Naval Ravikant Quotes

“'Clear thinker' is a better compliment than 'smart'.”

“A busy calendar and a busy mind will destroy your ability to create anything great.”

“A busy mind accelerates the perceived passage of time. Buy more time by cultivating peace of mind.”

“A busy mind can often rob you of peace of mind. The peace that we seek is not peace of mind, it's peace from mind.”

“A clear mind, leads to better judgement, leads to better outcome.”

“A contrarian isn’t one who always objects - that’s a conformist of a different sort. A contrarian reasons independently, from the ground up, and resists pressure to conform.”

“A critical, scientific approach separates truth from falsehood as you read.

Re-read the greats until absorbed. Number of books read is a vanity metric.

A modern foundation adds persuasion (communication) and computers to reading, writing and arithmetic.”

“A fit body, a calm mind, a house full of love. These things cannot be bought — they must be earned.”

“A fit mind is a clear mind.”

“A future society will reunite the smart and the spiritual.”

“A good employer willfully overcompensates you.”

“A great goal in life would be to not have to be in a given place at a given time.”

“A group of people who think differently is a market. A group of people who think alike is a mob.”

“A healthy body is light and silent, just as a healthy mind.”

“A life of poetry is one in which every action counts.”

“A mob doesn’t change its mind, but a market does it all the time.”

“A rational person can find peace by cultivating indifference to things outside of their control.”

“A taste of freedom can make you unemployable.”

“A vacation is a very expensive way to schedule the time to read a book in peace.”

“All greatness comes from suffering.”

“All I care about is am I doing what I want to do, am I being productive, and am I happy. I really want to break away from this idea of forty hour weeks, or 9 to 5s, or roles, or jobs or identities. It just all feels like a straight jacket.”

“All self-help boils down to 'choose long-term over short-term'.”

“All systems insulated from feedback from free markets or natural forces eventually get corrupted.”

“All the benefits in life come from compound interest - relationship, money, habits - anything of importance.”

“All the king’s horses and all the king’s men, could not drag me into politics.”

“All tyranny begins with the desire to coerce others for the greater good.”

“An entrepreneur without drive is just unemployed.”

“Any ideology that talks you out of the gene pool is a hopeless and nihilistic one.”

“Anything in your pockets that’s not a smartphone will be replaced by the smartphone.”

“Artists calling for censorship don’t know what art is.
Scientists citing consensus don’t know what science is.
Teachers indoctrinating students don’t know what teaching is.
Journalists parroting propaganda don’t know what reporting is.

Programming us all day long.”

“As you get older, you just realize that there's no happiness in material possessions.”

“Assigned reading is propaganda.”

“At heart I'm an entrepreneur and any day in which I solve the same problem twice in a row, I'm pretty unhappy. So by definition, I like to do something different every day. I think all humans are sort of meant to do that kind of thing.”

“At the end of the day, all being an American means is that you can hang a gun on the wall.

And if it doesn’t mean that, it doesn’t mean anything.”

“Banks have privatised the gains and socialised the losses.”

“Be good at marketing and you’ll never need sales.”

“Be like family to your friends, a friend to strangers, and a stranger to your enemies.”

“Be wary of anything that starts with the word 'social'.”

“Beggars build on APIs, sovereigns build on open source.”

“Behind every successful entrepreneur is a former failed self.”

“Believe in the religion that has no name.”

“Bitcoin and other completely on-chain assets are provably scarce - scarcity is enforced by code and distributed consensus.”

“Bitcoin cannot be coerced. That’s why it’s the most important experiment in the world.”

“Bitcoin is a tool for freeing humanity from oligarchs and tyrants, dressed up as a get-rich-quick scheme.”

“Bitcoin is an exit from the Fed.
DeFi is an exit from Wall Street.
Social media is an exit from mass media.
Homeschooling is an exit from industrial education.
Remote work is an exit from 9-5.
Creator economy is an exit from employment.

Individuals are leaving institutions.”

“Bitcoin is insurance against politicians.”

“Bitcoin is the bet that there is only one kind of valuable token.
Altcoins are the bet that there are many kinds of valuable tokens.
NFTs are the bet that each and every token can be uniquely valuable.”

“Buying Bitcoin is more voting than investing.”

“By bringing the world together, social media is tearing it apart.”

“By the time someone else tells you their winning strategy, it’s too late.”

“Can you avoid the common cold for the rest of your life?”

“Can you define the word 'country' without using the concept of a border?”

“Cancel culture brings high school politics to the adult world.”

“Changing your interpretation of your past is often just as good as changing your past.”

“Charisma is the ability to project confidence and love at the same time.”

“China may be leaving Bitcoin, but China also left the free Internet.”

“Choose the non-emotional response to any given situation and see how much easier your life becomes.”

“Civilization isn’t built by pessimists.”

“Clear thinkers take feedback from reality, not society.”

“Collecting airline miles is coupon-clipping for the middle class.”

