The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant Summary, Quotes, And Review

1-Line Summary: The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson is a curation of Naval’s wisdom shared over Twitter, Interviews, Blogs, etc., that covers insights about wealth and happiness.

---

Who should read this book?

• Anyone who wants to learn the correct way of playing money-game.
• Those who seek both financial freedom and happiness.
• A business person who would like to leverage his time and money.

---

The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant Summary [PDF]

Ever wondered why some people get paid more for their decisions?

What games are poor people playing?

Why do some people choose to stay poor for their status?

Ever thought about how science can help you get wealthy?

What is of paramount importance: Wealth or Freedom? Or both?

Well, in this book summary, I’ve shared the best lessons from this book. And by the end of this summary, you will have answers to all the questions above.

Let’s dive right in!

Lesson #1: Pure hard work without understanding won’t make anybody wealthy.

It’s a myth that you have to do a lot of hard work to get wealthy.

Sure, it’s crucial.

But what you need more is a proper understanding of what you are doing.

By proper understanding, the author means that you must have specific skills.

You must know how to use them smartly and where.

Most people have skills, but they don’t have a proper understanding of how they will get wealthy.

The key here is to leverage your time and money wisely.

First, realize that wealth creation is the game of building assets.

Wealthy people don’t often rent their time for money. It’s what the poor people do.

What makes wealthy people rich is their ability to have assets that make money while sleeping.

This doesn’t in any way means that it’s easy to become wealthy.

But…

The more you know about asset building, the better you will do when it comes to wealth creation.

Also, developing the right skills is essential.

If you have a skill that almost everybody in your neighborhood has, you will not get paid much for it.

The more rare or specific your skill is, the more you get paid.

It’s because money is the game of value.

And perceived value is higher when something is rare and in demand.

These days, AI (Artificial Intelligence) has taken many jobs.

So if you are doing a job that machines or algorithms can do, you may find yourself out of a job very soon.

Gone are the days when we required humans for every little job.

Although it may sound like a bad thing, there are ramifications too.

But AI helps us eliminate clutter and frees time to focus on what matters the most.

It allows humans to automate complex processes and thus helps in building systems.

So, the money game, in the future, will be more about having the right judgment.

The more people trust you for your right judgment, the more you will earn.

That’s also why managers get paid more than employees.

Managers and CEOs are the key decision-makers in any company. And they are paid for their judgment. Not for how much hard work they do, unlike employees.

In simple words:

Find your thingy. Find what it is that you can do exceptionally well and at the same time get paid for it.

Then try to build systems and processes using the technology at our disposal.

And finally, get paid for your sound judgment.

If you are in this position, you will have enough money to invest in assets and thus multiply your wealth.

Remember, what makes people wealthy is their art of building assets that earn and compound money over time.

Most people run out of money after they retire.

But people who build assets earn money passively even after they retire.

The choice is yours. Choose wisely!

Lesson #2: Play money game more than status game if you want to become wealthy

The author talks about those people who secretly hate money.

They say, “I don’t want more money!”

And no doubt they keep struggling for money all their lives.

The author says that those who are not playing money game are playing status-game.

When you are doing a business or even a job, you play a money game.

One might be better than the other. But that’s a different topic.

A status game is when you are trying your best to improve your status.

Most people worry too much about their status. Even more than they do about money.

For instance, if their friend has bought a new expensive car, they will buy a much more expensive car to show that they have more status.

This doesn’t mean that rich people are not status-driven.

But if you spend more time playing money-game, you’ll be much more wealthy and happy in your life.

A status-driven mindset only feeds our ego.

Instead of lying to yourself, you should accept that you want to become wealthy. And stop playing the status game.

The thing is:

We don’t matter as much as we think we do.

Yes, that’s true.

If you study Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, you will realize that humans looked like chimps a few thousand years ago.

We are here on this planet for a few years.

Nobody will remember our status. And nobody really cares.

All your achievements will be forgotten eventually.

Nobody knows for how many decades or centuries the earth will survive.

So, why spend time doing things that will not make sense in the long-term, right?

The point here is not to encourage you to earn a lot of money or not earn money at all.

Try to strike a balance between your needs and wants.

Be absolutely clear whether you want more money or not.

Please don’t do it for the sake of status or society.

If you want to be the next Elon Musk or Jeff, it’s fantastic. But at least know why you intend to be like that.

Lesson #3: Build your wisdom and thinking ability by reading books.

The author also reads many books and takes notes of great ideas wherever he finds them.

Thousands of books are written by great minds.

And if you are not reading, chances are you are wasting time.

Many people stop reading after getting a formal education.

And that’s a big mistake.

So big that it could ruin your life.

Not everybody is a genius.

And if you are an average person, you should definitely read books.

The author shared a great tip to build a reading habit.

You can tweet your key takeaways from books. This will encourage you to read more books.

One suggestion I’d like to add is:

Read books that solve your problems.

Don’t read books about the issues that other people have.

Don’t read a book just because it’s become a bestseller.

Masses read books that everybody is reading. People follow the trend.

But if you are smart, you can also go on a different tangent and read books related to your unique interests.

Tip: Here are more than 100+ book summaries that can help you quickly digest the key ideas from books.

Lesson #4: Don’t ignore sales and mathematics in your life.

Many people hate mathematics.

It can be tedious and complex.

But the author doesn’t advise that.

He says that one should learn at least basic mathematics that includes arithmetic and probability.

Subjects like that help you make better decisions.

