A THREAD on most insightful mental models from the book "The Almanack of @naval" by @EricJorgenson:
1/
Wealth creation is an evolutionarily recent positive-sum game.
Status is an old zero-sum game. We’ve been playing it since monkey tribes. It’s hierarchical.
1/
Wealth creation is an evolutionarily recent positive-sum game.
Status is an old zero-sum game. We’ve been playing it since monkey tribes. It’s hierarchical.
2/
If you want to make the maximum amount of money possible, if you want to get rich over your life in a deterministically predictable way, stay on the bleeding edge of trends and study technology, design, and art—become really good at something.
If you want to make the maximum amount of money possible, if you want to get rich over your life in a deterministically predictable way, stay on the bleeding edge of trends and study technology, design, and art—become really good at something.
3/
The most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner. You have to know how to learn anything you want to learn.
Things change fast now. Now, you have to come up to speed on a new profession within nine months, and it’s obsolete four years later.
The most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner. You have to know how to learn anything you want to learn.
Things change fast now. Now, you have to come up to speed on a new profession within nine months, and it’s obsolete four years later.
4/
If you’re a perpetual learning machine, you will never be out of options for how to make money.
You can always see what’s coming up in society, what the value is, where the demand is, and you can learn to come up to speed.
If you’re a perpetual learning machine, you will never be out of options for how to make money.
You can always see what’s coming up in society, what the value is, where the demand is, and you can learn to come up to speed.
5/
Without science, we’d still be scrambling in the dirt fighting with sticks and trying to start fires.
Society, business, & money are downstream of technology, which is itself downstream of science.
Science applied is the engine of humanity.
Without science, we’d still be scrambling in the dirt fighting with sticks and trying to start fires.
Society, business, & money are downstream of technology, which is itself downstream of science.
Science applied is the engine of humanity.
6/
The Industrial Revolution and factories made us extremely hierarchical because one individual couldn’t necessarily own or build a factory, but now, thanks to the internet, we’re going back to an age where more and more people can work for themselves.
The Industrial Revolution and factories made us extremely hierarchical because one individual couldn’t necessarily own or build a factory, but now, thanks to the internet, we’re going back to an age where more and more people can work for themselves.
7/
If you can be more right and more rational, you’re going to get nonlinear returns in your life.
With modern technology and large workforces and capital, our decisions are leveraged more and more.
If you can be more right and more rational, you’re going to get nonlinear returns in your life.
With modern technology and large workforces and capital, our decisions are leveraged more and more.
8/
Without ownership, your inputs are very closely tied to your outputs.
Without ownership, when you’re sleeping, you’re not earning. When you’re retired, you’re not earning. When you’re on vacation, you’re not earning.
And you can’t earn nonlinearly.
Without ownership, your inputs are very closely tied to your outputs.
Without ownership, when you’re sleeping, you’re not earning. When you’re retired, you’re not earning. When you’re on vacation, you’re not earning.
And you can’t earn nonlinearly.
9/
You make money to solve your money and material problems.
To the extent money buys freedom, it’s great.
But to the extent it makes me less free, which it definitely does at some level as well, I don’t like it.
You make money to solve your money and material problems.
To the extent money buys freedom, it’s great.
But to the extent it makes me less free, which it definitely does at some level as well, I don’t like it.
10/
I value freedom above everything else.
All kinds of freedom: freedom to do what I want, freedom from things I don’t want to do, freedom from my own emotions or things that may disturb my peace.
For me, freedom is my number one value.
I value freedom above everything else.
All kinds of freedom: freedom to do what I want, freedom from things I don’t want to do, freedom from my own emotions or things that may disturb my peace.
For me, freedom is my number one value.
11/
It’s only after you’re bored you have the great ideas.
It’s never going to be when you’re stressed, or busy, running around or rushed.
Make the time.
It’s only after you’re bored you have the great ideas.
It’s never going to be when you’re stressed, or busy, running around or rushed.
Make the time.
12/
I don’t care about things that don’t really matter.
I don’t get involved in politics.
I don’t hang around unhappy people.
I really value my time on this earth.
I read philosophy.
I meditate.
