Source : https://www.samuelthomasdavies.com/book-summaries/business/the-almanack-of-naval-ravikant/ *** # The Five Big Ideas 1. Understand how to create wealth 2. Build judgment 3. Learn the skills of decision making 4. Learn to love to read 5. Understand happiness is a choice # Understand How to Create Wealth To get rich, seek **specific** **knowledge**, **accountability**, and **leverage**. Pursue your genuine curiosity and passion rather than whatever is hot right now. Specific knowledge is often highly technical or creative and cannot be outsourced or automated. Leverage comes in the form of **labor**, **capital**, or through **code** or **media**. Labor requires followers. Capital requires leaders. Code or media, however, are permissionless and work while you sleep. # Build Judgment If wisdom is the knowledge behind the long-term consequences of your actions, judgment is the knowledge to make the right decision to capitalize on those actions. In the age of leverage, one correct decision can win everything. Judgment is underrated. To build judgment, you must keep abreast of current trends and study technology, design, and art—and become the best in the world at something. The direction you head in matters much more than your pace. Choose wisely. Being at the extreme in your art is crucial in the age of leverage. # Learn the Skills of Decision-Making To make better decisions, learn mental models. A mental model is an explanation of how something works. Inversion, to borrow a popular example, is a mental model that invites you to be less wrong rather than more right. If you can’t decide, then the answer is no. We live in abundance. There are countless options to choose from. If, however, you’re evenly split on a difficult decision. Take the path more painful in the short term. Easy decisions, hard life. Hard decisions, easy life. To build judgment, you must keep abreast of current trends and study technology, design, and art—and become the best in the world at something. The direction you head in matters much more than your pace. Choose wisely. # Learn to Love to Read To build specific knowledge, read what you love until you love to read. If you’re a slow reader, read one hour per day; it will likely put you at the upper echelon of human success within seven years. If you’re a fast reader, slow down; it’s not a race. The better the book, the slower it should be absorbed. Read science, math, and philosophy. But be selective. Read the fundamentals like *On The Origin of Species* and *The Wealth of Nations*. Then reread them; it’s better to read a book that you’re excited about a hundred times than it is to read one hundred average books that don’t. If a book doesn’t interest you at first, flip ahead, skim, or speed read. If it still doesn’t interest you after the first chapter, drop the book. Most books have one point to make. Once you get the gist of a book, put it down. # Understand Happiness is a Choice Happiness is not about positive thoughts. Nor is it about negative thoughts. **Happiness is the absence of desire.** To quote Ravikant, “Desire is a contract you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.” In any situation in life, you always have three choices: **you can change it, you can accept it, or you can leave it.** If you want to change it, then it is a desire. To avoid distraction, pick one desire in your life at a time to give yourself purpose and motivation.