The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness

by Eric Jorgenson

A rational person can find peace by cultivating indifference to things outside of their control.

Happiness is a choice you make and a skill you develop.

At any given time, when you’re walking down the streets, a very small percentage of your brain is focused on the present. The rest is planning the future or regretting the past. This keeps you from having an incredible experience. It’s keeping you from seeing the beauty in everything and for being grateful for where you are. You can literally destroy your happiness if you spend all of your time living in delusions of the future. [4]

Happens to me all the time

A lot of our unhappiness comes from comparing things from the past to the present. [4]

Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.

I try not to have more than one big desire in my life at any given time, and I also recognize it as the axis of my suffering. I realize the area where I’ve chosen to be unhappy. [5]

By the time people realize they have enough money, they’ve lost their time and their health. [8]

Wow thats true

Confucius says you have two lives, and the second one begins when you realize you only have one. When and how did your second life begin?

You can get almost anything you want out of life, as long as it’s one thing and you want it far more than anything else.

The only way to actually get peace on the inside is by giving up this idea of problems. [77]

When working, surround yourself with people more successful than you.

If you can’t see yourself working with someone for life, don’t work with them for a day.

Every time you catch yourself desiring something, say, “Is it so important to me I’ll be unhappy unless this goes my way?” You’re going to find with the vast majority of things it’s just not true. [7]

The more you judge, the more you separate yourself. You’ll feel good for an instant, because you feel good about yourself, thinking you’re better than someone. Later, you’re going to feel lonely. Then, you see negativity everywhere. The world just reflects your own feelings back at you. [77]

A personal metric: how much of the day is spent doing things out of obligation rather than out of interest? [11]

Wow, i should askyself this

In any situation in life, you always have three choices: you can change it, you can accept it, or you can leave it.

Death is the most important thing that is ever going to happen to you. When

To make an original contribution, you have to be irrationally obsessed with something.

We evolved for scarcity but live in abundance.

Basically, whenever you throw any so-called good habit at somebody, they’ll have an excuse for themselves. Usually the most common is “I don’t have time.” “I don’t have time” is just another way of saying “It’s not a priority.”

is. The best workout for you is one you’re excited enough to do every day. [4]

“Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.”

I highly recommend listening to the Tim Ferriss’s podcast with Wim Hof.

Please do this

any of these states people strive for are people trying to get out of their own heads. They’re trying to get away from the voice in their heads—the overdeveloped sense of self. At the very least, I do not want my sense of self to continue to develop and strengthen as I get older. I want it to be weaker and more muted so I can be more in present everyday reality, accept nature and the world for what it is, and appreciate it very much as a child would. [4]

I try to run my brain in “debugging mode” as much as possible.

“Well, do I really care if I embarrass myself? Who cares? I’m going to die anyway. This is all going to go to zero, and I won’t remember anything, so this is pointless.”

If the brain is like a muscle, I’ll be better off resting it, being at peace. When a particular problem arises, I’ll immerse myself in it.

The ability to singularly focus is related to the ability to lose yourself and be present, happy, and (ironically) more effective. [4]

Another thing: spirituality, religion, Buddhism, or anything you follow will teach you over time you are more than just your mind. You are more than just your habits. You are more than just your preferences. You’re a level of awareness. You’re a body. Modern humans, we don’t live enough in our bodies. We don’t live enough in our awareness. We live too much in this internal monologue in our heads. All of which is just programmed into you by society and by the environment when you were younger.