“Colocate the creative team, remote everyone else.”

“Contraception destroyed the family as the building block of society.”

“Cool people are considered 'cool' because they break the rules and get away with it.”

“COVID variants should be identified by annual vintage, not by Greek letter.”

“Creativity is the last frontier. Automation over a long enough period of time will replace every non-creative job. That's great news. That means that all of our basic needs are taken of, and what remains for us is to be creative, which is really what every human wants.”

“Criticism without creativity is just pessimism. The honest way to critique is to create the alternative.”

“Crypto is not a subset of finance; finance is a subset of crypto.”

“Crypto is so unique that it’s not possible to reason by analogy to history.”

“Crypto is the smartest people in the world exiting into their own economy.”

“Desire is a contract that you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want, and I keep that in front of mind. Pick your one overwhelming desire. It's okay to suffer over that one.”

“Develop 'strategic incompetence' - people won't ask you to do things you hate to do, if you're bad at them.”

“Do their work if you have to, but don’t forget to eventually do yours.”

“Don’t do things that you know are morally wrong. Not because someone is watching, but because you are. Self-esteem is just the reputation that you have with yourself. You'll always know.”

“Don’t settle, and don’t struggle. Life is what flows in between.”

“Don’t take your brand down market. Make your customers reach up instead.”

“Drones are eventually going to obsolete every other weapons system.”

“Earn with your mind, not your time.”

“Eat like a lion, work like a lion, feel like a lion, live like a lion.”

“Education is no substitute for intelligence.”

“Either have children or become a saint, because eventually, you have to find something you love more than you love yourself.”

“Entrepreneurs bleed a little bit every day, but when they win they win big.”

“Everybody wants to change others. Nobody wants to be changed.”

“Everybody wants to hire the best.
Very few actually pay them like they’re the best.”

“Everything you’re a winner at now in your life, you were a once a loser at.”

“Evolution works by mutation and selection.
Innovation works by trial and error.
Science works by conjecture and criticism.
Free markets work by entrepreneurship and risk.

All truth-seeking systems work roughly the same way.”

“Explanations that explain everything – 'particle collisions', 'chemical imbalance', 'simulation theory' – explain nothing.”

“Fact-checkers are just fake authorities anointed by the media, according to fact-checkers.”

“Fasting focuses the mind - it replaces all desires with a single desire.”

“Fewer desires, but fully filled.”

“Flow is always there. You’re just in the way.”

“Followers on social media are like frequent flier miles - great until you try and use them for something.”

“For success, do what you love. For money, use leverage. People love themselves. Products create leverage. Productize yourself.”

“Forty hour workweeks are a relic of the Industrial Age. Knowledge workers function like athletes — train and sprint, then rest and reassess.”

“Founder mentality: If you think like an owner, and you act like an owner, it’s only a matter of time until you become an owner.”

“Free people make free choices. Free choices mean you get unequal outcomes. You can have freedom, or you can have equal outcomes. You can’t have both.”

“Get paid for doing what only you can uniquely do.”

“Get what you want. Don’t want what you can’t.”

“Give the world what it needs, and it will give you what you want.”

“Good advice is embodied.”

“Good books are worth re-reading.”

“Good investors don’t sell investment advice.”

“Good product branding is good art - a little subversive and a little radical. Can’t be done by committees.”

“Guaranteed high returns are usually just concealed blowup risk.”

“Happiness is also a choice. If you're so smart, how come you aren't happy? How come you haven't figured that out? That's my challenge to all the people who think they're so smart and so capable.”

“Happiness is evident more by its absence than by its presence.”

“Helpful people don’t ask 'How can I help?' They just help.”

“Highs that don’t lead to subsequent lows:

- Meditation, gratitude, prayer, journaling, unconditional love.
- Yoga, exercise, play, nature walks.
- Creating art, reading for fun, singing, poetry.
- Practicing a craft, pursuing curiosity, work done for its own sake, flow.”

“Hope is the belief that this moment isn’t good enough.”

“How long until we create the perfect drug, that has everyone addicted, all the time?”

“Humanity will eventually eradicate all viral disease, as our memetic defense evolves much faster than their biological offense.

(Barring laboratory-enhanced viruses).”

“Humans are basically habit machines… I think learning how to break habits is actually a very important meta skill and can serve you in life almost better than anything else.”

“I don’t care how rich you are. I don’t care whether you’re a top Wall Street banker.
If somebody has to tell you when to be at work, what to wear and how to behave, you’re not a free person. You’re not actually rich.”

“I don’t like to self-identify in almost any level anymore. That keeps me from having too many of these so-called stable beliefs.”

“I don’t take notes. I’m reading because I like to read, not to 'learn'.”

“I like to think that if I lost all my money and if you drop me on a random street in any English-speaking country, within 5, 10 years I’d be wealthy again, because it’s just a skill set that I’ve developed and I think anyone can develop. In 1,000 parallel universes, you want to be wealthy in 999 of them. You don’t want to be wealthy in the 50 of them where you got lucky. So, we want to factor luck out of it.”

