What stuck with me from Naval's Almanack
I just finished rereading The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, and it’s one of those books that made me stop scrolling and think for a long time.
It’s about two things everyone chases: how to build wealth and how to find happiness. And the book is free. You can read it online at navalmanack.com.
These are the points that stuck with me the most.
Who Naval is
Naval Ravikant is an investor and founder from Silicon Valley, and a co-founder of AngelList. He invested early in Uber, Twitter and hundreds of other startups.
But what made him famous isn’t just the money. It’s the way he thinks about life, wealth and happiness. The book was curated from his tweets, podcasts and interviews over the years.
It’s split into two big parts:
- Part 1: Wealth, or how to build real wealth.
- Part 2: Happiness, or how to find happiness.
Sounds cliché. But the way Naval explains it is different from your usual self-help book.
On wealth
The point that hit me hardest was this one: “Find specific knowledge: something that can’t be taught in a classroom but can be built through curiosity and experience.”
This isn’t about going far in school or having a degree. It’s about a unique skill only you have, because you’re genuinely interested and you keep digging deeper.
Then there’s “Play long-term games with long-term people.” Wealth, relationships and reputation all compound. The longer you play the same game with the same people, the bigger the results.
If I keep changing jobs, circles and direction, nothing gets the chance to compound. This is what got me thinking about consistency.
Next: “Find leverage.” Naval says there are three kinds of leverage:
- Other people’s labor (needs permission, expensive)
- Capital or money (needs permission, hard to get)
- Products that can be duplicated at no extra cost: code, media, content (no one’s permission needed)
The third one is the most accessible right now. Make content, build software, make a digital product: you make it once, and it can reach thousands of people.
And finally, “Get paid for your judgment, not your time.” If you’re paid by the hour, there’s always a ceiling on what you earn. But if you’re paid for your decisions and your judgment, there’s no ceiling.
This ties in with what I wrote earlier about Matt Shumer: in the age of AI, human judgment is what’s worth the most.
On happiness
This one made me go quiet: “Happiness is learned. It’s not something you’re born with.”
Naval says happiness is a skill. It can be trained. It isn’t something you’re born with, and it isn’t the result of success.
One way to get there is to reduce desire, because every desire you haven’t fulfilled yet is a source of unhappiness. In his words: “Every desire is a chosen unhappiness.”
Then there’s “Envy is the enemy of happiness.” If you want to envy someone else’s life, you have to be willing to take all of their life, not just the nice parts.
Usually we only envy one thing, their money, their career, their house, without knowing the weight that comes with it. Since I started thinking about it this way, I compare myself to other people a lot less.
The quote I come back to most often is this one: “A calm mind, a fit body, a house full of love. These things cannot be bought. They must be earned.”
Peace of mind. A healthy body. A home full of love. You can’t buy them. You have to work for them.
Simple, but it hits hard.
A book to read slowly
I don’t think it’s a book you read once and you’re done. It’s a book to read slowly, one chapter a day. I still open it up again often.
If you’re at a point where you’re thinking about your career, money or what life is about, this book is really worth it.
It’s free, and you can read it online at navalmanack.com.