Podcast review- the Knowledge Project with Naval Ravikant

I recently listened to an episode of ‘the Knowledge Project’- a podcast where successful people are interviewed and talk about their lives and ideas. This episode was with entrepreneur and investor Naval Ravikant- who talks about reading, education, deep thinking, life advice and how he has achieved success. It was brought my attention by Ali Abdaal- a tech and productivity YouTuber, who recommended it in his weekly newsletter. Here, I distill the key concepts and lessons I took from the podcast, although I highly recommend listening to the whole thing. Links to Naval, Ali and the podcast can be found at the bottom of the page.

Naval Ravikant is an Indian-American entrepreneur and investor. He is the co-founder, chairman and ex-CEO of AngelList- a company which links startups to jobseekers. He has invested in over 200 companies including Uber, FourSquare and Twitter and also has his own podcast- where he shares advice on pursuing wealth and happiness.

Books and reading

• At an early age, I was not told what to read by adults or teachers and I found my own genres and love of reading naturally. This allowed me to enjoy reading more as there was no social pressure on what to read during my childhood.
• Now, I see buying books as an investment rather than a material purchase due to the potential added value that books can provide. I also buy multiple copies of the best books to give away or lend to others.
• Books are like index funds- if you read a large spectrum of material you are bound to receive some value as you have diversified your reading intake.
• Read books you are apprehensive about or disagree with to broaden your horizons- nowadays most people read for social approval (reading common and popular books), whereas real value often comes from reading outside of social norms and seeing other perspectives.

Thinking

• Look at your day-to-day life and ask yourself are you productive, happy and doing what you want to do? If yes you should be content, if no you should try and change what you are doing.
• Run your brain in ‘debugging mode’- try and stop negative thoughts and uncontrolled thinking.
• Rest your brain and allow yourself to get lost in things you find interesting.
• Nature has no sense of good/bad- this is a human construct and our reactions to things can therefore be controlled.
• Happiness is the absence of desire- I follow ‘Rational Buddhism’ which is the core aspects of Buddhism plus proven theories of science and evolution.
• Acknowledge you are a loser- do not try and fit in with the crowd and look outside of social norms.

Life advice

• You should spend your time around people with whom you can be fully honest and who think long-term.
• Do not accept hierarchal relationships- need to be on the same level with people to have meaningful connections.
• Stop being angry and do not lie to anyone.
• Find people whose values match yours- this will set a strong core for future relationships.
• The meaning of freedom changes with age- when young you want freedom to do things, when old you want freedom from desire.
• Do everything with less emotion and anger.

Ideas and theory

• People focus on the ‘multiplayer game’ (workouts, money, cars) where you can compare yourself to others, but life is actually about the ‘single player game’ (working on yourself, being content) as this is much more valuable in the long term.
• There is no point being jealous of certain aspects of others unless you would do a straight swap- your life for theirs.
• The ‘single player game’ and internal work is done alone.
• Macroeconomics is of no consequence, whereas microeconomics and game theory are crucial.
• Learn about supply and demand, labour capital and tit for tat.
• I have no straight political identity (set response to all issues) as I have a range of societal beliefs.
• Science is the study of truth, maths is the language of truth.

Education

• The current education system is obsolete.
• Schools originated when books and knowledge was rare- now everything can be found on the internet.
• Students having a desire to learn is scarce.
• Schools should ensure pupils learn the basics of all subjects first, then focus on other skills such as nutrition, fitness, relationships, meditation, practical skills and happiness.
• Schools should allow children to create something new- creativity is currently being neglected.
• Kids are learning machines- watch the TED talk below to see how children can learn anything with the correct resources.

Success

• Unhappiness often comes from looking in the past.
• Decision making is crucial- look at the mental models of successful people like Benjamin Franklin, Charlie Munger and Nassim Taleb.
• At an early age, I learnt cryptography and complexity theory (the limits of human knowledge).
• We are inherently ignorant and bad at predicting- you need to rig the game in your favour to be successful.
• Use your judgement to find environments and roles you succeed in and then design systems to maximise your success in those fields.
• When looking at investing- look at 10k companies and see who in consistently successful, who has a solid business model, who has growth potential?
• In entrepreneurship, ask yourself if you can do something interesting and new that is moral?
• No one can beat you at being you
• Listen and absorb others’ advice but do not try to emulate them.
• Everyone is skilled at something- you just need to find what it is.
• When looking at who to trust, see how they treat other people.
• Distance yourself from dishonest people- have a policy of ‘the closer you want to get to me, the better your morals need to be’.
• Short term sacrifices lead to long term benefits.
• The smartest people can explain things to a child- ‘smart thinkers are clear thinkers’.
• Real understanding is logical and connected.
• Forget your sense of self and emotions when decision making.
• Suffering is often a moment of truth, meaningful change happens afterwards.
• ‘You are not building a house, you are laying the foundations for a skyscraper’
• Don’t commit to things you aren’t sure about.
• Great people end up with great outcomes.

https://fs.blog/knowledge-project/

https://nav.al– Naval’s website

https://aliabdaal.com– Ali’s website