Categories
Books Business Investing Philosophy

Skin in the Game: The Hidden Asymmetries of Life

Author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

My Rating: 4/5

Summary:  A thought-provoking book that challenges conventional thinking on risk-taking, accountability, and decision-making. It highlights the importance of having personal stakes in the game and not relying solely on abstract concepts or incentives.

My Takeaways

A loud vocal minority actually dictates the majority.

There are conflicts of interest in virtually every situation. aka “asymmetric risk”

Markets react to the most motivated participants 

Society doesn’t evolve by majority – only a few people motivated people with soul in the game can create a hidden asymmetry that affects the collective whole.

Rationality is systemic avoidance of ruin.

Lindi effect

Any asymmetry of information between buyer and seller is morally wrong.

Many people fail to understand that the minority rules the majority.

Companies condition their employees to accept a loss of freedom.

Society loves rich entrepreneurs and resents wealthy bureaucrats.

Success is based on your competence or your image, depending on your profession.

Rich people care less about their spending and are exploited as a result.

Categories
Books Business Hacks Investing Philosophy Technology

The Almanac of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness

Buy on Amazon

Author:Eric Jorgenson

My recommendation: 5/5

Summary: Naval Ravikant is someone who’s views on the world I greatly respect. This books organized his thoughts and views on life, business, generating wealth, happiness and philosophy..

My Takeaways:

Wealth is a skill that can be learned

Do not trade time for money, you should own a piece of a business (equity) to generate true wealth.

You will get rich by giving society what it wants, but does not know how to get it at scale. 

Pick an industry with long term games with long term people. 

The best skills to learn are selling and building.

Arm yourself with specific knowledge accountability and leverage

Specific knowledge is knowledge that you can’t train for. If society can train you, then they can train someone else and replace you.

Embrace accountability and take business risks under your own name. Society will reward you a specific equity responsibility and leverage

Fortunes require leverage. Leverage can be capital, people and product with no marginal cost to replicate, code and media in the context of business leverage

Reading is faster than listening and doing is faster than watching.

There are no get rich quick schemes, those are just others getting rich off of you. 

Productize yourself.

The internet enables any niche interest as long as you’re the best person to scale it out.

Escape competition through authenticity.

The most important skill to becoming rich is becoming a perpetual learner.

Foundations are key. It’s much better to be a 9/10 or a 1o/ 10 on the foundations then to get super deep into things.

Follow your intellectual curiosity more than whatever is hot right now. If you like it now but will be bored with a later, then it’s a distraction.

Set a very high aspirational rate for yourself and outsource any tasks that are below your rate for your time.

The only way to build wealth is to build a business that is leveraged. Leverage comes in the form of labor capital, code and media.

Those attacking wealth creation are playing an old status game that is a zero sum game. Avoid status games as much as possible such as politics.

The way to get out of the competition trap is to be authentic. This is by doing something you love. 

Apply specific knowledge with leverage and eventually you will get what you deserve.

You get rich by saving your time to make more money. 

Lean into the short term pain for the long term gain.

Read books on the foundations first. The order in which you acquire knowledge through reading is important.

The best way to retain information from books is to teach it to others.

Happiness is there when you remove the sense that something is missing. 

Easy choices, easy life. Hard choices, hard life.

Don’t build your checklists based on what someone else thinks.

The harder the workout, the easier the day. 

Meditation is fasting for the mind.

Accept everything. Choice-less awareness.

All benefits from life come from compound interest. Long term decisions instead of short term decisions.

Resources:

  • https://www.navalmanack.com/
Categories
Books Philosophy

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*CK: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

Author: Mark Manson

My Rating: 5/5

Summary: An unconventional look at the way our responses to life’s struggles shape how we live. The philosophy that Manson presents in the book centers on accepting universal truths. One of these truths is that suffering is inevitable, and another is that that no matter what one might think, at some point one will be wrong about something. Unwillingness to accept these truths though resistance or avoidance leads people away from real happiness and toward the superficial representation of it

My Takeaways

The process of achieving happiness and perfection is inherently negative, but the process of acknowledging imperfection, problems and pain is inherently positive. 

Happiness comes from solving problems. 

We constantly trade our problems for new or better problems. Happiness is the activity of constantly solving problems in life. 

Buddha example. 

The key to life is not asking what you want to enjoy to be happy, but what pain do you want to sustain?

Enjoy the painful process of your goal. 

Our struggles determine our success. 

You’re responsible for everything in your life. Your choices lead to more problems you’re responsible for solving. 

You can choose what you value and the metrics that measure that value. 

Life is a poker game, some people get dealt bad cards but can beat others with the best cards because of their choices. 

People need to go through pain in order to grow.

Without conflict, there can be no trust.

Trust is the most important ingredient in a relationship. Conflict is necessary to ensure trust us there.