“I never met my greatest mentor. I wanted so much to be like him. But, his message was the opposite. Be yourself, with passionate intensity.”

“I no longer track books read or even care about books read. It's about understanding concepts.”

“I probably read 1-2 hours a day, and that puts me in the top .00001%. I think that alone accounts for any material success that I've had in my life and any intelligence that I might have.”

“I think a lot of us learn as we get older that happiness is internal. Happiness is a choice that you make and a skill that you develop.”

“I would define values, first of all, as a set of things that you will not compromise on. Foundational values to me are things that I’ve looked at very, very carefully about myself and I’ve deliberately chosen and said, “You know what, this is a habit. This is a way of life. I’m not going to compromise on it. I’m going to stay this way forever. I don’t want to live life any other way.”

“I'm always 'working.' It looks like work to them, but it feels like play to me.”

“I, and I alone, am responsible for everything I think and feel.”

“If absolute truth exists, it must be available to everyone, everywhere, at all times.

Therefore, the path to truth cannot require any knowledge or effort.”

“If germs won’t eat it, it’s not food.”

“If it can’t be used to build something or fix something, you don’t need to go to school for it.”

“If it hurts to hear it, look for the truth in it.
If it comforts to hear it, look for the lie in it.”

“If it is not making you happier, or healthier, or calmer, or having better relationships, or wealthier, then what good is it? It's useless. You can safely discard it.”

“If it’s not going to be completely and utterly decentralized, it doesn’t need a blockchain.”

“If no one in this world had anything to offer you, how would you live your life?”

“If raising children was less rewarding than not doing it, the human race would have gone extinct.”

“If someone can muzzle you, they can leash you too.”

“If the polls are fake, imagine news.”

“If the work doesn’t require creativity, delegate it, automate it, or leave it.”

“If they can silence you for one reason, they can silence you for any reason.”

“If you aren’t afraid of the truth, then you’re nowhere near it.”

“If you aren’t curious about it, you’ll never be good at it.”

“If you aren’t willing to be mocked, you’ll never be able to lead.”

“If you build for yourself, you’ll always have product-market fit.”

“If you can buy happiness, buy it.”

“If you can silence a king, you are the king.”

“If you can speed read it, it isn't worth reading.”

“If you can't decide, the answer is no.”

“If you don’t know it, it’s because you aren’t interested in it.”

“If you eat, invest, and think according to what the ‘news’ advocates, you’ll end up nutritionally, financially and morally bankrupt.”

“If you hurt other people because they have an expectation of you that’s their problem. If they have an agreement from you that’s yours.”

“If you must pivot your company, take both feet off the ground, and jump.”

“If you need a degree to do it, it’s not going to make you wealthy.”

“If you save your favorite video and audio for workouts only, you’ll look forward to exercise.”

“If you want to be a clear thinker, you cannot pay attention to politics. It will destroy your ability to think.”

“If you want to be great, walk the rope without a boss and without a net.”

“If you want to be part of a great tech company, then you need to be able to sell or build. If you don't do either, learn.”

“If you want to be wealthy, spend your time earning, learning, or relaxing. Outsource or ignore everything else.”

“If you want to make the wrong decision, ask everyone.”

“If you want to operate at peak performance, you have to learn how to tame your mind.”

“If you're going to pick 3 cards in the hand you're dealt, take intelligence, drive, and most importantly, emotional self-discipline.”

“If you’re interested now, you’ll be interesting later.”

“If you’re writing for followers, your followers are worthless.”

“If your idea of money is what it was yesterday, you will lose it to the people who know what money will be tomorrow.”

“If your income is coming from labor rather than assets, you’re being decimated by hidden inflation.”

“If your opinions line up neatly with those of your friends and colleagues, they’re not your opinions.”

“Imagine how effective you would be if you weren’t anxious all the time.”

“In almost any salaried job, even at one that’s paying a lot per hour like a lawyer, or a doctor, you’re still putting in the hours, and every hour you get paid. So, what that means is when you’re sleeping, you’re not earning. When you’re retired, you’re not earning. When you’re on vacation, you’re not earning. And you can’t earn non-linearly.”

“In an age of infinite leverage, judgement is the most important skill.”

“In every moment, in everything that happens, you can look on the bright side of something. So I used to do that forcibly and then I trained it until it became second nature.”

“In the modern era, the scarce resources are creativity and knowledge, not land and commodities.

Wars of conquest are really just wars of (self) destruction.”

“In the modern world, don’t minimize your risks – maximize your opportunities.”

“In the physical world, every object is scarce.

In the digital world, every object is abundant.

In a digital world made of NFTs, every object is scarce again.”

“In the startup olympics, first place gets a monopoly, second place gets a medal, and there is no third place.”

“Individuals rarely admit mistakes. Groups never do.”

