Have you read “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant” by Eric Jorgenson? It’s a guide to wealth and happiness that breaks down the foundational principles of Naval’s success in a casual storytelling format that is easy to understand. It’s the further identification of principles he laid out in an epic Tweetstorm titled “How to get rich without getting lucky.”
Naval Ravikant is a prominent entrepreneur, investor, and philosopher known for his insightful perspectives on life, success, and personal growth. Through his interviews, podcasts, and writings, Naval has garnered a significant following. He emphasizes the importance of mindset, self-awareness, and continuous learning in achieving happiness and fulfillment. Naval's wisdom encompasses a wide range of topics, including wealth creation, meaningful work, relationships, and the pursuit of knowledge. His practical advice and philosophical musings have made him a revered figure in the world of entrepreneurship and personal development, inspiring many to strive for a more purposeful and meaningful life.
The 241-page book is organized into two main sections covering wealth and happiness. Within the two sections are 5 subsections:
Part I: Wealth
a. Building wealth
b. Building judgment
Part II: Happiness
c. Learning happiness
d. Saving yourself
e. Philosophy
I’m going to briefly summarize Naval’s insights in these five sections while comparing and contrasting them to the insights shared in my book series, “Philosophy for 5 to 500 Year Olds” which includes the 5 titles: Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics, Politics, Esthetics.
How do these books possibly relate? How do the notes of arguably one of the most successful venture capitalists in the world compare with a series of picture books available for parents and children? Let’s see if they agree.
In the first section on building wealth, key takeaways are:
a. Specific Knowledge: Acquire valuable expertise for wealth creation.
b. Leverage: Create or use technology for exponential growth.
c. Judgement: Clear thinking is what you leverage.
d. Ownership and accountability: Pursue equity stakes for substantial returns.
e. Long-Term Thinking: Focus on lasting value and compounding returns.
Overall, Naval's insights promote being authentic to acquire specific knowledge, leveraging your knowledge with technology, taking ownership and accountability, and thinking over the long term to compound your returns on equitable income streams.
How are these topics expressed for all ages from 5 to 500 years old in my book series? Here are the key takeaways compared point by point:
a. The acquisition of specific knowledge in wealth creation emphasizes the uniqueness of every individual. No one can compete with you at being you. The specific knowledge you have built is the value you offer to society who will in return reward you for its value. Book 1 on metaphysics illustrates the Law of Identity, the uniqueness of every individual and their power to create ideas and products that are valuable and produce abundance/wealth for humanity. The Law of Identity is the foundational principle underlying specific knowledge.
b. Naval illustrates the forms of leverage used throughout human history to increase value. Leverage has increased over time from muscle to capital to code to media. Technology has made possible infinite leverage on ideas, enabling them to be shared to create more knowledge. Book 2 on Epistemology is the theory of knowledge. It illustrates how we as the thinking animals in nature create technology to know our universe and conceptualize the future from our experience of the present.
c. Important in building wealth is the leverage on your judgement. The reason you get paid by either your employer or your customers is to exercise good judgement. Judgement is the skill you acquire over time with experience with a method of error correction that results in learning from what doesn’t work to what does. Thinking clearly and making good decisions are characteristics of good judgement.
d. Naval discussed pursuing ownership interests to build wealth. You are not going to become wealthy renting out your time, you need to own income producing assets, including equity in companies. Ownership’s corollary is accountability. In book 3 on ethics, the illustrations portray the personal values for an individual to build within themselves to achieve goals. Ownership is the result of taking actions and being accountable for the choices you make. The choices we make daily accumulate to result in achievement, or frustration towards our goals. Become a valuable person. Personal equity is pride, pride is the foundation for ownership, accountability and for value creation.
e. Naval stresses long-Term thinking with a focus on lasting value and compounding returns. These concepts are illustrated in book 2 on epistemology and book 3 on ethics. As the thinking animals in nature, we use our unique people power to conceptualize the long-term effects of our short-term actions. Our ability to conceptualize the future with what we know from the past is our superpower, and what makes the human animal the creator of the values.
In the second section on happiness, Naval offers the following key takeaways:
a. Happiness is learned and is a conscious choice.
b. Happiness is built by habits over time, choosing your values.
c. Happiness requires you to be yourself, care for yourself, to grow and build yourself.
d. Rational philosophy is the route to happiness.
Overall Naval's insights prioritize self-awareness, authenticity, choosing your values, and building yourself through learning and practicing a rational philosophy.
How are these topics expressed for all ages from 5 to 500 years old in my book series? Here are the key takeaways compared point by point:
a. Happiness is learned and is a conscious choice. Book 2 on epistemology sets up the basis for learning, how as thinking animals our superpower is our minds. We use our mind to learn which lays the foundation for having choice. Without knowledge there is no choice, only ignorance. Book 3 on ethics is all about our choices and why we make them.
b. Happiness is a result of good habits built over time. Books 2 and 3 lay the groundwork for the conceptual consciousness. How we take actions consistently over time to proceed results. Happiness as the result of achievement from productive work over time, compounding to achieve the ultimate goal which is your life and the pursuit of it.
c. Happiness requires authenticity. If you can’t be yourself, then who are you? Are you just the reflections of others back at them? You are not. You are the product of your choices, you are an individual with a uniqueness that cannot be duplicated, it’s the Law of Identity. These concepts are discussed in book 1 on metaphysics.
d. Rational philosophy is the route to happiness. Happiness is a feeling that results from your value judgements. Suffering is the frustration of values and your judgements of them. Book 3 on ethics illustrates how our feelings are the result of our choices, and how choices are the result of rational thinking. Book 1 and 2 set the foundation for reasoned choice.
In conclusion, the principles shared by Naval Ravikant and the illustrated principles shared in my book series are closely aligned. Both books detail how values are created and shared to create abundance that results in material wealth, and how internal values are built which results in intrinsic happiness.
I hope you have the opportunity to read both “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant” by Eric Jorgenson and “Philosophy for 5 to 500 Year Olds” the 5-book series by me, Eric Preiss.
I’ll leave it with two quotes, one from Naval and one from me.
“Wisdom is understanding the long-term consequences of your actions.”
-Naval
“Philosophy is the technology of the mind”
-Eric
Kommentare