PDF Summary:The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, by Eric Jorgenson

Many everyday people strive for wealth and happiness, but most of us struggle along the way and very few seem to achieve both. Still fewer share their insights about how to get there—entrepreneur and self-made millionaire Naval Ravikant has become known for doing this online, via Twitter, podcasts, interviews, and blog posts. The Almanack of Naval Ravikant is a collection of those insights on wealth and happiness compiled by business blogger Eric Jorgenson.

In our guide, we’ve followed the basic structure of The Almanack, which has two parts: advice on how to build wealth and advice on how to build happiness. In the first section of this guide, we’ll explore Ravikant’s principles for building wealth and in the second section, we’ll explore his ideas about building happiness.

Along the way we’ll explore what others have to say about wealth and happiness, and we’ll consider other factors that affect your ability to achieve these things.

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Once you’ve rid yourself of faulty assumptions, Ravikant suggests that you have to continuously work on building a more accurate understanding of the world. The best way to do this is to read a lot and constantly learn. In particular, read about science, philosophy, and basic math. These disciplines are grounded in a rigorous search for truth, so familiarizing yourself with them will help you think independently about the world in general and give you better mental tools for understanding reality clearly.

(Shortform note: Researchers have found that our understanding of reality is significantly affected by far more than just our knowledge: It’s affected by numerous unconscious factors. For example, evidence suggests that our physical fitness and emotional state affect our perceptions of the world and that our political leanings even affect our ability to solve math problems. This indicates, then, that studying math, science, and philosophy has little effect on controlling such important unconscious factors.)

Build Long-Term Business Relationships

Good relationships are invaluable for building wealth because working with people is far more productive and efficient than going solo. For Ravikant, building relationships in business isn’t a matter of short-term networking: It’s a matter of identifying capable and ethical people and building long-term relationships with them. It’s far more effective to simply stick with competent ethical people and deepen your rapport with them than to seek out more people: In business relationships, quality is more important than quantity.

If you’ve built a foundation of trust with someone, and they’ve shown themselves to be consistent, honest, and fair, keep working with them. In this way, your business relationship will grow more efficient over time as you both come to know each other better.

(Shortform note: Some business professionals offer a more nuanced perspective on this point. Quality relationships take time to establish. Because of this, they suggest that it’s simply not always possible to form strong relationships—it’s more important to maintain a balance of relationships. In their opinion, the strength of your business relationships should depend on the context: Industries that require a foundation of trust, such as consulting or sales, may entail having deeper relationships than industries such as event promotion or entertainment.)

Be Patient

The above principles are critical to building wealth, but wealth creation doesn’t happen overnight: Be patient. Ravikant encourages you to simply stick to the practices of developing and leveraging your skills and cultivating deep, trusting relationships with good people. If you give it enough time, these things will pay off.

If your ideas for a product fail at first, just keep generating more ideas. If you make a mistake in judgment, own it and learn from it, then carry on. Stay focused on your specialization, stay attuned to up-and-coming companies, and stick to the work: Achieving wealth is worth it.

(Shortform note: Other financial experts agree that patience is critical to building wealth. They suggest the most reliable way to build wealth is to simply start saving money as soon as you can, never spend more than 90% of what you earn, and invest. Patience is key to this strategy because it helps you delay gratification, stick to your goals, and plan for the long-term.)

Part 2: How to Build Happiness

In the second part of this guide, we’ll consider Ravikant’s ideas about building happiness. True happiness, as he understands it, comes from being at peace—another way to express this is: True happiness is fulfillment. When you have this happiness, you don’t long for anything more, and you feel your life is complete.

(Shortform note: Research on happiness suggests that focusing on being happy may actually undermine your ability to achieve the fulfillment Ravikant describes. Researchers have found that those who highly value happiness have difficulty feeling happy under conditions that should make them feel that way. They suggest this is caused by people feeling disappointed in their experience of their emotions—they may not feel as great as they expected. Paradoxically, then, one important part of learning to be happy may be not making happiness a high priority.)