“Inspiration is perishable. Act on it immediately.”

“Instead of treating events as wins or losses, ask “Did I learn something I can apply in the future?” If not, you must treat it as a loss.”

“Integrity is when what you think and what you say and what you do are one.”

“It doesn’t take money to make money, it takes leverage to make money.”

“It is the mark of a charlatan to explain a simple concept in a complex way.”

“It isn’t 10,000 hours that creates outliers, it’s 10,000 iterations.”

“It's better to have an Ivy League degree than an Ivy League education.”

“It's easier to change yourself than to change the world.”

“It’s a contradiction that we all deal with. That we all want to be successful people, but we also want to be happy people. The two of those run in almost diametric opposites to each other.”

“It’s easier for a builder to learn sales than for a seller to learn building.”

“It’s not so much 'Happy wife, happy life' as 'Unhappy wife, unhappy life'.”

“It’s not so much Bitcoin going up as dollar going down.”

“It’s not the thing itself we fear, it’s our reaction to it.”

“It’s the nature of truth that once you see it, you can’t unsee it.”

“It’s wisdom of markets, not wisdom of crowds.”

“Judging others is good for a quick dopamine hit, but how long until you’re addicted?”

“Just as Hiroshima ushered in the nuclear age, COVID-19 ushers in the biological age.”

“Just as you travel so that you can miss your home, you socialize so that you can miss your self.”

“Knowing how little you matter is very important for your mental health and your happiness.”

“Labor and capital leverage are obsolete. Code is the ultimate force multiplier and its leverage advantage is increasing.”

“Lasting novels don’t come from literature departments. Successful businesses don’t come from business schools. Scientific revolutions don’t come from research universities. Get your education, then get moving. Find the loners tinkering at the edge.”

“Learning is cheap, education is expensive.”

“Leverage converts knowledge into power.”

“Life is about navigating a series of events that don’t quite repeat.”

“Life is really a single player game. It's all going on in your head. Whatever you think, you believe, will very much shape your reality. Both from what risks you take and what actions you perform, but also just everyday experiences of reality.”

“Listening to books instead of reading them is like drinking your vegetables instead of eating them.”

“Live long enough, and you’ll become a philosopher.”

“Live the life you want other people to live.”

“Make bold guesses and weed out the failures.”

“Making money through an early lucky trade is the worst way to win. The bad habits that it reinforces will lead to a lifetime of losses.”

“Management is the oldest, and most over-rated form of leverage. Capital, media, and code are the modern forms.”

“Meditation is intermittent fasting for the mind.”

“Mentors won’t make you rich.
Doctors won’t make you healthy.
Nutritionists won’t make you slim.
Teachers won’t make you smart.
Gurus won’t make you calm.
Trainers won’t make you fit.
Ultimately, you have to take responsibility.
Save yourself.”

“Money does buy happiness, if you earned it.”

“Money doesn’t buy happiness - it buys freedom.”

“Money doesn’t change the world, ideas do.”

“More drugs are taken to quiet the mind than to heal the body.”

“Most books should just be summaries so I leave most books unfinished and only make it all the way through a few. The best ones can’t be easily summarized.”

“Most democracies are run by a nameless, faceless bureaucracy, unaware of its own existence.”

“Most gaming companies are just digitally optimized, productivity-sucking casinos.”

“Most of modern life, all our diseases, are diseases of abundance, not diseases of scarcity.”

“My definition of wisdom is knowing the long-term consequences of your actions.”

“Myers-Briggs is astrology for the overeducated class.”

“Never write prose when you can write poetry.”

“Now that the media has realized that coronavirus is the ultimate clickbait, we’re going to be locked down forever.”

“Now that we’re on our way to natural immunity, look for the perpetually fearful to exaggerate the frequency and consequences of 'reinfection'.”

“Once you’ve truly controlled your own fate, for better or for worse, you’ll never let anyone else tell you what to do.”

“One advantage of getting older - you become more decisive.”

“One path to a happy life is to retain a sense of wonder.”

“Open source means each problem only has to be solved once.”

“Optimists thrive but pessimists survive.”

“Organization is the enemy of innovation.”

“Our temporary solution to a temporary problem has become a permanent problem.”

“Outside of math, physics, and chemistry, there isn't much 'settled science'. We're still arguing over what the optimal diet is.”

“Outsource everything except being.”

“Pain is a fact. Suffering is a choice.”

“Pay double and insist on ten times the quality.”

“Peace is happiness at rest, and happiness is peace in motion. You can convert peace to happiness any time you want, but peace is what you want most of the time. If you're a peaceful person, anything you do will be a happy activity.”

“People are oddly consistent. Karma is just you repeating your patterns, virtues and flaws, until you finally get what you deserve”

“People who live far below their means enjoy a freedom that people busy upgrading their lifestyles can’t fathom.”

“People who try to look smart by pointing out obvious exceptions actually signal the opposite.”

