#10.
Naval Ravikant is an Angel investor (CEO and co-founder of AngelList) who defines self-esteem as just the reputation that you have with yourself.
#9.
He also has some great thoughts on reading. This is big. Because Tim asked him:
What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made?
Every book I read that wasn’t assigned to me or that I didn’t read with a purpose in mind. The means of learning are abundant—it’s the desire to learn that’s scarce. Cultivate that desire by reading what you want, not what you’re “supposed to.”
#8.
Naval is filled with great quotes so we are going to keep it going! Tim asked him:
In the last five years, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your life?
Happiness is a choice you make and a skill you develop. The mind is just as malleable as the body. We spend so much time and effort trying to change the external world, other people, and our own bodies, all the while accepting ourselves the way we were programmed in our youths. We accept the voice that talks to us in our head all the time as the source of all truth. But all of it is malleable, every day is new, and memory and identity are burdens from the past that prevent us from living freely in the present.
#7.
Tim asks Naval:
What advice would you give to a smart, driven college student about to enter the “real world”? What advice should they ignore?
Advice: Follow your intellectual curiosity over whatever is “hot” right now. If your curiosity ever leads you to a place where society eventually wants to go, you’ll get paid extremely well. Do everything you were going to do, but with less angst, less suffering, less emotion. Everything takes time. Ignore: The news. Complainers, angry people, high-conflict people.
#6.
Tim asked Naval:
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
He says: Memento mori—“ remember that you have to die.” All of this will go to nothing. Remember before you were born? Just like that.
Let’s go ahead and switch gears for Matt Ridley.
#5.
Matt Ridley is an award-winning author of books like “The Red Queen”. Who comes high incidentally on Naval’s must-read list of must-read authors. Tim asked him:
What’s the book or books you’ve given most as a gift:
And he says: “Two of the books that have influenced me the most are ‘the Double Helix’ by James D. Watson and ‘The Selfish Gene’ by Richard Dawkins.
Read these 2 books he says and you will get a great answer to a question that has baffled mankind for millions of years: What is life?
#4.
Tim asked Matt:
What purchase of $ 100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months (or in recent memory)?
SleepPhones. It’s a headband that goes over your eyes and ears and that has inside two ultraflat earphones so you can listen to books as you fall asleep.
That sounds great because I like to listen to books before I go to bed too – but the earphones deep inside the headband always hurt my ears a little bit. But I do it anyway. I like creak my neck. I’m like “I can handle this. Alright time to sleep. Press play. Put me to sleep Richard Dawkins.”
I have given an innumberable amount of SleepPhones to friends and families as gifts. However, I’m not a big fan of the wrap-around winter hat concept. Part of me also doesn’t like wearing something on my head that is connected to bluetooth, even though I read somewhere that bluetooth gives off as much radiation as a flashlight shining on your skin!
#3.
Matt, In the last five years, what new belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your life?
The habit of listening to books as I fall asleep. This has cured my sometimes-serious insomnia without mood-altering drugs or futile and expensive psychotherapy and given me a chance to “read” even more books. By setting the timer carefully and rewinding a little every time I wake, I can miss almost none of a book.
Okay I’m going to chime in here again. Yes, I love to do this. It’s like crack. However, at this time in my life, I have noticed that I get better sleep by leaving my phone in another room. Yes, the sleep area is for sleep – and I won’t trade this for any amount of knowledge. I’ll get my audiobook hit in later in the day when I go for my walk.
#2.
Bozoma Saint John is the chief brand officer at Uber – (CBO?). Fast Company has included Bozoma on its list of its “100 Most Creative People.”
Bozoma, If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it, what would it say and why? Are there any quotes you think of often or live your life by?
Hands down, it would be “Be the change you want to see in the world.” We spend far too much time complaining about the way things are, and forget that we have the power to change anything and everything.
I agree with this, even though it can feel powerless. The key is to take baby steps and to do the smallest thing in the world you can toward the change you want to see.
#1.
This is a great quote that Tim is pondering:
“An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.” – Niels Bohr, Danish physicist and Nobel Prize winner
