Summarising “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant” in merch designs
Naval is the greatest living thinker.
His tweet storm on “Getting rich” is legendary. His podcasts with Tim Ferriss are recorded on my iPhone to hear them often. The same with his podcast with Joe Rogan and his very own podcast about the tweet storm.
So when I heard about the Eric Jorgenson project to make a book compiling it all it was a no brainer. Enter “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant”
And it doesn’t deceive. It’s for sure my most highlighted book ever. The good about this book it’s the amount of knowledge and “diamonds” per page. It’s so good.
You can read the book for free, downloading the pdf or reading it online at navalmanack.com but I strongly recommend to buy the physical book:
- To support the author for the amazing job
- To enjoy the content. To highlight what resonates with you. To take notes. To draw. To re-read often. For the patina.
It’s so good.
And having read the tweet storm many times and having listened to the podcast many times, makes it more joyful, not less. Buy the book.
As I often do, I try to out out my notes in the form of a blog post or medium article but this time it will be different.
I have so many highlights, so many notes, that it would be impossible.
So, I decided something bold. Or stupid. Very stupid. I’d try to summarize some of the content of the book in the form of sweatshirts or tees you can wear:
- To make you interiorise the concepts you embrace the most
- To enlighten those around you.
Stupid you may think. And you may be right. Stupid I am.
I’m sorry Eric. I’m sorry Naval if this makes you feel bad about your work. I beg your pardon, but I must try.
Before starting: one recommendation. Check Visualize Value both in twitter and instagram. Sooo good. Something you won’t see here. I’m a squared head engineer.
So let’s go. I try to summarize the book in 13 designs. You’ll find all of them here: Navalmanack collection
Each design can be printed in different tees or hoodies or sweatshirts and in different colors, so you can “build your own”.
1. Leverage
One of the most of important concepts on Eric Jorgenson’s Navalmanack is the concept of leverage. All of us understand leverage, but it’s not as easy to understand it in all aspects of life. And when something it’s not easy to understand, what we have to to do?
Right!. Come back to principles. To basics. And what’s more basic and original than Archimedes?
“Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I will move the earth”
2. Play Long Term Games
“All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships or knowledge, come from compound interest”
Play long term. understand the power of compounding. If you understand compounding and you put it into practise you’ll be unstoppable.
Slowly then suddenly.
3. Intentions don’t matter
Do not plan so much. Do.
Do not promise. Act.
“Intentions don’t matter. Actions do. That’s why being ethical is hard”
4. Avoid loving money
“Lusting for money is bad for us because it’s a bottomless pit. It will always occupy your mind. If you love money, and you make it, there’s never enough. There is never enough because the desire is turned on and doesn’t turn off at some number. It’s a fallacy to think it turns off at some number”
“To the extent money buys freedom, it’s great. But to the extent it makes me less free, which it definetely does at some level as well, I don’t like it”
Avoid loving money. Love Freedom:
5. Optimist Contrarian
Always try to be an optimist. Always try to be a contrarian.
“A contrarian isn’t one who always objects — that’s a conformist of a different sort. A contrarian reasons independently from the ground up and resists pressure to conform”.
“Cynicism is easy. Mimicry is easy. Optimistic contrarians are the rarest breed”.
6. Tension Relaxation
After our first two decades alive, our formative years, we spend the rest of our lives trying to make our egos happy. “We interpret anything new through our ego: how do I change the external world to make it more how I would like it to be?”
As the buddhist say:
“Tension is who you think you should be.
Relaxation is who you are.”
7. We’re just monkeys
“Don’t take yourself so seriously. You’re just a monkey with a plan”
Don’t take yourself so seriously:
8. Stay optimistic
Being happy is mostly a choice. “Tell your friends you’re a happy person. Then you’ll be forced to conform to it”
Avoid news. “It’s the news’s job to make you anxious and angry. But its underlying scientific, economic, education and conflict trends are positive. Stay positive. Stay optimistic.”
9. Be present
“Being peaceful comes from having your mind clear of thoughts … being in the present moment”
10. Do something positive
“Do Something Positive. Project some love. Make someone happy. Laugh a little bit. Apreciate the moment. And do your work”
Do, love, happy, laugh, moment, work:
11. Meditation
Meditation is one of the most valuable tools on Naval’s toolkit. Meditation practice can (and should be ) different for each person, but what’s meditation?.
“Meditation is intermittent fasting for the mind”
12. Patience
“Anything you have to do, just get it done. Why wait? You’re not getting any younger. Your life is slipping away. You don’t want to spend it waiting in line …”
“When you do it then, you want to do them as quickly as you can while doing them with your full attention. But then, you just have to be patient with the results because you’re dealing with complex systems and many people”
“Impatience with actions, patience with results”:
13. Out of the herd
I always tell my son:
Avoid being standard. Avoid being normal. Avoid average.
Avoid doing things for the social approval.
Avoid fitting in with other monkeys.
Avoid having to get along with the herd.
“That’s not where the returns are in life. Te returns in life are being out of the herd”
Know more about Carles at www.carlescarrera.com