In this section, we’ll consider how you might arrive at this place of fulfillment. While Ravikant believes that being wealthy can help you get there, happiness isn’t dependent on external circumstances—it’s a choice. Making that choice is a matter of practicing the right habits.

Decide to Be Happy by Practicing the Right Habits

The first thing you have to do is simply decide to be happy. You can’t wait for external circumstances to become what you want or seek to change them—you need to be OK with them as they are. This isn’t easy to do, but Ravikant believes that by cultivating the right habits you can make it easier.

(Shortform note: While experts in the study of happiness (a field called positive psychology) agree that happiness is partly a choice, they add nuance to that idea by emphasizing that it’s not enough to only choose—you have to also act in intentional ways. For example, choosing to be happy, according to experts, involves practicing kindness toward others, focusing on activities you enjoy, and expressing gratitude regularly. The intention to be happy should be followed by these kinds of actions to have the best result.)

According to Ravikant, we’ve all developed habits we haven’t thought about—these habits tend to make us dependent on external circumstances. Maybe we always have coffee in the morning, or we listen to talk radio on our commute, for example. Over time, we end up needing that cup of coffee to feel well, or we end up craving the feeling of agitation we get from talk radio. Ravikant suggests that we need to replace these thoughtless habits with better ones.

(Shortform note: Ravikant isn’t alone in thinking that your habits affect your well-being. Happiness expert Gretchen Rubin dedicated an entire book to the idea that your habits can be used to influence your happiness. She suggests that you can build habits that work for you if you first understand your basic tendencies. For example, if you’re motivated by meeting deadlines, you might find that setting deadlines for your fitness goals helps you build sustainable routines. If you try to form habits in a way that doesn’t fit with your inclinations, you may get frustrated when it proves too difficult to establish them.)

The Habit of Acceptance

One habit Ravikant advocates is acceptance. Acceptance is simply being content with a circumstance no matter what—it’s a kind of freedom. As he sees it, it’s freedom from things like frustration, expectation, desire, and so on. Practicing acceptance will help you find contentment. In particular, practice the habit of acceptance in two areas of life.

Freedom From vs. Freedom To

Ravikant distinguishes between freedom from obstacles (negative freedom) and freedom to do what he wishes (positive freedom). This distinction isn’t original to him—it has a long history going back, by some accounts, to the 18th-century philosopher Immanuel Kant and was broadly used by many thinkers throughout the 20th century.

For instance, psychoanalyst Erich Fromm argued that negative freedom on its own inevitably leads to feelings of isolation and meaninglessness. He believed that positive freedom, by contrast, facilitates a sense of meaning and connectedness to others.

Ravikant uses the idea of positive and negative freedom slightly differently and prioritizes negative freedom over positive freedom. This emphasis stems from his self-professed Buddhist leanings. Buddhism teaches that desire is the source of suffering; therefore, being free from desire enables you to be free from suffering. This is the way Ravikant uses the idea of negative freedom: For him, the desire to change your circumstances is the opposite of happiness because it’s caused by feeling unsatisfied.

Accept Yourself as You Are

The first area where we need to practice acceptance is in our view of ourselves. If we’re going to be happy, we have to accept ourselves for who we are, says Ravikant. Many of us want to change who we are—we’d like to be someone else, or we feel disappointed that we’re not living up to the expectations people have for us. This frame of mind will always stand in the way of being satisfied and finding real happiness.

(Shortform note: Studies find that the practice of self-acceptance closely correlates to feelings of life satisfaction. However, when compared with other habits that promote satisfaction, it was found to be practiced the least. This suggests that most of us have room for improvement in learning to accept ourselves for who we are.)

According to Ravikant, the best way to accept yourself as you are is to simply accept your mortality: Life is short. Even the greatest cultures of the ancient world passed away, their accomplishments all but forgotten. When you recognize the brevity and insignificance of all things, you’ll be less inclined to obsess over who you are. With this perspective, you’ll realize that there’s little use in wasting your short life being frustrated or disappointed with yourself—you might as well enjoy the little time you have.