“Perhaps most importantly, very small teams can make fundamental breakthroughs.”

“Persistence beats timing. Execution beats luck. Not immediately, but eventually.”

“Persistence beats timing. Execution beats luck. Not immediately, but eventually.”

“Play long-term games with long-term people. All returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.”

“Pseudo-intellectual pessimism is the most expensive status symbol.”

“Pure democracies can degenerate into autocracies. Republics are what you want.”

“Put politicians and journalists on unemployment and the lockdowns will be over within a week.”

“Read (old) foundational books in science and philosophy and ignore society.”

“Read books that explore questions that you are genuinely curious about. Only you will know which topics.

If you’re reading too quickly, the book is too basic. If reading too slowly, it’s likely too advanced.

It’s like finding the right form of exercise and the right intensity.”

“Read books, avoid news.”

“Read the best 100 books over and over again.”

“Read the books they want to ban.”

“Read to satisfy your own natural curiosity, not to impress or accomplish.
Re-read the basics (from different angles) until they make sense to you.
Start on solid ground - physics & math.
Filter - most popular books are propaganda.
Don’t memorize, specialize, or use jargon.”

“Read what you love until you love to read.

Instead of memorizing, understand the basics so you can derive answers.

If you’re good at math and science, you won’t fear any book.

The means of learning are abundant, it’s the desire to learn that’s scarce.”

“Read what you love until you love to read.”

“Reading (learning) is a meta-skill and can be traded for anything else.”

“Reading is more efficient when at rest. Audio is more efficient when in motion.”

“Relax. You’ll live longer *and* perform better.”

“Retirement starts when you stop sacrificing today for some imaginary tomorrow. You retire by saving up enough money, becoming a monk, or by finding work that feels like play to you.”

“Returns are made on the way up.
Reputations are made on the way down.”

“Safe societies devalue their young males, until the wolves are at the door.”

“School, politics, sports, and games train us to compete against others. True rewards — wealth, knowledge, love, fitness, and equanimity — come from ignoring others and improving ourselves.”

“Science advances one funeral at a time.”

“Science requires skepticism. Religion requires belief.”

“Scientists who support silencing opposing voices are actually priests.”

“Self-awareness is the most attractive trait.”

“Selfless ideas spread the furthest.”

“Sequels are rarely good because the author that dumped decades of insights into the first book is suddenly given months to produce a second.”

“Shorter feedback loops means more iterations, and it’s the number of iterations, not the number of hours, that drives learning.”

“Simplifying your life doesn’t mean passing up opportunities. It means opening up space for new and considered ones.”

“Sing the song that only you can sing, write the book that only you can write, build the product that only you can build... live the life that only you can live.”

“Smart people talking to other smart people tend to have very short conversations.”

“Social media has degenerated into a deafening cacophony of groups signaling and repeating their shared myths.”

“Social science is fake science.”

“Social science is fake science.”

“Solve via iteration. Then get paid via repetition.”

“Sometimes easier to change the world than to change people's minds.”

“Sophisticated foods are bittersweet (wine, beer, coffee, chocolate). Addictive relationships are cooperative and competitive. Work becomes flow at the limits of ability. The flavor of life is on the edge.”

“Spend your time in the company of geniuses, sages, children, and books.”

“Stand alone. Carry others.”

“Stop asking why and start saying wow. The world is such an amazing place. As humans, we’re used to taking everything for granted.”

“Subtract incentives from advice.”

“Success is the enemy of learning. It can deprive you of the time and the incentive to start over. Beginner’s mind also needs beginner’s time.”

“Success is the inevitable byproduct of learning (not education).”

“Take feedback from nature and markets, not from people.”

“Take no other monkey’s word for it.”

“The ability to stay calm during conflict is a superpower.”

“The best brands are simple from afar, but sophisticated up close.”

“The best investments feel early and weird when you make them. To spot the “good weird” early, you need the right philosophy!

For crypto, early adopters were those who believed in the sovereign individual over the sovereign state.”

“The best investors spend most of their time walking and reading.”

“The best run countries are the smallest republics that can defend their own borders.”

“The biggest mistake any performer can make is to look at the audience.”

“The central challenge facing game designers is to delay the moment until you realize it’s a complete waste of time.”

“The engineer shortage won’t end until coding fluency is as common as literacy and numeracy.”

“The first rule of handling conflict is don't hang around with people who are constantly engaging in conflict.”

“The food pyramid has been upside down for thirty years.”

“The fundamental delusion - there is something out there that will make me happy and fulfilled forever.”

“The goal of media is to make every problem, your problem.”

“The good life is the fruit of understanding, freedom from care, and effortless self-discipline.”

“The great viruses of our time spread through minds, not through bodies.”

“The greatest superpower is the ability to change yourself.”

“The hardest thing is not doing what you want - it's knowing what you want.”

“The highest status people in human history are those that asked for nothing and gave everything.”

“The human brain isn’t designed to process all of the world’s emergencies in realtime.”

