Naval: Recent Episodes
Naval
Naval with three founders who are living in the future: Garry Tan (Y Combinator), Daniel Francis (Abel Police), and Farbood Nivi (A-LIST).
00:00 Guest Intros
02:35 Live in the Future
03:58 Will AI Outsmart us?
07:43 In the Anthropic Breadline
09:59 The Tech Genie Is Out
12:33 We Invested in COVID?!
14:25 Good Writing Is Novelty
18:50 Living Like It’s 2028
24:32 Truth dot ai
30:18 Does China have the Weights?
35:38 Everyone has AI Anxiety
39:32 Have Your Agent Talk to My Agent
42:01 What if Open Source takes the Lead?
44:03 The Sun is Setting on Google
48:00 Ride the AGI
50:46 Will There be Startups?
54:05 Defending Taiwan
1:00:05 The California Empire
1:01:26 If the U.S. Falls
1:03:11 Universal Basic Robot
1:06:01 Humans as AI Handlers
Full episode with 20 minutes of new material at the end.
Software factories, vertical integration, the regulatory frontier, and the autonomous company.
Part 1: Waste Tokens, Save Time
00:00 Three Frontier Founders
01:27 AI Software Factories
04:15 Waste Tokens, Save Time
05:47 Models Instructing Humans
09:29 Is Pure Software Dead?
12:03 You Don't Get Stuck Anymore
Part 2: Vibe Coding Hardware
14:39 Vibe Coding a Turbine Blade
18:07 Open Source Compounds China's Advantage
20:15 You Always Want the Smartest Model
22:44 Software Still Needs Hands
24:43 Humans Are Becoming Verifiers
Part 3: The Regulatory Frontier
27:53 The Regulatory Red Queen Race
32:32 Why There's No Innovation in Healthcare
36:49 We Need a True 50-State Experiment
40:31 China's FDA Is Beating Ours
43:37 Healthcare Is a Communist Society Inside Capitalism
45:57 Sid's Story: N-of-1 Medicine
Part 4: The Autonomous Company
47:49 Autonomous Infrastructure
51:25 Your Job Is to Train the Agent
54:54 The Next Lord of the Rings
59:08 What's Your Definition of Art?
1:05:00 Can AI Have New Ideas?
1:07:03 A Very Large Number of Small Teams
With Guillermo Rauch (Vercel), Blake Scholl (Boom Supersonic), and Max Hodak (Science).
Transcript: http://nav.al/industrial
00:00 Be Credible
03:18 “Yes, And”
04:31 Selfish Honesty
05:37 Charisma Is Confidence + Love
07:56 Don’t Manage, Lead
11:16 Hunt Together
14:51 Feed Your (Good) Obsessions
18:57 Sell the Truth
21:07 Good Deal or No Deal
23:39 The Age of Nonlinear Returns
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Transcript: http://nav.al/sell
USVC is a product of AngelList, where we are founders and hold equity.
00:00 The Fully Interconnected Startup
04:14 You Don’t Need the Explicit Intranet Anymore
06:55 May You Live in Interesting Times
10:40 Drones Democratize Violence
12:43 Biothreats Could Also Get Democratized
15:09 AI Interfaces Unlock Hardware
17:35 Optimism Requires Creativity
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Transcript: http://nav.al/over
USVC is a product of AngelList, where we are founders and hold equity.
A Return to Coding 00:15
The Personal App Store 03:08
Vibe Coding Is a Video Game with Real-World Rewards 06:12
Pure Software Is Uninvestable 10:23
A Place for Each Model 14:09
AI Is Eager to Please 17:44
Why Math and Coding? 21:58
The Beginning of the End of Apple’s Dominance 24:04
Coding Agents As Customer Service Reps 27:43
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Transcript: http://nav.al/code
Presented by AngelList: http://angellist.com/podcast
We founded AngelList and have equity in the company.
