Seriously Calm

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant - By Eric Jorgenson

You're born, you have a set of sensory experiences, and then you die. How you choose to interpret those experiences is up to you, and different people interpret them in different ways — Naval Ravikant

Key Info

• The book by Naval Ravikant is in the format of "tweets” but it is so rich in content because apart from the short passages there are still narratives that supplement the thoughts underneath.
• Although the range of tweets is so wide, they are categorized into two parts: wealth and happiness. I think it is almost impossible to write a good summary of the content because Navel shares different layers of thoughts and all of them are worth reading without skipping a word.
• My approach to utilizing this book is to record my thoughts after reading and hope that my personal experience would provide another angle on interpreting Naval's ideas.

On Happiness

• I have complete control over my value and goal. I should pay attention not to be constrained by my ego and the clouded reality.
• Thoughts are running through my mind and brain. These thoughts, generated from my ego, my preconception, my habit, my feeling, and my desire for the way the world should be, are to be differentiated from the truth. The truth is the external thing I cannot control and is to be distinguished from the thoughts towards the truth. Those thoughts, even though may be useful in addressing external problems, are only a servant and a tool but not my master.
• These thoughts towards the truth, therefore shall be examined so they are distinguished from the truth and can be changed based on the truth.
• Fundamentally, I only live in this world for a stint of time in the universe (see Letter 4: On the Terrors of Death). During the short journey, I will be given a bunch of sensory experiences and my only control is how my thoughts towards these experiences. I love the simple but overwhelming quotes from Naval:

  You're born, you have a set of sensory experiences, and then you die. How you choose to interpret those experiences is up to you, and different people interpret them in different ways

• The generation of these thoughts, if I do not train myself to control it, will be influenced by my genetics, my survival instincts evolved as a human (Seneca also talked about the survival instinct of humans and why it's difficult to face death in On the Shortness of Life), my habits developed over the years, my ego, my pre-formed view towards the world, etc.
• The distortion of the thoughts will make me feel pain and irritation since
• I may be crossing the line to try to control uncontrollable things. The external things are uncontrollable because those things follow unbroken mathematical laws and a chain of cause and effect and they are perfect exactly the way it is. The world is largely fixed and It is my responsibility to choose to interpret it positively (and to control my perceptions).
• I have generated too many desires which will twist my tranquillity since I have to use my mind to fulfil them, compete with others, care what others are thinking, be jealous, etc.
• Being jealous has two downsides. The first one is it is a desire that will never be fulfilled since there will always be people that are comparatively better in whatever sense. The second is that people will feel your jealousy and avoid working with you.
• I have forgotten the pertinent fact that it is up to me to understand the truth of things, other than my thoughts, be they true or untrue, and be present instead of living in the train of thoughts. It is also up to me to find a positive interpretation of things thrown at me.
• I have not understood the nature of my existence, which is brief and will not be remembered due to the essence of life (it is so short) and the longevity and ultimate end of the universe. Embrace death and accept the truth that no legacy will be out there. I don't concern about things before my birth and I shall not concern about things after my death either.
• To be happy, or peaceful, is a state of the mind only determined by the internal state other than the external state. Happiness is the absence of desire (and hence the absence of the feeling of needing/missing something). The smaller the gap between my desire and my current state, the happier I am. The gradient of the gap will drive my mind moving and hence no tranquillity can be obtained, so limit desires.
• Happiness is a choice. Take a positive mindset and take up the responsibility to look at things happily.
• It is a skill that can be trained and has to be trained to get familiar with to the extent that it becomes my second nature. I should be honest with myself that it is not a one-day effort and I have to, through meditation, reading, and training get myself into the state that brings me tranquillity of mind.
• It is the suffering endured that will become the footprint of my life.

On Wealth

• Wealth and rich are different. Being rich means you have a high income and being wealthy means you have a lot of assets that can generate income. We can use three leverages, namely manpower leverage, capital leverage, and technology (books, media, movies, and code) leverage. For the first two leverages, I have to build credibility people are willing to lend me those leverages. The final one is something that society crates for but does not exist yet.
• It's important to be myself authentically since no one can beat me by being me. With the increasing competition among talents of the global pool due to the increased connectivity, only by being myself can I have the edges for the specific part of the world that needs me. To add to the importance of authenticity, if something can be copied or trained, it will be copied and trained someday and all the edges will be lost. But be cautious, what I think I am is different from what I truly am. The first one brings tension and the second one brings relaxation since that is the truth and the presence.
• The world is fat-tail and it is the tail that is extremely rare that has the most impact. To find such a tail I have to put efforts into action and understand that by wasting 99% of effort, the 1% effort, not easy to be known of, will be the critical force. These trials, however, always ensure survival to allow for the continuous compounding of knowledge.

Other

• Wisdom: My definition of wisdom is knowing the long-term consequences of your actions. Wisdom applied to external problems is judgment. They're highly linked; knowing the long-term consequences of your actions and then making the right decision to capitalize on that.
• Criticize generally and praise specifically
• If you cannot decide, the answer is no.
• With two relatively equal choices, take the path more difficult and more painful in the short term". Shorter pain will bring a long period of compounding for the greater future good.
• Be impatient with the action but be patient with the result
• Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want. A desire creates a gap between my mind and the truth, moving the motion and creating disruption to the tranquillity.
• If you hurt other people because they have expectations of you, that's their problem. If you are happy, it makes other people happy. But you are not responsible for making other people happy.