This blog is genuinely more of an appreciation and gratitude post for the gems of wisdom shared by Entrepreneur, Investor and Philosopher - Naval Ravikant on the JRE podcast hosted by Joe Rogan, which had a profound impact on me when I watched it over a year back. The impact was so strong, that I could help but revisit it and actually document it for the greater good of all those reading this and has not yet come across him; or even if knows about him, but has not watched this podcast.
A little over 2 hours long, but a sheer Master Class in topics ranging from becoming Healthy, Wealthy and Happy, from philosophy to social media, age old meditation and happiness techniques to modern day struggles, politics to academic theories and a lot more. I would really urge you to take out the time and watch this podcast on YouTube…until then, allow this Blog Post and the key takeaways to blow your mind, or at least open it, just that way it did mine!
Starting with the one statement which stunned me and made me think deep:
Every man has two lives and the second one starts when he realizes that he only has one – Confucius.
Once the depth of this statement sits well with you, you can get into the other pearls of wisdom listed hereunder:
When you combine things, you’re not supposed to combine – it gets interesting!
All humans are broad, multi-variant; but we get summarized in piffy ways. At a deep level, every human is capable of every experience and every thought.
Specialization is for insects – Do Not focus your life on just ONE thing – you’ve got one life, do everything that you can do.
Ability to start over – very critical – painful, but the right way!
We live in an age of TLDR (Too long, didn’t read) – don’t give me the lecture give me the book – don’t give me the book, give me the blog – don’t give me the blog give me the tweet – don’t give me the tweet, I already know!
Social Media is creating celebrities out of all of us and celebrities are the most miserable people in the world – self image built up by compliments.
You want to be Rich and Anonymous and NOT Poor and Famous.
Desire is the contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want – If you’re unhappy – try to look for underlying, unfulfilled desires.
We live in an age of infinite leverage. Our thoughts are broadcasted instantly to thousands of people through Social Media, Coding and more…
We make the mistake of viewing the world as linear. Outputs are non-linear based on the quality of the work that you put in – right way to work is like the Lion and not as a Cow.
You want to function like an athlete – you train hard, you sprint, you rest. Then you re-assess, get your feedback loop and then you again train and sprint! The idea that one is going to have a linear output by cranking up and working at the same time, each day, with the same number of hours – that’s for machines. Machines are meant to work 9-5, humans are not meant to work 9-5.
You are not going to get rich by renting out your time and working 9-5. You need to own equity, whether as an owner, investor, shareholder or a brand that accrues to you for getting your financial freedom.
Information Age will reverse the Industrial Age – Natural way Humans work – No set hierarchy.
If you have to go … if you can be told when to go to work, what to wear and how to behave – You’re NOT free/rich.
Socialism comes from the Heart; Capitalism comes from the Head.
If you want to see who rules over you – see who you are not allowed to criticize
Modern Struggle as an Individual is to resist these things:
Social Media – Clickbait
Food – Sugar
Pharma – Drugs
Entertainment – Video Games and Gambling
Best minds of our generation are working on getting you addicted to these things – you’re all alone with no one to help you avoid these things.
We are currently suffering from a disease of abundance – we are over-exposed to everything – to survive the modern society, we need to be an ascetic in a different sense.
All of man’s problems arise, because he cannot sit with himself alone for 30 minutes - Pascal
Meditation is essentially the Art of doing Nothing.
You don’t need fancy head gear or apps to meditate, just sit down in a comfortable position and do nothing – you think, you think…don’t put effort into it, don’t put effort against it – whatever happens, happens!
Writing down/talking thoughts out loud vs just thinking – involves logic, articulation and filters out nonsense – we are often very kind to ourselves and do not filter out stuff.
Peace is Happiness at rest. Happiness is Peace in motion. You can convert Peace to Happiness any time you want, but peace is what you want most of the time.
Griple’s Trilemma – ‘Why’ questions will always end up in one of these 3 places – Infinite Regressions, Circular Reasoning, Axioms (stopping points)
If there was a single answer to the meaning of life – we would not be free; we would all just be living towards that, like robots competing with each other.
Fundamental delusion – that there is something out there that will make me happy – Death is the great leveller.
There is no real happiness that comes from having material possessions, however, the lack of them can severely make you unhappy.
The “peace” that we seek is not Peace of Mind, but Peace from Mind!
Retirement, alternate definition – Retirement is when you stop sacrificing TODAY, for some imaginary TOMORROW. The only ways to get there:
Too much money – Passive Income
Zero Burn Rate - Monk
Do what you love.
To ‘retire’, find the thing that you do better than anybody else, you Love to do it, own equity in it and share risks and rewards – Be Authentic
There are 2 great addictions – Heroin and a monthly salary - Nassim Taleb.
You cannot get rich by renting out your time.
Your resume is nothing but a catalogue of all your sufferings – all around the hard things done, the sacrifices made.
Life is very much a single player game – all going on in your head - whatever you think, you believe, will very much shape your reality!
Victim mentality - Next time you fall sick, realize that a healthy person wants 10,000 things, while a sick person only wants One – it is your unlimited desires that are clouding your peace, your happiness.
Have desires but be careful of them; but be mindful that every desire is an access to suffering
If you interpret the positive in everything, you let it go much faster – negative thoughts linger on longer
Learn to smile more, learn to hug more, be in nature more often – these are not just serotonin releasing activities but feedback loops to your body to be happy
Determine how much you’re worth:
Pick an aspirational hourly rate – must be ludicrous – if something takes up more time or brings in less than that rate – don’t do it – throw/give it away
Meetings become ridiculously expensive – X people x Rs. Y/hour
Drop non-urgent meetings
Cut-down unnecessarily traveling
Enjoy personal time, but apply above when you’re working
Meetings should really just be phone calls; phone calls should really be just emails; emails should really just be texts!
Art is essentially Creativity – something done for its own sake. Just like loving somebody, creating something or even playing.
Inspiration is perishable – what looks like work to them, must feel like play to you – that is where you need to get at and then all you’re doing in simply – playing!