Part I Part I: Wealth (Location 193)
Getting rich is about knowing what to do, who to do it with, and when to do it. It is much more about understanding than purely hard work. (Location 202)
You’re not going to get rich renting out your time. You must own equity—a piece of a business—to gain your financial freedom. (Location 218)
Specific knowledge is knowledge you cannot be trained for. If society can train you, it can train someone else and replace you. (Location 232)
Study microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, mathematics, and computers. (Location 260)
Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true. (Location 268)
So, technology is the set of things, as Alan Kay said, that don’t quite work yet [correction: Danny Hillis]. Once something works, it’s no longer technology. Society always wants new things. And if you want to be wealthy, you want to figure out which one of those things you can provide (Location 295)
It’s much more important today to be able to become an expert in a brand-new field in nine to twelve months than to have studied the “right” thing a long time ago. (Location 362)
People seem to think you can create wealth—make money through work. It’s probably not going to work. There are many reasons for that. Without ownership, your inputs are very closely tied to your outputs. (Location 438)
Everybody who really makes money at some point owns a piece of a product, a business, or some IP. That can be through stock options if you work at a tech company. That’s a fine way to start. (Location 452)
If someone can train other people how to do something, then they can replace you. If they can replace you, then they don’t have to pay you a lot. (Location 472)
You want to know how to do something other people don’t know how to do at the time period when those skills are in demand. [1] (Location 473)
There are three broad classes of leverage: (Location 483)
One form of leverage is labor—other humans working for you. (Location 484)
Money is good as a form of leverage. It means every time you make a decision, you multiply it with money. [1] Capital is a trickier form of leverage to use. (Location 487)
The final form of leverage is brand new—the most democratic form. It is: “products with no marginal cost of replication.” This includes books, media, movies, and code. Code is probably the most powerful form of permissionless leverage. All you need is a computer—you don’t need anyone’s permission. [1] (Location 494)
You’re never going to get rich renting out your time. (Location 514)
You start as a salaried employee. But you want to work your way up to try and get higher leverage, more accountability, and specific knowledge. The combination of those over a long period of time with the magic of compound interest will make you wealthy. [74] (Location 590)
Value your time at an hourly rate, and ruthlessly spend to save time at that rate. You will never be worth more than you think you’re worth. (Location 625)
The problem is, to win at a status game, you have to put somebody else down. That’s why you should avoid status games in your life—they make you into an angry, combative person. You’re always fighting to put other people down, to put yourself and the people you like up. (Location 669)
What is underrated? Judgment. Judgment is underrated. [1] Can you define judgment? My definition of wisdom is knowing the long-term consequences of your actions. Wisdom applied to external problems is judgment. (Location 874)
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. [7] (Location 922)
I don’t think you can be successful in business or even navigate most of our modern capitalist society without an extremely good understanding of supply-and-demand, labor-versus-capital, game theory, and those kinds of things. [4] (Location 1005)
It’s worth reading a microeconomics textbook from start to finish. (Location 1021)
But you want arithmetic, probability, and statistics. Those are extremely important. Crack open a basic math book, and make sure you are really good at multiplying, dividing, compounding, probability, and statistics. (Location 1029)
If you can’t decide, the answer is no. If I’m faced with a difficult choice, such as: Should I marry this person? Should I take this job? (Location 1042)
Study logic and math, because once you’ve mastered them, you won’t fear any book. No book in the library should scare you. (Location 1125)
Microeconomics 101. (Location 1144)
If you’re interested in evolution, read Charles Darwin. (Location 1144)
If you start with the originals as your foundations, then you have enough of a worldview and understanding that you won’t fear any book. (Location 1149)
Part II Part II: Happiness (Location 1182)
Don’t take yourself so seriously. You’re just a monkey with a plan. (Location 1186)
If you’re not willing to do a wholesale, 24/7, 100 percent swap with who that person is, then there is no point in being jealous. (Location 1380)
The most important trick to being happy is to realize happiness is a skill you develop and a choice you make. You choose to be happy, and then you work at it. It’s just like building muscles. (Location 1428)
You’re going to die one day, and none of this is going to matter. So enjoy yourself. Do something positive. Project some love. Make someone happy. Laugh a little bit. Appreciate the moment. And do your work. [8] (Location 1508)
The problem is the sugar effect dominates the fat effect. If you eat a fatty meal and you throw some sugar in, the sugar is going to deliver hunger and fat is going to deliver the calories and you’re just going to binge. That’s why all desserts are large combinations of fat and carbs together. (Location 1559)
World’s simplest diet: The more processed the food, the less one should consume. (Location 1575)
Our bodies have lost touch with the cold. The cold is important because it can activate the immune system. (Location 1620)
People chasing thrills in action sports or flow states or orgasms—any of these states people strive for are people trying to get out of their own heads. They’re trying to get away from the voice in their heads—the overdeveloped sense of self. (Location 1685)
What kind of silly God judges you for eternity based on some small period of time here? I think after this life, it’s very much like before you were born. Remember that? It’s going to be just like that. (Location 1915)
What are your core values? (Location 1930)
Anyone around whom I can’t be fully honest, I don’t want to be around. (Location 1934)
Another one is I only believe in peer relationships. I don’t believe in hierarchical relationships. I don’t want to be above anybody, and I don’t want to be below anybody. If I can’t treat someone like a peer and if they can’t treat me like peer, I just don’t want to interact with them. (Location 1940)
As investor Charlie Munger says, “To find a worthy mate, be worthy of a worthy mate.” [4] (Location 1952)
Naval’s Recommended Reading (Location 1999)
- Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher by Richard Feynman (Location 2027)
- Thinking Physics: Understandable Practical Reality by Lewis Carroll Epstein (Location 2040)
- The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant (Location 2046)
- Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger by Charlie Munger (Location 2052)
- The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran (Location 2111)
- The Day You Became a Better Writer” by Scott Adams (Location 2170)