes. Those are just someone else getting rich off you.
If they wrote it to make money, don't read it.
You know that song you can't get out of your head? All thoughts work that way. Careful what you read.

There are basically three really big decisions you make in your early life: where you live, who you're with, and what you do.

Hope luck finds you.
Hustle until you stumble into it.
Prepare the mind and be sensitive to chances others miss.
Become the best at what you do. Refine what you do until this is true. Opportunity will seek you out. Luck becomes your destiny.

By the way, nobody changes. Then I just distance myself from them. I cut them out of my life. I just have this saying inside my head: "The closer you want to get to me, the better your values have to be."

You're going to die one day, and none of this is going to matter. So enjoy yourself. Do something positive. Project some love. Make someone happy. Laugh a little bit. Appreciate the moment. And do your work.

Don't spend your time making other people happy. Other people being happy is their problem. It's not your problem. If you are happy, it makes other people happy. If you're happy, other people will ask you how you became happy and they might learn from it, but you are not responsible for making other people happy.