(Shortform note: A growing body of research indicates that an awareness of mortality correlates with greater happiness, as Ravikant suggests. Experts find that as we age past 50 or if we face serious illness, our priorities begin to shift toward the things we find the most meaningful, such as close friends and family, and away from goals such as wealth and recognition.)

One other way to accept yourself is to stop obsessing over what others think of you—what they expect you to do or achieve, for instance. Do what you want to do. The sooner you start pursuing your genuine interests, the sooner you’ll experience happiness.

(Shortform note: Some experts are convinced that the advice to “do what you want to do” is problematic. This frame of mind, they argue, leads to discontentment and frustration because not only are passions hard to identify, but they’re also not always good sources of income or long-term satisfaction. In fact, researchers have found that pursuing a passion often leads to psychological stress and misery.)

Accept Circumstances as They Are

The second area of life in which you need to practice acceptance relates to the circumstances you face. When you face circumstances that aren’t what you want, Ravikant says you have three options: change them, leave them, or accept them.

Trying to either change or leave your circumstances involves some kind of struggle—it involves dissatisfaction: This is the opposite of happiness. It’s far better to practice accepting your circumstances no matter what they are. This practice will help build happiness.

An example of how to do this would be reframing a situation that annoys you—someone cutting you off in traffic, for instance. Rather than fixating on the injustice of the act, consider reframing the situation: Think of how it gives you the opportunity to exercise your self-control or practice changing your perspective. Instead of it being merely an inconvenience, consider it an opportunity for growth.

Acceptance and Cognitive Reframing

This practice of reframing is one strategy Ravikant suggests for learning how to accept your circumstances. In the field of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), this practice is known as cognitive reframing or cognitive restructuring. CBT therapists advise using this strategy for breaking negative thought patterns.

These experts note that it’s common for people to distort their view of their circumstances—to amplify negative feelings and jump to conclusions about what others may be thinking, for instance. These modes of thinking leave us feeling defeated and unhappy. Experts advise that a first step toward escaping these thoughts is to merely pay attention to the fact that they’re happening: Once you’re aware of these negative patterns, you can work on changing them.

As Ravikant suggests, by reframing our understanding of our circumstances, we can begin to train ourselves to avoid these mental distortions and see reality as it is. Experts find this makes it easier for us to accept our circumstances.

The Habit of Self-Care

The second type of habit Ravikant suggests is self-care. This type of habit encompasses several practices that can help keep your body and mind conditioned to support your happiness.

Caring for Your Body

Your experience of the world is mediated by your physical health, according to Ravikant. This is one of the reasons he’s chosen to prioritize his own physical health above all other things. If his body isn’t functioning well, his mind won’t be able to function well, and he’ll have a harder time dealing with life circumstances. He suggests incorporating the following habits into your own life to care for your body.

(Shortform note: Researchers find that the connection between the health of your body and the health of your mind works both ways: As Ravikant suggests, poor physical health is a risk factor for poor mental health, but poor mental health is also a risk factor for developing chronic diseases and infirmities.)

1. Eat well. Ravikant suggests the paleo diet, which consists of foods that our hunter-gatherer ancestors theoretically had access to, such as grass-fed meat, nuts, and fresh fruit—essentially, nothing processed or refined and no grains, legumes, or dairy.

(Shortform note: The paleo diet is popular, but it may not be as healthy as Ravikant implies. For example, researchers have found that people who follow a paleo diet have higher levels of a chemical compound linked to cardiovascular disease as well as an increased risk of developing cancer and diabetes.)

2. Exercise. Instead of being based around gym equipment, Ravikant believes your exercise should come from play. Consider playing team or individual sports. Whatever you do, it should be something you’re happy to do daily.

(Shortform note: Ravikant’s advice to exercise through play echoes the advice of healthcare professionals: Experts suggest that enjoyment is one of the key factors that determines how well you stick to an exercise habit. If you have fun doing it, you’re more likely to exercise consistently. This may involve trying out different activities to find something that sparks your interest.)