If you want to learn, do 0:00
Vibe coding is the new product management 2:13
Training models is the new coding 6:49
Is traditional software engineering dead? 10:13
There is no demand for average 13:07
The hottest new programming language is English 14:12
AI is adapting to us faster than we are adapting to it 18:36
No entrepreneur is worried about AI taking their job 22:56
The goal is not to have a job 26:46
AIs are not alive 29:49
AI fails the only true test of intelligence 32:55
Early adopters of AI have an enormous edge 36:49
AI meets you exactly where you are 39:37
Always leverage the best intelligence 43:02
If you can't define it, you can't program it 44:37
The solution to AI anxiety is action 49:37
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Transcript: http://nav.al/ai
The Best Only Want to Work With the Best 0:00
You'll Never Be Able to Hire Anybody Better Than You 3:49
Break Every Rule to Get the Best People 6:45
It Just Takes a Small Group of People to Create Something Great 10:19
Find Undiscovered Talent Before Everyone Else 14:56
Great People Have Taste in Other People 19:04
Every Great Engineer Is Also an Artist 21:24
Early Teams Look Like Cults 25:34
You Can’t Make a Product that is Simple Enough 27:59
The Founder's Personality Is the Company 30:37
Good Teams Throw Away Far More Product Than They Keep 34:45
All New Information Starts as Misinformation 38:41
Geniuses Only 40:47
Practice Your Craft At the Edge of Your Capability 44:24
Curate People 49:14
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Transcript: http://nav.al/curate-people
Inspiration All the Way Down 0:00
Life is Lived in the Arena 2:40
If You Want to Learn, Do 4:51
In Most Difficult Things in Life, The Solution is Indirect 6:15
When You Truly Work for Yourself 7:30
Find Your Specific Knowledge Through Action 10:12
You Have to Enjoy It a Lot 12:06
Pause, Reflect, See How Well it Did 14:45
Blame Yourself for Everything, and Preserve Your Agency 16:23
It Is Impossible to Fool Mother Nature 21:03
The Best Authors Respect the Reader's Time 25:17
Most Books Should Be Skimmed, A Few Should Be Devoured 28:18
Good Products Are Hard to Vary 32:01
Find the Simplest Thing That Works 35:27
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Transcript http://nav.al/in-the-arena
Connecting the Four Theories into a Unified Whole 0:34
Emergence Is Fundamental 3:18
Constructor Theory Could Transform Multiple Fields 8:30
Innovation Often Emerges Unexpectedly 22:46
Knowledge Evolves Independently Across Universes 29:31
Anti-Rational Memes Hinder Human Progress 31:10
The West Versus the Rest 37:32
Error-correcting Institutions 47:46
The Bucket Theory of the Mind 51:59
Wokeism and the West 1:07:12
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Transcript http://nav.al/deutsch-files-iv
Proving something about AGI is inherently impossible 0:00
Creativity is not just mixing things together 3:05
The superiority of explanatory knowledge 7:48
Knowledge laden information is more resilient than any physical object 12:36
The problems of cloning people 15:05
Objections to Taking Children Seriously 19:23
“Do what you like” is bad advice 38:17
Creativity versus nature 41:57
Deutsch’s “fanciful” conjectures 47:52
We must give up on the idea of an ultimate explanation 53:06
—
Transcript http://nav.al/deutsch-files-iii
The universality of computation and explanation 0:00
The growth of knowledge begins with problems 4:56
Problems are clashes between ideas 9:57
Evolution is not the survival of the fittest 14:50
Bad philosophy in quantum theory 26:46
Free will is intimately connected with knowledge-creation 33:41
Wealth is not a number, it is a set of transformations 49:03
The principle of optimism 53:27
Constructor Theory 57:21
How to make a better world 1:10:05
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Transcript http://nav.al/deutsch-files-ii
Good Science Fiction is Hard to Vary 2:08
ChatGPT is Not a Step Towards AGI 5:36
Creativity is Fundamentally Impossible to Define 13:35
