Yesterday, Naval Ravikant started an AMA thread on Twitter. He answered tons of questions brilliantly ranging from life advice to business and even some about crypto. All of them, invaluable advice.
I went through the entire thread and selected the top 50. I don’t you will find this much knowledge combined. Enjoy:
1. Was there a tipping point where you felt that the learnings you have accumulated from your experiences and mistakes could be valuable to others?
I was always ready to share, but before external success, nobody cared to listen.
2. Do you have a philosophy, or criteria for friendship vs. acquaintance?
If you can’t see yourself working with someone for life, don’t work with them for a day.
3. How to create long-lasting relationships?
Just be you and wait for the people who want that.
4. How are the holidays in the Ravikant household?
Looking forward to holidays takes the joy out of everyday
5. Is it too late to go back to school?
Never, but first, try learning on the internet.
6. If you were just starting out in your 20s today, what would you do differently?
More patience, more presence, less anxiety.
7. How to become a high-impact person?
Stop caring about the impact and just be the best version of you possible – then you’ll naturally have an impact.
8. How do you differentiate between ego and self-respect?
Ego is false confidence, self-respect is true confidence.
9. Why we as humans choose to be rich instead of happiness?
We are biological machines programmed to survive and replicate. Happy is the anti-evolution.
10. How do you wish you spent your time ten years ago and how do you think you’ll wish you’d have spent now looking back ten years from now?
Time is the ultimate currency and I should have been more tight-fisted with it.
11. If you could go back in time and tell your younger self one thing, what would it be and why?
Relax. You’ll live longer and perform better.
12. Is it worth the struggle?
It’s not a struggle.
13. Are there rules for long-term thinking and planning? Do we have a lot of time or little? I’m 23, tons of pressure to do everything correctly, and right away, it is difficult to choose one project. Any tips for mental clarity?
Slow down, life is long.
14. Which is the last book you read that you recommend?
Skin in the game.
15. How did you hone your discernment for when to be patient vs. when to be impatient?
Impatience with actions, patience with results.
16. How do you stay focused?
I don’t. I follow my interest.
17. Thoughts on the price of Ethereum, and crypto in general, over the next year?
Nobody knows.
18. Do you follow your head or heart?
The heart decides the head rationalizes.
19. What’s your best parenting advice?
Love them unconditionally, try not to say “no”, and always reward their innate curiosity.
20. Favorite movie?
The Matrix, Fight Club, Blade Runner, Children of Men, Memento, Life of Brian and Whiplash.
21. The biggest realization about life so far?
Single-player internal game.
22. Any good sleep hacks?
Meditate in bed. Either you will fall asleep or have a deep meditation. Victory either way.
23. Bitcoin price estimate (guess) 5 years from now?
$100k or (nearly) bust.
24. What’s the worst way in which you wasted a lot of your time?
Meetings, conferences, traveling for business, staying in relationships that I knew weren’t forever.
25. Do you have mentors? How should one choose a mentor (personal and professional?
No, learn bits and pieces from everyone. I mostly learned from books.
26. When is your intention when you read books/articles/blogs?
None, intentions get in the way of observation. But I enjoy and tend to stick to concise, clear, and simply written things that teach me something new.
27. What’s your view on relationships?
If you can’t see yourself working with someone for life, don’t work with them for a day.
28. What’s your favorite quote?
“Desire is suffering”
29. How many hours a week do you work?
My definition of work is “the set of things that you have to do that you don’t want to do”. So maybe 5-10 hours a week.
30. What do you believe to be true that a few people agree with you on?
Nothing matters and that’s a good thing as it sets you free
Bonus: Moral behavior is rational.
31. I’m in my early 20s, how should I prioritize investing my savings in the following domain: becoming healthy, buying books to read or become wealthy (invest)
All three are possible without much money.
32. What is your definition of meditation?
That which arrives when you are awake and doing absolutely nothing.
33. What do you drink instead of coffee?
Mint tea, rooibos tea.
34. What’s your favorite financial education book?
Poor Charlie’s Almanack.
35. Business school worth it?
No.
36. Startup ecosystem for growth and investment in the next 10 years, Seattle or LA?
The internet.
37. When did you shift and how towards a more present, calm, mindset?
This is your opportunity for internal exploration and growth.
“Every man has two lives, and the second beings when he realizes he has only one”
38. If you were in your 20s today with the ability to save a couple $10,000 a year, how would you invest it?
Bitcoin and tech startups but do your own homework.
39. The single best piece of business advice you wish you had prior to it all?
Keep an incredibly high bar for who you work with.
40. What’s the best book you’ve read this year?
I can’t choose one. But Skin in the Game for practical and Anthony de Mello’s “Awareness” for philosophical.
41. What have you learned in the last 6 months that you couldn’t have learned without your direct experience in the decade prior?
The clichés like “follow your dreams” and “live in the moment” are actually correct.
42. What kind of life could you live such that, at the end of it, you’d feel satisfied?
A life where you were satisfied at that moment and not thinking about how you’ll feel about it in the future.
43. What company would you love to work for?
I can’t work for others.
44. What are 3 things you personally do to lift team morale?
Complete honesty.
45. What do you want to be remembered for?
Don’t care. I’ll be dead.
46. When do you feel is the prime of a man?
The 30s physically, but mentally / emotionally it can keep getting better all the way to the end.
47. Can you actually become smarter? How?
Read what you love until you love to read.
48. What’s a more worthy pursuit than wealth?
Inner peace.
49. How important is sleep to you? How many hours do you sleep?
Important enough that I don’t use alarms.
50. Do you have a morning routine? How does it look like?
1 hour meditation+ 1 hour workout/yoga.