“The idea that we repeat ourselves, and we specialize and we pigeon
hole ourselves is a modern invention created through specialization
of labor in the Industrial Revolution. And hopefully, as more and
more people move up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we’re going to
be able to define ourselves much more loosely.”

“The image of perfection is what keeps you from seeing it.”

“The Internet doesn’t care about your title.”

“The Internet enables eight billion monopolies.”

“The larger the group, the worse the conversation.”

“The leader doesn’t take charge of the tribe. The leader takes responsibility for the tribe.”

“The less scheduled you are, the more creative you’re going to be.”

“The market is the real boss. Work directly for it.”

“The measure of wealth is freedom.
The measure of health is lightness.
The measure of intellect is judgment.
The measure of wisdom is silence.
The measure of love is peace.”

“The mind gives up before the body.”

“The modern mind is overstimulated and the modern body is understimulated and overfed. Meditation, exercise, and fasting restore an ancient balance.”

“The more neatly you fit into society, the less free you actually are.”

“The more people in the conversation, the harder it becomes to speak the uncomfortable truth.

Social media puts everyone into the same conversation.”

“The more seriously you take yourself, the unhappier you’re going to be.”

“The more vehemently they condemn it, the less of an argument they actually have.”

“The most important relationship you have is with yourself.”

“The most important trick to be happy is to realize that happiness is a choice that you make and a skill that you develop. You choose to be happy, and then you work at it. It’s just like building muscles.”

“The most interesting and dangerous people are directed, with purpose.”

“The most popular diet is 'tomorrow'.”

“The older the problem, the older the solution. How to eat well is one of the oldest problems.”

“The only part you can’t outsource is judgement.”

“The only thing that will make you happy is choosing to be happy.”

“The opposite of 'Intellectual Yet Idiot' is 'street smart'.”

“The overeducated are worse off than the undereducated, having traded common sense for the illusion of knowledge.”

“The overscheduled life is not worth living.”

“The overt pursuit of status signals low status, so we covertly pursue status, disguised as public virtue.”

“The paradox of crypto: coins are scarce, but currencies are abundant.”

“The part of your work that’s new every time is the craft. The part that’s the same every time is the toil.”

“The people who succeed are irrationally passionate about something.”

“The people you most want to impress can read your intentions.”

“The price of trying to make everyone else happy is making yourself miserable.”

“The price that society is paying for political correctness continues to go up.”

“The problem with genius is that you have to tolerate madness.”

“The problem with modern culture is that atheism finally reached the masses.”

“The product is the résumé for the team.”

“The purpose of having money is so that you don't have to be at a specific place at a specific time doing anything you don't want to do.”

“The quality of your mind is the quality of your life.”

“The reason to win the game is so that you can be free of it.”

“The reason you want wealth is because it buys you your freedom. So, you don’t have to wear a tie like a collar around your neck. So, you don’t have to wake up at 7:00 AM, and rush to work, and sit in commute traffic. So, you don’t have to waste away your entire life grinding all the productive hours away into a soulless job that doesn’t fulfill you.”

“The reward for getting on the stage is fame. The price of fame is you can’t get off the stage.”

“The right to vote doesn’t give you power; power gives you the right to vote.”

“The road to socialism via inflation:

- Print money, crash the reserve currency, destroy savers, and force them into inflated assets.

- Asset inflation leads to inequality. Demonize asset holders and tax the nominal gains, thereby confiscating the real value of the assets.”

“The secret to a happy relationship is two happy people.”

“The secret to public speaking is to speak as if you were alone.”

“The selfish reason to be ethical is that it attracts the other ethical people in the network.”

“The skills you really want can’t be taught, but they can be learned.”

“The smarter you get, the slower you read.”

“The source of wisdom is pain.”

“The success formula: solve your own problems and freely share the solutions.”

“The three big decisions - what you do, where you live, and who you’re with.”

“The three big ones in life are wealth, health, and happiness. We pursue them in that order but their importance is in the reverse.”

“The truest way to decline is just to say, 'it doesn’t feel right to me.'

No explanation is necessary.”

“The universe is rigged in such a way that if you just want one thing and you focus on that, you will get it. But everything else, you got to let go.”

“The way to get out of the competition trap is actually to be authentic.”

“The way to retire is actually to find the thing that you know how to do better than anybody. And, you know how to do that better than anybody because you love to do it.”

“The way to survive in modern society is to be an ascetic. It is to retreat from society. There's too much society everywhere you go. The only solution is turn it off.”

“The way we think you get peace is by resolving all your external problems, but there are unlimited external problems. So, the only way to actually get peace is on the inside by giving up this idea of problems.”

“The world is full of teachers but devoid of students.”

“The world just reflects your own feelings back at you. Reality is neutral.”

“Their pessimism is your opportunity.”

“Theories are explanations, not predictions.”

“There is always and everywhere a shortage of good engineers.”