The Binary of Personhood and Non-Personhood 23:41
David Deutsch’s Life Philosophy 32:06
The Clash of Civilizations 44:03
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Transcript http://nav.al/deutsch-files-i
Discuss on Airchat http://getairchat.com/arjun/deutschfilesdiscussion
Popper’s Impact 0:00
Creative Guesses 2:18
Experiments, Demonstrations, and Measurements 4:25
Taking Theories Seriously 10:25
New Paradigms 15:58
Foundations of Science 23:30
The Enlightenment 25:39
Misinformation 29:45
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Transcript http://nav.al/david-deutsch-2
Introduction 0:00
The Human Race 2:11
Knowledge Creation 12:34
AGI 15:50
Taking Children Seriously 23:30
Good Explanations 27:49
Quantum Computers 36:35
—
Transcript http://nav.al/david-deutsch
The elder statesman of smart contract blockchains 0:00
The Ethereum community 1:22
The DAO hack 2:34
Vitalik’s finest and worst moments in protocol politics 5:18
Becoming a Twitter memelord 7:45
Vitalik’s influence on Eth today 8:59
It’s getting harder to do big things in Eth 10:38
Goals outside Ethereum 12:17
Crypto needs the good-natured 15:00
Russia 18:06
Vitalik’s lifestyle 19:51
Closing thoughts 22:06
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Transcript http://nav.al/vitalik-2
Introduction 0:00
Haseeb’s background 0:22
Vitalik’s background 2:43
A blockchain you can build any app on top of 7:02
Eth trades efficiency for transparency 10:18
Like plain text, Eth is simple and efficient 12:41
Only high-value transactions can afford the blockchain 13:08
Doing away with ‘trusted’ third parties 14:09
Trading performance for security 14:43
‘Impregnable castles made of math’ 16:23
Ethereum’s limitations are latency and privacy 16:56
There are ways to get back your privacy 19:32
Can Eth provide a high level of decentralization and a high level of scaling at the same time? 20:39
Sharding leads to more centralization 21:49
Verifiability at the expense of scaling 24:00
How much decentralization is the right amount? 25:11
What happens when subsidies to join nodes disappear? 27:07
Stateless clients make it possible to verify the chain with very little on your hard drive 28:18
Staking culture is difficult to cultivate 28:52
New blockchain players tend to go for minimum viable decentralization 29:54
People don’t value privacy until somebody goes to jail over it 30:32
Eth is ‘simple at the base’ 31:12
Social recovery wallets make it easier to be your own bank 31:44
Block space is getting expensive 32:41
There’s not a lot of innovation on Bitcoin, by design 33:35
Blockchain’s ‘free-rider effect’ 34:57
Innovation is slowest at Layer 1 35:34
Layer 2 moves faster because it’s permissionless 36:59
What if we froze Layer 1 today? 37:25
Data for computation trade-off 38:57
Benchmarking blockchains apples-to-apples 40:02
Enshrining decentralization 41:43
Tensions between scaling and preserving value 42:27
There will be multiple stores of value 43:54
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Transcript http://nav.al/vitalik
Discovering the truth can change you where self-improvement fails.
Transcript: http://nav.al/truth
Addiction holds together artificial relationships and fake activities.
Transcript: http://nav.al/unacceptable
Pursuing pleasure for its own sake creates addiction.
Transcript: http://nav.al/addiction
If you're a driven, unhappy person, your mind will be on 24/7.
Transcript: http://nav.al/inefficient
You can increase your happiness without losing your drive. Transcript: http://nav.al/smart
Happiness is returning to a state where nothing is missing.
Transcript: http://nav.al/desire
It's easier to fulfill your material desires than to renounce them.
http://nav.al/material
This podcast is a practical philosophy of health, wealth and happiness.
Transcript: https://nav.al/philosopher
This giant episode collects every interview I’ve done on “How to Get Rich.” It includes 10 minutes of unreleased material—at the end—on “Finding Time to Invest in Yourself.”
