Book Review – The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Image: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Len Lantz (CC BY-NC-ND)
Synopsis: Len's Star Rating: 9 out of 10. An enjoyable and insightful book on perspectives and general approaches that lead to wealth and happiness.
BY LEN LANTZ, MD / 7.25.2025; No. 132
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Star Rating – 9 out of 10
Rating guide: 1 = horrible, 5 = average and 10 = wow
Authors
Naval Ravikant and Eric Jorgenson
About the authors
Naval Ravikant is an entrepreneur, technology innovator, and thought leader in personal growth. He has founded or co-founded several companies. His blog, Venture Hacks, evolved into the venture capital fundraising platform, AngelList, which was valued at $4 billion in 2022. He is the former CEO and current chairman of AngelList. Naval Ravikant earned his undergraduate degrees in economics and computer science at Dartmouth College and is a recipient of the Edmund Hillary Fellowship. He was an early investor in cryptocurrencies and co-founded a cryptocurrency hedge fund, MetaStable Capital. He co-founded the social media app Airchat, and his podcasts can be found at Nav.al and Spearhead.co.
Eric Jorgenson is a writer, investor, and product strategist. He joined the founding team of Zaarly in 2011 and is currently the CEO of Scribe Media. He earned his undergraduate degree at Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business. He hosts the podcast, Smart Friends, and his blog, Evergreen, reportedly has over 1 million readers.
General description
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant is Eric Jorgenson’s compilation of Naval Ravikant’s essays, interviews, and social media posts on topics of wealth, happiness, and personal development. The book, a bestseller with over a million copies sold, is billed as having been created as a public service and is also available for free download. The authors inserted “tweets” as sidebars to summarize the text and provided simple diagrams to visually reinforce the ideas. The text covers numerous ideas that are categorized as relating to either wealth or happiness, and topics are subcategorized as:
Building wealth
Building judgment
Learning happiness
Saving yourself
Philosophy
Unique and most important aspects
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant feels a bit like a cross between Charlie Munger’s Poor Charlie’s Almanack (see Len’s review) and Nassim Taleb’s The Bed of Procrustes (see Len’s review), as Eric Jorgenson stitches together Naval Ravikant’s thoughts and pearls of wisdom from a variety of sources over 10 years.
The text has a conversational tone, as though you sat down to have coffee with Naval and asked him what he thought about happiness, success, or the meaning of life. His answers might wander around a bit, but he has clearly spent years contemplating the answers to these questions and is able to provide a compelling and intelligent response. While I do not agree with all of his ideas, I found myself nodding in agreement with many of his assertions, which come across as distilled truth. Essential features of this book include:
Applying the concept of compound interest to business relationships, personal reputation, and the intellectual domain.
Outlining three broad categories of leverage
Labor
Money
“Products with no marginal cost of replication” (books, movies, media, code)
Explaining the importance of the principal-agent problem.
Providing a compelling argument regarding making major life decisions like marriage, jobs, and moving to a new city: “If you can’t decide, the answer is no.”
Describing the approach of running uphill: “Simple heuristic: If you’re evenly split on a difficult decision, take the path more painful in the short term.”
How reading can dramatically improve your life.
Including a list of favorite books, authors, and blogs.
Best quotes
“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.”
“I view scientists as being at the top of the production chain for humanity.”
“Escape competition through authenticity.”
“You can only achieve mastery in one or two things. It’s usually things you’re obsessed about.”
“Intentions don’t matter. Actions do. That’s why being ethical is hard.”
“Whenever you can in life, optimize for independence rather than pay.”
“Earn with your mind, not your time.”
“Value your time at an hourly rate, and ruthlessly spend to save time at that rate. You will never be worth more than you think you’re worth.”
“Status is an old zero-sum game.”
“Judgment is underrated.”
“When solving problems: the older the problem, the older the solution.”
“Happiness is the state when nothing is missing.”
“I have lowered my identity.”
“Anticipation for our vices pulls us into the future. Eliminating vices makes it easier to be present.”
“Most of our suffering comes from avoidance.”
“Anger is its own punishment. An angry person trying to push your head below water is drowning at the same time.”
“Inspiration is perishable—act on it immediately.”
Who would enjoy this book?
Readers who are interested in the aphorisms of a successful and happy entrepreneur or who are already followers of Naval Ravikant will likely enjoy The Almanack of Naval Ravikant.
Who would not enjoy this book?
Readers who are looking for a recipe to become rich or an organized program to achieve happiness are unlikely to enjoy The Almanack of Naval Ravikant.
Conclusion
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant is an enjoyable and insightful book on perspectives and general approaches that lead to wealth and happiness.