“There is no failure, only feedback.”

“There’s always someone higher up the stack. So the success driven mentality drives you to unhappiness and if you want to be successful, surround yourself with people who are more successful than you are. But if you want to be happy, surround yourself with people who are less successful than you are. So this is the contradiction that we deal with all day long because we’re also told that the American dream will bring you happiness, and it will not. ”

“There’s no need for conspiracies when incentives will do.”

“This is the last time a fiat currency bubble pops, because it’s the first time we have a viable alternative.”

“Time spent has nothing to do with job done.”

“Timeless content compounds.”

“To be honest, speak without identity.”

“To get paid in the future, live in the future.”

“To measure the quality of your life, simply do nothing, and see how it feels.”

“To retain innocence, reduce judgements.”

“To see if you have free will, just stop exercising it.”

“To the experts, what looks like hard work from the outside, is play from the inside.”

“To the generation born after Bitcoin, it’s as old as gold.”

“To write a great book, you must first become the book.”

“Total honesty at all times. It’s almost always possible to be honest & positive.”

“Tour success in life depends on your ability to make good decisions. Your happiness depends on your ability to not care about the outcomes.”

“Truth is timeless.”

“Tune out society and its endless and noisy demands.”

“Twitter is television for intellectuals.”

“Two kinds of fools - those who take religion literally, and those who think it has no value.”

“Using creativity to solve problems cannot be taught, and it’s ultimately what free markets pay for.”

“Using creativity to solve problems cannot be taught, and it’s ultimately what free markets pay for.”

“Watch your mind all day long. You can meditate 24/7. Meditation is not a sit down, close your eyes activity. Meditation is just basically watching your own thoughts like you would watch anything else in the outside world.”

“We are all artists. The only question is if you acknowledge it or not.”

“We are far too scared of nuclear power plants, and not scared enough of institutes of virology.”

“We are going from bread and circuses to cannabis and video games to psychedelics and VR.”

“We didn’t separate church and state, we merged them.”

“We live in the age of wonders, but familiarity has struck us blind.”

“We prefer to see winners as naturally talented rather than hard working. Because if it were reversed, what would that imply about us?”

“We study science to learn how to get what we want. We study philosophy to know what we want in the first place.”

“We waste our time with short term thinking and busywork. Warren Buffett spends a year deciding and a day acting. That act lasts decades.”

“Wealth creation is an evolutionarily recent positive-sum game. Status is an old zero-sum game. Those attacking wealth creation are often just seeking status.”

“We’re good at fooling ourselves because it helps fool others.”

“We’re not really here for that long and we don’t really matter that much. And nothing that we do lasts. So eventually you will fade.

Your works will fade.
Your children will fade.
Your thoughts will fade.
This planet will fade.
It will all be gone.”

“What feels like play to you, but looks like work to others?”

“What if your life was a sacred responsibility?

The body, a temple.
Every motive, pure.
Every glance, compassionate.
Every word, true.
Every act, right.
Every moment, holy.”

“What you want to get everyone to is retirement... Retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for some imaginary tomorrow. When today is complete, in and of itself, you're retired.”

“Whatever your bar is for working with people, raise it.”

“When building habits, choose consistency over content.

The best book is the one you can’t put down.

The best exercise is the one you enjoy doing every day.

The best health food is the one you find tasty.

The best work is the work you’d do for free.”

“When choosing between investments, ask yourself: Where is my dollar going to work the hardest?”

“When intermittent fasting, it’s easier to eat healthy in the daytime than in the evening, before willpower depletion and social pressures set in.”

“When it comes to healing the mind, placebo effects are completely valid.”

“When numeracy became a thing, you learned math, when literacy became a thing, you learned to read and write, and when computers became a thing, you learned to code.”

“When you combine things you're not supposed to combine, people get interested.”

“When you have children you learn to love something more than you love yourself… and you can talk about that all day long but you’ve never had that feeling until you’ve had a child, and it’s very important for all of us I think to experience that feeling.”

“When you take away the mental and the physical, whatever remains is spiritual.”

“Whether you’re excited or nervous when your favorite asset falls in price marks whether you’re investing or merely speculating.”

“Whether you’re starting a company or a cult, recruit for conviction, not curiosity.”

“Wisdom is the measure of long-term thinking.”

“Without the first amendment, there is no freedom. Without the second, there is no first.”

“Without your story, who would you be?”

“Working with who you want to work with, on what you want to work on, is actually just play.”

“Would I still be interested in learning this thing if I couldn't ever tell anybody about it? That's how I know it's real. That's how I know it's something I actually want to know.”

“Write truth, and don’t waste a word.”

“Write tweets, read books.”

“You are completely in control of your own happiness, and you have no control over the happiness of others.”

“You can escape competition through authenticity, when you realize that no one can compete with you on being you.”

“You can learn microeconomics in your spare time and by running a business.”

“You can neither give happiness, nor receive it.”

