Thread by @6lato

I'm listening to @naval's Joe Rogan podcast and will be sharing key insights from the podcast under in this thread.

1. Every human is capable of excelling in multitude of areas, but most of us are summarized/labelled by limited tags.

You have one life, do everything you can.

"Specialization is for the insects"

#naval #joerogan

2. People stick to one thing because its difficult to start over, especially as one gets older.

To start over, one should willing to be a fool and have a beginner's mindset, because starting over might be the best option one may have at some point in life

#naval #joerogan

3. Number of books read is a vanity metric.

Don't read books for completion, read for finding ideas, or to fulfill intellectual curiosity

It's better to re read 100 best books to fully absorb their ideas than reading many books for completion

#naval #joerogan

...Today, we get too much information very quickly which reduces our attention span

This can be a positive because you take one idea and flip through multiple books/threads/apps to dig deep into that idea very quickly

There is no need to "finish" books.

#naval #joerogan

4. On social media and fame:

- SM make people look at themselves how other people look at them

- It creates an weighty self-image made out of other's compliments which makes one an easy target for insults

#naval #joerogan

https://twitter.com/naval/status/1041513555961438208?s=20

5. Most people want 3 things: To be rich, happy, and fit. All three of these can be taught and learned

6. You don't want to be a successful person who is constantly stressed. You want to be the coolest person in a crisis who also comes up with the right answers

#naval #joerogan

7. Just like fitness, nutrition, working hard and making money, happiness can also be a choice

"If you're so smart, why you can't be happy"

- Pursue an overwhelming desire and leave the insignificant ones so you're mind can stay calm

8. In today's age of infinite leverage, a calm, peaceful mind can make better judgements and get better results.

"If you want to operate at peak performance, you need to learn how to tame your mind"

#naval #joerogan

9. Outputs in today's knowledge economy are non-linear: The quality of your work is way more important than how hard you work

#naval #joerogan

10. You're not going to get rich by renting out your time, no matter how much you earn: Your lifestyle will soon catch up to your salary

First thing you have to do to get rich is to own a piece of business

#naval #joerogan

WOW! this only had 10 likes when I slept last night. I better finish the podcast now while I have some traffic

11. "If somebody can tell you when to be at work, what to wear, and how to behave, you're not a free/rich person"

12. The info age will reverse the industrial age. In some time, everyone will be working for themselves, like in the hunter-gatherer era

#naval #joerogan

13. In the future, high-quality work will be available in gig fashion, allowing everyone to work for themselves. Smart people are already doing it

-Parts of large businesses are converted into separate companies, and company-size is getting smaller with time

#naval #joerogan

14. #Automation is happening since the dawn of time

-There is no finite no. of jobs: societies always create new and bettter jobs

-The important question is what of kind jobs will automation eliminate/create and how fast can we retrain people

#naval #joerogan

15. Universal Basic Income bankrupts a country

-UBI doesn't solve the meaning problem: handing out money degrades a person: "Teach a man to fish"

-Instead, provide universal basic services: food, housing, transport etc

#naval #joerogan

16. Generalized #AI is not coming in our lifetime

-There is no such thing as a general intelligence: every intelligence works within the confines of its environment

-We won't be simulating the human brain anytime soon. We don't even know how it fully works

#naval #joerogan

17. #Capitalism is bad when it doesn't provide equal opportunity

-But equal opportunity ≠ equal outcome
-Free people make different choices and have different outcomes
-Equal outcome (not rewarding good choices or punishing bad ones) can only be done through violence

#naval

18. "#Socialism comes from the heart, #Capitalism from the head."

-In small groups, where there is love/trust, be a socialist
-In large groups where there are incentives and accompaning mistrust, be a capitalist

#naval

19. This one's from Joe Rogan:

The problem is racism and the people who are racist, not the whole group to which the racists belong

But social media virtue signalling mob makes the whole group accountable for the actions of few

#naval #joerogan

20. Today, every human can broadcast anything to other humans, which is great, but currently, this power is used to assemble angry online mobs

-People who get outraged easily are the stupidest people on social media, the concept of outrage needs to be dropped by society

#naval

21. The modern struggle: An individual is free, independent, self-sufficient, alone but is bombarded with addictions

-Social media
-Sugar
-drugs
-porn

Everything is made addictive by professionals. The modern struggle is to resist these addictions by drawing boundaries

#naval

I'll update this later since I'm also renting out my time to someone else and not getting rich anytime soon

22. With the arrival of the internet, news has become commoditized

- The entire media has shifted to peddling opinions and entertainment, losing their objectivity in the process

-Media houses today are propaganda machines cheering for their tribes, left or right

#naval

23. The most powerful people in the world today are the ones writing the algorithms for Twitter and Facebook because they control the flow of information

#naval

24. The social media companies are committing slow-motion suicides by taking sides and pulling down content

They are fast losing their image as a neutral carrier/publisher and might be increasingly pressurized by the govt

#naval

25. When speech is suppressed, it either results in violence or gets re-channelled

The future of social media seems to be a decentralized platform, not owned by a single entity, which cannot be easily suppressed

#naval

26. Technology is a force that empowers the individual and pushes the left-wing.

-The same is the case with social media which is dominated by the left.

#naval

27. The test for a good system is that you can hand it over to your enemies to run for 10 years

#naval

28. There is no room for nuance in current politics.

-Everyone has to take sides because 51% rules the remaining 49%
-If your beliefs completely align with one party or the other, you are not a clear thinker

#naval

29. All diseases of modern life are diseases of abundance.

-The way to survive in modern society is to retreat from society
-There's too much society everywhere; the key is to retreat and turn it off at will

#naval

30. "All of man's problem arises because he cannot sit in a room for 30 mins alone"

Being alone and enjoying solitude is a superpower, which anybody can attain

#naval

31. "Meditation is the art of doing nothing"

-Meditation is listening to yourself, addressing all the issues you've been delaying over the years

-Instead of paying a therapist to listen to you, you listen to yourself

#naval

https://twitter.com/naval/status/1261481222359801856?s=20

32. "Peace is happiness at rest, happiness is peace in motion"

-Once you're at peace, anything you do is a happy activity: Strive for peace because it easily converts to happiness

#naval

33. It's easier to achieve peace by solving internal problems rather than attempting to solve external problems which are infinite in number

-It's far easier to change yourself than to change the world
-The best way to change the world is to change yourself

#naval

34. Climate activists identify the correct problems but give the wrong solutions

-The way forward is not to decelerate economy but to innovate through cheap, clean technology

-People are not going to give up economic growth

#naval

35. Articulation: Articulating thoughts help fix the gaps in thinking and make them more coherent

36. First Principles: Understanding the basics of any subject is far more important than memorizing advanced concepts

#naval

37. What is the meaning of life?

Ans: "Because"

Asking this question will always end up in three ways: (Agrippa's trilemma)
1. Infinite regress
2. circular logic
3. axiom - god, science, etc

So, everyone gets to have their own answer, else we'll all be the same

#naval

38. Being rich may not make you happy, but being poor can make you unhappy

As people get older/smarter, they realize their possessions are not the source of happiness

The fundamental delusion: There's something out there that will make us happy and fulfilled forever

#naval