Running a business requires you to make future predictions sometimes.

And the better decision-maker you are, the more you will get paid for your judgment.

In short, you can’t ignore basic maths.

Also, it’s essential to learn how to persuade people.

Often “PERSUASION” is presented as if it’s some secret magic trick to control people’s minds and has a bad reputation.

Stop buying all those ideas.

Persuasion is all about learning how our minds think and what influences our behavior.

Most of our behaviors are guided by our habits.

“First you build your habits. And then your habits build you.”

I highly recommend you learn more about habits by reading books about them.

Also, these days attention is everything.

The more attention you can grab, the more wealth you will create.

By learning sales and persuasion, you learn how to hook people and tell your story.

I noticed a significant improvement in my life once I started learning about sales and marketing.

It’s also true that people use these same techniques for shady reasons.

But if used ethically, by learning the art of sales and persuasion, you can take your earnings to the next level.

Lesson #5: “Make hard choices now so that your life is easy in the future.”

Most people tend to make easy choices over the hard-ones. But it doesn’t help them in the long term.

This doesn’t mean that easy choices are always bad.

The thing is:

Often, easy choices turn out to be not so useful in the long term.

For example:

We all like cakes and ice-creams, right?

Eating them gives us pleasure. Our tongues thank us for the fantastic flavors when we eat them.

But they often contain fat and sugar. Which are not good for our bodies if taken in large quantities.

The author says that one should sacrifice short-term pleasure for long-term gains.

Too much fat is not healthy for our bodies.

Sure, you may feel bad when your friends consume those delicious cookies. But in the long-term, you will find yourself more healthy and fit than your friends.

The author gives high priority to health.

That’s because, in old age, health could be a big issue.

The author quotes that we have time and energy at a young age, but no money.

But in old age, we have money and time, but no health.

Most people don’t care about their health until they catch a disease, and then they realize that if they were a little more health-conscious, they would be more healthy.

So, when it comes to life, whether it is food or business, always make decisions so that they don’t harm you in the long term.

The regret of not making the right choice is one of the worst things in life. And sadly, we can’t go back in time and fix our mistakes.

You know the truth: The clock never rotates anti-clockwise.

So always pay attention while making decisions.

When you make smart decisions, you also save a lot of time.

The author puts a lot of stress on not wasting time:

“Do not waste your time. If you are not spending your time doing what you want, and you are not earning, and you are not learning — what the heck are you doing?”

And the author is right here!

Learning and earning are both essential in life.

Lesson #6: No adult in the world can guarantee anybody’s future.

We always listen to adults and take their words as truth when we grow up.

The author rejects this idea. He says there are no adults.

Sure, people do get old.

But it doesn’t mean that they have figured everything out.

Learning is a part of life. It’s a constant process.

Adults have a habit of giving opinions. They have countless opinions.

They will tell you what you can do and can’t do.

I’m not saying that you must never listen to adults.

Just know that no person can foresee anybody’s future.

You can shape your future by learning stuff and taking action.

If a person says that he has figured everything out, he might be fooling you.

Everybody has problems.

So do whatever you want to do in life. Don’t seek approval from so-called experts.

They don’t know the future.

And nor do you!

You may fail. You may win.

Nobody knows!

Lesson #7: Freedom is the ultimate goal of life.

The author talks about how he wanted to have the freedom to do anything when he was a kid.

But as he grew more mature, he realized that there are things in life that we need to get freedom from.

Notice the words “freedom to do something” and “freedom from something.”

They have different meanings.

In fact, these two sentences are in totally different dimensions.

When people say that they want the freedom to do anything, they often mean they want to have fun. They wish to get rid of things that are stopping them from getting the pleasures of the world.

But this pleasure-seeking mind is a monkey mind.

One must ask himself:

Why do I always want pleasure?

What’s more pleasurable than ‘pleasure’ itself?

So, when you get mature, you realize that freedom is the ultimate goal.

What you really want is peace. What you really want is freedom from both pain and pleasure.

When you seek pleasure, you feel empty. You want to fill that emptiness.

Realized people understand that this chase of pleasure doesn’t help in the long run.

You want freedom from your problems. You want freedom from the expectations of people.

You want freedom from the slavery of your mind that keeps disturbing your peace.

Freedom is paramount.

In short: While making any decision, ask yourself if that decision makes you free or restrains you.

Whatever gives you bondage can’t be the right choice — no matter how pleasurable it may seem to you.

---

The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant Quotes

These are some nuggets of wisdom by Naval Ravikant that you might enjoy:

“You don’t get rich by spending your time to save money. You get rich by saving time to make money.”

Naval Ravikant

“Whether in commerce, science, or politics — history remembers the artists.”

Naval Ravikant

“Courage isn’t charging into a machine gun nest. Courage is not caring what other people think.”

Naval Ravikant

---

The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant Review

I loved this book.

And a part of it was because both the author and I had the same interests.

For example, the author is inspired by J Krishnamurti.

And if you are an old subscriber, you already know how much I suggest Krishnamurti books and have summarized them.

You won’t get bored while reading this book.

The author has covered unique insights from getting wealthy to achieving freedom in life.

At the end of the book, the author has also recommended books. I think I will read some of them in the future.

Overall, this is a must-read book.

I’d give this book a rating of 8.4/10.

---

FAQs about The Almanack Of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson

---

Now it’s your turn

If you enjoyed reading this book summary, make sure you subscribe to my weekly newsletter, never to miss an update. And also detailed book summary guides for free.

Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts below.