“You can never be too rich, too thin, or too clean.”

“You can’t buy a real kiss.”

“You cannot quiet the mind, you can only watch it.”

“You don’t get rich by spending your time to save money. You get rich by saving your time to make money.”

“You don’t have eight creative, problem-solving hours in the day - you have two.
Spend your time wisely.”

“You don’t need mentors, you need action.”

“You get paid for being right first, and to be first, you can’t wait for consensus.”

“You get rewarded for unique knowledge, not for effort. Effort is required to create unique knowledge.”

“You have social statisticians, scientists, and researchers in lab coats, literally the best minds of our generation figuring out how to addict you to the news. And if you fall for it, if you get addicted, your brain will get destroyed.”

“You have to surrender, at least a little bit, to be the best version of yourself possible.”

“You know that song that you can't get out of your head? All thoughts work that way. Careful what you read.”

“You lead by being willing to walk alone.”

“You want to be free, but accountable.”

“You want to rest your mind. You want to learn how to settle into your mind. Now, I look forward to solitary confinement. You leave me alone for a day, it will be the happiest day I've had in a while. That is a superpower that I think everybody can attain.”

“You'll do better work if you're bored rather than busy.”

“You're born, you have a whole set of sensory experiences and stimulations and lights and colors and sounds, and then you die. And how you choose to interpret that is up to you. You do have that choice.”

“You’re spending time to save money when you should be spending money to save time.”

“Your character starts out spotless. You can only stain it.”

“Your children are here to take you away from your own self.”

“Your closest friends are the ones you can have a relationship with about nothing.”

“Your company may not be in the software business, but eventually, a software company will be in your business.”

“Your goal in life is to find out the people who need you the most, to find out the business that needs you the most, to find the project and the art that needs you the most. There is something out there just for you.”

“Your mistake is that you’re writing to be read.”

“Your real resumé is a painful recounting of all of your struggles.”

“Your worldview is your world.”

“An army of robots is freely available - it's just packed in data centers for heat and space efficiency. Use it.”

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

“Arm yourself with specific knowledge, accountability, and leverage. Specific knowledge is knowledge that you cannot be trained for. If society can train you, it can train someone else, and replace you.”

“Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true.”

“Code and media are permissionless leverage. They're the leverage behind the newly rich. You can create software and media that works for you while you sleep.”

“Don't partner with cynics and pessimists. Their beliefs are self-fulfilling.”

“Embrace accountability, and take business risks under your own name. Society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage.”

“Fortunes require leverage. Business leverage comes from capital, people, and products with no marginal cost of replication (code and media).”

“If you can't code, write books and blogs, record videos and podcasts.”

“Ignore people playing status games. They gain status by attacking people playing wealth creation games.”

“Labor means people working for you. It's the oldest and most fought-over form of leverage. Labor leverage will impress your parents, but don’t waste your life chasing it.”

“Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.”

“Leverage is a force multiplier for your judgement. Judgement requires experience, but can be built faster by learning foundational skills.”

“Pick an industry where you can play long term games with long term people.”

“Pick business partners with high intelligence, energy, and, above all, integrity.”

“Play iterated games. All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.”

“Reading is faster than listening. Doing is faster than watching.”

“Seek wealth, not money or status. Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep. Money is how we transfer time and wealth. Status is your place in the social hierarchy.”

“Set and enforce an aspirational personal hourly rate. If fixing a problem will save less than your hourly rate, ignore it. If outsourcing a task will cost less than your hourly rate, outsource it.”

“Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion rather than whatever is hot right now. Building specific knowledge will feel like play to you but will look like work to others.”

“Study microeconomics, game theory, psychology, persuasion, ethics, mathematics, and computers.”

“The Internet has massively broadened the possible space of careers. Most people haven't figured this out yet.”

“There are no get rich quick schemes. That's just someone else getting rich off you.”

“There is no skill called “business.” Avoid business magazines and business classes.”

“Understand that ethical wealth creation is possible. If you secretly despise wealth, it will elude you.”

“When specific knowledge is taught, it’s through apprenticeships, not schools. Specific knowledge is often highly technical or creative. It cannot be outsourced or automated.”

“When you're finally wealthy, you'll realize that it wasn't what you were seeking in the first place.”

“You should be too busy to “do coffee," while still keeping an uncluttered calendar.”

“You will get rich by giving society what it wants but does not yet know how to get. At scale.”

“You’re not going to get rich renting out your time. You must own equity - a piece of a business - to gain your financial freedom.”

“So you came here through an unbroken chain of your ancestors from tadpoles till now that all replicated, are you literally gonna be the first ones to miss that branch? Yes, of course my ancestors are dead and I will never communicate with them, but I just can’t even imagine the thought that I have great grandfather’s and great-great grandfather’s who suffered all kinds of misery and hell to survive and to replicate… and I’m gonna say oh yeah, I couldn’t be bothered I was having too good of a time it’s actually passed the genes along.”