Wrote this letter listening to this.
Reading Notes
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson
A book that's worth reading in full. Online downloads are free on the project’s website. Or you can buy the physical copy here.
There were so many valuable parts to this book and I have written notes on both parts — Wealth and Happiness. Here're my notes on Happiness.
The opening shares the idea of specific knowledge.
Specific knowledge is knowledge you cannot be trained for. If society can train you, it can train someone else and replace you…[it] cannot be taught, but it can be learned.
What is specific knowledge?
When I talk about specific knowledge, I mean figure out what you were doing as a kid or teenager almost effortlessly. Something you didn’t even consider a skill, but people around you noticed.
10 Quotes
The three big ones in life are wealth, health, and happiness. We pursue them in order, but their importance is reverse.
Happiness is the state in which nothing is missing.
Nature has no concept of happiness or unhappiness.
Desire is a contract that you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.
The fundamental delusion: There is something out there that will make me happy and fulfilled forever.
By the time people realize they have enough money, they've lost their time and their health.
If you can't see yourself working with someone for life, don't work with them for a day.
Measure how much of the day is spent doing things out of obligation rather than out of interest.
There's no legacy...We're all going to be gone...Our works will be dust...Our solar system will be dust.
You're going to die one day, and none of this is going to matter. So enjoy yourself. Do something positive....Appreciate the moment and do your work.
Notes
Happiness is a skill I can learn. Happiness is a choice I make.
I'm not the thing that matters most in this world, I only exist for a tiny fraction of geological time
Duality: every positive thing has a negative side, and vice versa, so happiness is not merely about 'being more positive.' It's about having fewer desires.
Be present, stop comparing past to present, and stop living mostly in past or future
What if the present moment is the only time I have?
Time, health, money: As we move through life, we don't have all 3 in equal measure, the proportions change.
The winners are those who don't even play the game
There are people whose inner peace cannot be shaken (example: Buddha)
Sit in a room for 30 minutes and be happy - this is a real achievement
Think about whether I want to completely, 100% switch places with another person—all of their life issues, 24/7, successes, experiences, and future. If I'm not willing to completely swap, there's no point trying to want a single aspect of that person because I don't truly want to be them.
A few tips to practice peace & happiness
Try lots of things, see what skill happiness is for me
Eliminate 'Should.' It's not what I actually want.
No video games, sugar, alcohol, social media, caffeine - such substances make me less stable
Good habits + people I surround myself with
Choose my people very carefully, wisely. Don't just thoughtlessly choose whoever happens to be closest.
Is it actually worth being unhappy until I get some object? How important is it, really?
Have fewer or no secrets, watch no news
Tell people I'm happy - by using the consistency bias, I feel as if I have to live up to my statement
Embrace death, stop running from it. Entire civilizations have died and been forgotten.
Thoughts
I visited Europe for the second time in my life and in this piece, I wanted to reflect on the benefits of traveling alone. If you're an introvert, you will probably already understand my reasons by intuition.
I can:
Get lost
Change plans
Have silence
Think
Follow the most interesting path - walking, biking
Visit or not visit local establishments as I wish
Abandon my initial plan without explanation
Repeat myself in Dutch or French without worrying about exasperation from a travel companion
However, during the time surrounding my travel that I realized that most individuals in my society express concern and discomfort at the idea of traveling alone.
Before I departed, the question was, "You're going with a group of friends, right? Where are you all going?"
And when I returned, the question became, "Who did you travel with?"
There was even a lady who did not visit the United Kingdom because her mother could not accompany her. So, in this way, she completely eliminated the probability of having the experiences in the UK that she would have had.
I am not entirely sure why this is the common mindset.
Maybe it's a concern for safety. A belief of safety in numbers.
Or expense — a fair amount of money to be by myself in another culture.
Or discomfort in being alone.
Or a persistent unwillingness to spend too much time with one's own thoughts.
The last point is especially concerning. The majority of the benefit of taking holiday is to reflect. To cut out dedicated time for me to come to realizations that I might be denying. For distance away from the regular influences and routines.
In a world in which the working population hardly gives themselves time to think, holiday becomes the chance. To erase this opportunity, is, in some ways, a refusal to more deeply process and reflect on one's life trajectory.
To be continued.
"Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable…If you don’t do either, learn." - Naval Ravikant