Transcript: http://nav.al/rich
Seek Wealth, Not Money or Status 1:30
Make Abundance for the World 6:40
Free Markets Are Intrinsic to Humans 10:21
Making Money Isn’t About Luck 14:19
Make Luck Your Destiny 19:25
You Won’t Get Rich Renting Out Your Time 24:00
Live Below Your Means for Freedom 28:40
Give Society What It Doesn’t Know How to Get 31:01
The Internet Has Massively Broadened Career Possibilities 33:44
Play Long-term Games With Long-term People 38:23
Pick Partners With Intelligence, Energy and Integrity 44:24
Partner With Rational Optimists 49:09
Arm Yourself With Specific Knowledge 54:34
Specific Knowledge Is Highly Creative or Technical 1:00:53
Learn to Sell, Learn to Build 1:06:24
Read What You Love Until You Love to Read 1:10:59
The Foundations Are Math and Logic 1:12:00
There’s No Actual Skill Called “Business” 1:16:48
Embrace Accountability to Get Leverage 1:20:06
Take Accountability to Earn Equity 1:25:37
Labor and Capital Are Old Leverage 1:30:06
Product and Media are New Leverage 1:35:01
Product Leverage is Egalitarian 1:39:42
Pick a Business Model With Leverage 1:44:56
Example: From Laborer to Entrepreneur 1:50:51
Judgment Is the Decisive Skill 2:01:15
Set an Aspirational Hourly Rate 2:07:41
Work As Hard As You Can 2:11:26
Be Too Busy to “Do Coffee” 2:16:34
Keep Redefining What You Do 2:20:38
Escape Competition Through Authenticity 2:22:41
Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes 2:28:17
Eventually You Will Get What You Deserve 2:30:53
Reject Most Advice 2:35:00
A Calm Mind, a Fit Body, a House Full of Love 2:37:55
There Are No Get Rich Quick Schemes 2:42:02
Productize Yourself 2:46:42
Accountability Means Letting People Criticize You 2:48:55
We Should Eventually Be Working for Ourselves 2:55:33
Being Ethical Is Long-Term Greedy 2:56:58
Envy Can Be Useful, or It Can Eat You Alive 3:00:23
Principal-Agent Problem: Act Like an Owner 3:03:51
Kelly Criterion: Avoid Ruin 3:10:33
Schelling Point: Cooperating Without Communicating 3:12:03
Turn Short-Term Games Into Long-Term Games 3:13:55
Compounding Relationships Make Life Easier 3:16:36
Price Discrimination: Charge Some People More 3:19:04
Consumer Surplus: Getting More Than You Paid For 3:20:14
Net Present Value: What Future Income Is Worth Today 3:21:03
Externalities: Calculating the Hidden Costs of Products 3:22:05
Bonus Material: Finding Time to Invest in Yourself 3:23:47
Externalities let you account for the true cost of products by including hidden costs like environmental damage.
• Pricing externalities properly is more effective than feel-good measures 0:32
• Properly pricing externalities can save resources in a tremendous way 1:10
Transcript: http://nav.al/externalities
Calculate what future income is worth today by applying a discount to its future value.
• Figure out what future income is worth today by applying a discount rate 0:00
Transcript: http://nav.al/npv
A lot of people are willing to pay more than what companies charge.
• Consumer surplus is the extra value you get when you pay less than you were willing 0:00
Transcript: http://nav.al/surplus
You can charge people for extras based on their propensity to pay.
• Price discrimination is a technique for charging certain people more 0:00
• Rich people and large enterprises are willing to pay more 0:51
Transcript: http://nav.al/price-discrimination
Life gets a lot easier when you know someone’s got your back.
• Compounding relationships make life easier 0:00
• It’s better to have a few compounding relationships than many shallow ones 1:11
• It takes just as much effort to create a small business as a large one 1:40
Transcript: http://nav.al/relationships
Improve your leverage in negotiations by turning short-term relationships into long-term ones.
• Pareto optimal solutions require a trade-off to improve any criterion 0:00
• Negotiations are won by whoever cares less 0:44
• Convert single-move games to multi-move games 1:54
Transcript: http://nav.al/pareto-optimal
People who can’t communicate can cooperate by anticipating the other person’s actions.