3. Condition your immune system. Ravikant believes that you need to be exposed to allergens and pathogens to build your immune system. If your environment is too sterile, you won’t be very immune.

(Shortform note: Many health experts agree with this point. They note that exposure to a diverse array of environmental microbes correlates to fewer instances of inflammatory disorders such as allergies and autoimmune conditions. However, the evidence suggests that these benefits are mainly conferred during childhood.)

4. Say no. We evolved, says Ravikant, for scarcity—resources were hard to come by. In our modern world of abundance, we have a hard time saying no to all the things we can easily have. Accordingly, we have too much sugar, too much alcohol, too many drugs, and so on. Ravikant believes you need to practice saying no to these things.

(Shortform note: Researchers in the field of neuroscience believe that the human brain evolved mechanisms that cause us to value short-term benefits over long-term benefits. The implications of this are, as Ravikant implies, that it’s harder for us to delay gratification even when we know it’s beneficial to do so.)

Caring for Your Mind

Caring for your body is one way to support the health of your mind, but Ravikant recommends four other ways you can do so.

1. Meditate. Ravikant is less interested in the spiritual aspects of meditation than the biological ones: Meditation techniques help you control the signaling in your brain, making you more relaxed. Ravikant has tried many different meditation techniques, and he suggests you do the same. Whatever technique you try, he advocates sticking with it for two months at a time for one hour each day.

(Shortform note: Ravikant's advice to meditate for two months at an hour per day may be daunting—especially for those who haven’t meditated before. However, while research suggests that regularity is helpful for reaping the health benefits of meditation, just 13 minutes per day appears to be enough.)

2. Learn. Learning helps grow your mind and keep it healthy and engaged. Again, the best way to do this is to read. While Ravikant specifically recommends reading basic math, philosophy, and science books, as we saw earlier, he also recommends reading anything you’re interested in. The main reason for this is because learning to love to read is vital for actually learning at all—if you’re interested in reading something, read it.

(Shortform note: While a host of evidence confirms that reading is beneficial for learning, reading alone isn’t as effective as it could be. Evidence indicates that one of the most important ways to increase your learning is to test yourself on what you’re trying to learn. Experts recommend that you first read, then recite what you’ve learned to yourself or a friend, then review the material to correct anything you may have misunderstood.)

Another way to ensure you make reading a regular part of your life is to be okay with not finishing the books you start. For Ravikant, believing that you must finish every book you begin gets in the way of your enjoyment of reading. Instead, read as much as you’re interested, have several books going at once, explore a variety of topics—just read.

(Shortform note: Famously voracious reader Bill Gates disagrees on this point. It’s his practice to always finish the books he starts even if he doesn’t like them. Because of this personal rule, he’s careful about selecting books to read—he wants to choose books that are going to be worth reading all the way to the end.)

3. Maintain social contact. As Ravikant sees it, humans evolved to be in small social groups: We function best in such environments. When you’re frequently in close proximity to friends and family, you have fewer opportunities to get depressed or lonely. This contributes to your sense of contentment and happiness.

(Shortform note: Social contact has been shown to have an important effect on happiness. A recent study found that people who pursued activities to increase their happiness had better results when those activities kept them in contact with others than when the activities were independent.)

4. Live in the present. You’ll only find contentment by embracing your experience as it is right now—don’t look for things to be different than they are. Ravikant says that thinking about the past is the source of a lot of unhappiness. Maybe you regret something you did, or you wish things could be like they used to be. Similarly, looking to the future is often motivated by desire (for a change in circumstances, for instance). For Ravikant, to desire anything is to be discontent. This is unhappiness. According to Ravikant, all you really have is the present. Embracing it is key to finding contentment and true happiness.

(Shortform note: Contrary to Ravikant’s view, evidence suggests that thinking about the past may actually be beneficial for well-being. Nostalgia is a certain form of reflecting on the past that’s been shown to have numerous benefits, including making you feel better about yourself and others, making life seem more meaningful, and making you feel more connected with friends and family.)