Book Reviews

The diary of Naval is divided into two major sections – his thoughts on wealth creation and his thoughts on happiness, mediation, life, science, and philosophy.

Noticeably short and practical book. Infinitely usable and inspiring. It will change you in some way for sure.

It is available for free on his website to download and read [Almanack of Naval Ravikant (navalmanack.com)]. I bought a copy as I wanted the inspiration to sit on my bookshelf, ready for me to pick it up when I feel like it.

If you are new to Naval, I would recommend first listening to at least one of his big interviews, watch the Joe Rogan one. So that you get the basic feel of his style and where he comes from. The book is a collection of all his interviews, writings, and sayings. So, there is no prose, or chapters as such. It is questions and answers format and the big sections I said in the beginning. So, some pre-planning will help.

For those who follow him, a lot of this book has already been said. So, buy if you want but can skip also.

Key Takeaways:

1. Owning equity and having leverage is key. Work towards these to create wealth.
   
2. It helps a lot to read. Read, synthesize, and create mental models to live your life. Keep updating the models based on new evidence.
   
3. Happiness is when your mind is at peace.

PS: I liked his science, happiness, philosophy section more than his wealth creation section. I am in the minority but that’s fine.

My rating: ***** (5 out of 5 stars)

Show Your Work! is one of those books that gets recommended a lot by creatives, or in the life changing books section. Now I can see why!

The book is short, very to-the-point, no fluff, useful insights on every page. You can see that these can also be blog posts, but all the chapters do follow a structure about showing your work.

The book comprehensively debunks many of the myths associated with online work. This will read like gospel to many folks who know they want to show their work but just can’t due to these inhibitions. If you are one of those, just read this book.

Key takeaways:

1. Lone Genius is a myth. Everybody is a unique type of genius.

2. People do not care, or your friends will not care if you start writing a blog or showing your life on YouTube. Most people are busy in their own lives to care about what you are doing.

3. Do not worry about platform, or hosting or whatnot. Worry about having a unique voice.

4. Do not perfect or over plan. Iterate fast and show your work consistently.

My Rating:
***** (5 out of 5 stars)