
June 9, 2020
Naval Ravikant on Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of World-Class Performers
Key Takeaways
- In life, you always have 3 options: change it, accept it, or leave it
- Anger is hot coal you hold in your hand while waiting to throw it at someone else
- Reading 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
- Free education is abundant and readily available on the Internet. It’s the desire to learn that’s scarce
- If you eat, invest, and think according to what the “news” advocates, you’ll end up nutritionally, financially, and morally bankrupt
- My one repeated learning in life: There are no adults. Everyone’s making it up as they go along. Figure it out yourself, and do it
Intro
- Naval Ravikant (@naval) is a venture capitalist, co-founder of AngelList, and co-host of both The Naval Podcast and the Spearhead podcast
- Host: Tim Ferriss (@tferriss)
Books Mentioned
- Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Tim Ferriss
About Tim’s New Podcast
- The audiobook of Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Tim Ferriss is finally up
- Tim says that the advice in this book has saved him years of effort and frustration
- He started this new podcast to share actionable advice from Tools of Titans
- Tim says that the advice in this book has saved him years of effort and frustration
How To Be Happy
- Happiness is a skill that you develop
- You choose to be happy and then you work on it
- “If you want to be successful, surround yourself with people who are more successful than you are, but if you want to be happy, surround yourself with people who are less successful than you are” – Naval Ravikant
- To avoid conflict, avoid people who are constantly engaging in conflict
- In life, you always have 3 options: change it, accept it, or leave it
- You become the 5 people you spend the most time with, choose your 5 wisely
- “Tell your friends that you’re a happy person. Then you’ll be forced to conform to it. You’ll have a consistency bias. You have to live up to it. Your friends will expect you to be a happy person.” – Naval Ravikant
Naval’s Laws
- Be present above all else
- Desire is suffering
- Anger is hot coal you hold in your hand while waiting to throw it at someone else
- If you can’t see yourself working with someone for life, don’t work with them for a day
- Reading 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% of all effort is wasted
- It’s almost always possible to be honest and positive
- Mathematics is the language of nature
Naval’s Top Tweets
- What you choose to work on, and who you choose to work with, are far more important than how hard you work
- Free education is abundant and readily available on the Internet. It’s the desire to learn that’s scarce
- If you eat, invest, and think according to what the “news” advocates, you’ll end up nutritionally, financially, and morally bankrupt
- You get paid for being right first, and to be first, you can’t wait for consensus
- My one repeated learning in life: There are no adults. Everyone’s making it up as they go along. Figure it out yourself, and do it
Additional Notes
- Naval was raised poor in an immigrant family
- His name means “new man” in Sanskrit
- Naval’s best $100 purchase: A teppanyaki grill
- What would Naval put on a billboard:
- “Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want”
- Recognize that your desires may be the root of your suffering
- “Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want”