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What I Think About Naval Ravikant’s Insights After 8 Months of buildbetter
I read the Almanack of Naval Ravikant - a Guide to Wealth and Happiness—here’s what I took away from it.
Devin Keane
January 31, 2024
Read time: 5 minutes
Hi Proactive Professional,
I finally got around to reading through The Almanack of Naval Ravikant - A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Eric Jorgenson.
If you are unfamiliar with Naval, he is many things. To name a few, he's an entrepreneur, operator, angel investor, long-term and holistic thinker, and philosopher. He is known to think from first principles, question everything around him, and never take himself too seriously.
I've been a fan of Naval since I learned about him in 2022 and have found his insights helpful in times of uncertainty. The principles he discusses beg introspection on tons of topics. Today, we are looking at some of his insights related to relationships—both professional and personal.
Since beginning to focus on meaningful relationships, I've met so many new and interesting people. However, while building a business around this focus, there's never been a time that lacks uncertainty. So I made some time to flip through this book and was inspired by how Naval's principles can apply to many different topics in many different ways. Let me explain.
This is not your typical book. Instead, it is a collection of Naval's transcripts, Tweets, interviews, and talks. The author, Eric Jorgenson, describes it in the following way:
"By definition, everything in this book is taken out of context. Interpretations will change over time. Read and interpret generously. Understand the original intent may be different than your interpretation in a different time, medium, format, and context."
So, I collected some of the most valuable quotes on relationships and in this newsletter, I’ll give my interpretations. All of the interpretations are heavily linked to what my world has been like over the last 8 months: understanding the line between transactional and meaningful connections and most importantly, how we can cultivate the latter.
"Play long-term games with long-term people. All returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest."
Interpretation: There is no easy route to real relationships. They can't be made over days or months and if you think otherwise, you've likely surrounded yourself with transactional ones. Real relationships are nurtured over time, grow in trust, and compound in value.
"When working, surround yourself with people more successful than you. When playing, surround yourself with people happier than you."
Interpretation: You learn from the people you surround yourself with. But this does not mean social climb. There needs to be an underlying genuine connection. With that, you can grow into your most happy and successful self.
"The best relationships are peer relationships.
When given power over others, our ego justifies it by assuming we are smarter.
Better to have people work with us than for us.
Better motivated on the wrong thing than unmotivated on the right thing.
Debate rather than dictate."
Interpretation: Don't set standards where one person should expect to give more than the other. The only type of relationship that can grow from there is a transactional one. We are all peers to one another in some way. Let that respectfully shine through, even in hierarchy.
"The relationships most worth cultivating are those between peers with mutual respect. The rest are unstable over long timescales."
Interpretation: Don't force a relationship because you think it will be valuable. Those will often blow up in your face in the future. What's even worse, all that time could have been put towards building more genuine connections.
"If friends spoke to us like politicians and actors, reading aloud scripts written by others, we wouldn't take them seriously as individuals."
Interpretation: Be authentic. If there is no sign of "you" behind what you say, there's no base for a relationship to be built on. Show up as your most genuine self.
"If you can't see yourself working with someone for life, don't work with them for a day."
Interpretation: The relationships that matter are not the ones that we collect at every event, job, school or hobby. They are the ones where you have a deeper connection. Don't waste much of your time investing in others.
“Smart partners negotiate fair deals because they know that lopsided deals are fragile and that most value accumulates in long term trust relationships.
You can tell a lot about a potential partner by their opening offer.”
Interpretation: There are seasons to every relationship. There can be long periods of giving in one direction followed by long periods of the reverse. That's okay. What's not okay is starting with unfair expectations or deals—that’s an important indicator that the relationship will lack trust and be transactional. Avoid those at all costs.
Check out more of Naval's work:
Pick Partners With Intelligence, Energy and Integrity (Read time ~5 minutes) - Naval discusses his three-part checklist that you should not compromise on when picking people to work with.
Play Long-term Games With Long-term People (Read time ~6 minutes) - Naval discusses the benefits of compounding when playing long term games and how it applies to working with others.
The Almanac of Naval Ravikant (242 pages) - In case you didn't know, this is free. I'd highly recommend this to anyone as it can act as a source of personal exploration when you are uncertain about anything in your life.
I'm not telling anyone (or expecting anyone) to have the same interpretation of Naval’s work as I do. We all have different sets of relationships at various stages that fulfill different purposes.
But I will tell you to take 15 minutes to interpret Naval's quotes for yourself and think about whether the relationships you have will compound in a positive way over time. You could be investing time into the wrong people, and ignoring the right ones.
Time to make a change…
What I’m committing to this week for building relationships (time commitment ~10 hours):
⚽ Co-hosting Pitch on the Pitch: Soccer Networking for Tech, on Thursday at 7pm ET. Sign up here! (~2 hours)
🍝 Doing a pasta making class with my college friends to celebrate a birthday (~3 hours)
😂 Going to my future brother-in-law’s comedy show on Friday at 9pm ET. Buy a ticket here! (~2 hours)
☕ Meeting for coffee with three connections (~3 hours)
🤔 Reflecting on my week this Friday: What can I do to shift more time towards connections that matter most (~15 minutes)
What are you committing to this week? Reply to this email!
Helpful links:
Download the Almanac of Naval Ravikant
Best of luck building,
Devin