I hang around with happy people.
And it works.
I don’t care about things that don’t really matter.
I don’t get involved in politics.
I don’t hang around unhappy people.
I really value my time on this earth.
I read philosophy.
I meditate.
I hang around with happy people.
And it works.
13/
Peace and happiness are skills. These are not things you are born with.
Yes, there is a genetic range. And a lot of it is conditioning from your environment, but you can un-condition and recondition yourself.
Peace and happiness are skills. These are not things you are born with.
Yes, there is a genetic range. And a lot of it is conditioning from your environment, but you can un-condition and recondition yourself.
14/
The advantage of meditation is recognizing just how out of control your mind is.
You have to see this mad creature in operation before you feel a certain distaste toward it and start separating yourself from it.
The advantage of meditation is recognizing just how out of control your mind is.
You have to see this mad creature in operation before you feel a certain distaste toward it and start separating yourself from it.
15/
We live too much in this internal monologue in our heads.
All of which is just programmed into you by society and by the environment when you were younger.
Spirituality, religion, Buddhism, or anything you follow will teach you over time you are more than just your mind.
We live too much in this internal monologue in our heads.
All of which is just programmed into you by society and by the environment when you were younger.
Spirituality, religion, Buddhism, or anything you follow will teach you over time you are more than just your mind.
16/
Reality is neutral. Reality has no judgments.
It is only in our particular minds we are unhappy or not happy, and things are perfect or imperfect because of what we desire.
Reality is neutral. Reality has no judgments.
It is only in our particular minds we are unhappy or not happy, and things are perfect or imperfect because of what we desire.
17/
Real happiness only comes as a side-effect of peace.
Most of it is going to come from acceptance, not from changing your external environment.
Real happiness only comes as a side-effect of peace.
Most of it is going to come from acceptance, not from changing your external environment.
18/
I do not want my sense of self to continue to develop and strengthen as I get older.
I want it to be weaker and more muted so I can be more in present everyday reality, accept nature and the world for what it is, and appreciate it very much as a child would.
I do not want my sense of self to continue to develop and strengthen as I get older.
I want it to be weaker and more muted so I can be more in present everyday reality, accept nature and the world for what it is, and appreciate it very much as a child would.
19/
I started realizing it’s all about habits.
At any given time, I’m either trying to pick up a good habit or discard a previous bad habit.
It takes time.
I started realizing it’s all about habits.
At any given time, I’m either trying to pick up a good habit or discard a previous bad habit.
It takes time.
20/
Many distinctions between people who get happier as they get older and people who don’t can be explained by what habits they have developed.
Are they habits that will increase your long-term happiness rather than your short-term happiness?
Many distinctions between people who get happier as they get older and people who don’t can be explained by what habits they have developed.
Are they habits that will increase your long-term happiness rather than your short-term happiness?
21/
The genuine love for reading itself, when cultivated, is a superpower.
We live in the age of Alexandria, when every book and every piece of knowledge ever written down is a fingertip away.
The means of learning are abundant—it’s the desire to learn that is scarce.
The genuine love for reading itself, when cultivated, is a superpower.
We live in the age of Alexandria, when every book and every piece of knowledge ever written down is a fingertip away.
The means of learning are abundant—it’s the desire to learn that is scarce.
22/
I think almost everything that people read these days is designed for social approval.
You’re fitting in to get along with the herd. That’s not where the returns are in life.
The returns in life are being out of the herd.
I think almost everything that people read these days is designed for social approval.
You’re fitting in to get along with the herd. That’s not where the returns are in life.
The returns in life are being out of the herd.
23/
The hardest thing is not doing what you want—it’s knowing what you want.
You have to find your own path, picking, choosing, and discarding as you see fit.
Figure it out yourself, and do it.
The hardest thing is not doing what you want—it’s knowing what you want.
You have to find your own path, picking, choosing, and discarding as you see fit.
Figure it out yourself, and do it.
24/
There is no endpoint to self-awareness and self-discovery.
It’s a lifelong process you hopefully keep getting better and better at.
There is no endpoint to self-awareness and self-discovery.
It’s a lifelong process you hopefully keep getting better and better at.
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