• Use social norms to cooperate when you can’t communicate 0:00
• You can find Schelling points in business, art and politics 1:14
Transcript: http://nav.al/schelling-point
Don't ruin your reputation or get wiped to zero.
• Don't bet everything on one big gamble 0:00
• Ruining your reputation is the same as getting wiped to zero 0:54
Transcript: http://nav.al/kelly-criterion
If you think and act like an owner, it’s only a matter of time until you become an owner.
• A principal is an owner; an agent is an employee 0:00
• A principal’s incentives are different than an agent’s incentives 1:08
• If you can work on incentives, don't work on anything else 2:15
• When you do deals, it’s better to have the same incentives 3:15
• If you’re an employee, your most important job is to think like a principal 4:05
• Deal with small firms to avoid the principal-agent problem 5:29
Transcript: http://nav.al/principal-agent
Envy can give you a powerful boost, or it can eat you alive if you let it follow you.
• Suffering through the wrong thing can motivate you to find the right thing 0:00
• Being a lawyer was not what I was meant to do 1:14
• Envy can be useful or it can eat you alive 2:28
Transcript: http://nav.al/envy
If you cut fair deals, you will get paid in the long run.
• Ethics isn’t something you study; it’s something you do 0:00
• Trust leads to compounding relationships 0:51
• Being ethical attracts other long-term players 1:19
• Being ethical is long-term greedy 1:58
• If you cut fair deals, you will get paid in the long run 2:40
Transcript: http://nav.al/ethics
The goal is that we are eventually wealthy and working for ourselves.
• This advice is for anybody who wants to be entrepreneurial 0:00
• Middle age can be the most fruitful time to apply this advice 0:48
• Look up the value chain to find leverage 1:58
• You will do better in a small organization 2:43
• The goal is that we are all working for ourselves 3:25
Transcript: http://nav.al/target-audience
Misunderstanding accountability, and other mistakes on the path to creating wealth.
• Accountability means letting people criticize you 0:00
• The most interesting parts should be the ones you disagree with 1:06
• Get the free leverage that's available in tech 1:53
• Not doing things because other people can't do them is living in denial 2:21
• Realize your philanthropic vision by running a business 2:54
Transcript: http://nav.al/common-mistakes
This giant episode collects every interview I’ve done on “How to Get Rich.” It includes 10 minutes of unreleased material—at the end—on “Finding Time to Invest in Yourself.”
Transcript: http://nav.al/rich
Seek Wealth, Not Money or Status 1:30
Make Abundance for the World 6:40
Free Markets Are Intrinsic to Humans 10:21
Making Money Isn’t About Luck 14:19
Make Luck Your Destiny 19:25
You Won’t Get Rich Renting Out Your Time 24:00
Live Below Your Means for Freedom 28:40
Give Society What It Doesn’t Know How to Get 31:01
The Internet Has Massively Broadened Career Possibilities 33:44
Play Long-term Games With Long-term People 38:23
Pick Partners With Intelligence, Energy and Integrity 44:24
Partner With Rational Optimists 49:09
Arm Yourself With Specific Knowledge 54:34
Specific Knowledge Is Highly Creative or Technical 1:00:53
Learn to Sell, Learn to Build 1:06:24
Read What You Love Until You Love to Read 1:10:59
The Foundations Are Math and Logic 1:12:00
There’s No Actual Skill Called “Business” 1:16:48
Embrace Accountability to Get Leverage 1:20:06
Take Accountability to Earn Equity 1:25:37
Labor and Capital Are Old Leverage 1:30:06
Product and Media are New Leverage 1:35:01
Product Leverage is Egalitarian 1:39:42
Pick a Business Model With Leverage 1:44:56
Example: From Laborer to Entrepreneur 1:50:51
Judgment Is the Decisive Skill 2:01:15
Set an Aspirational Hourly Rate 2:07:41
Work As Hard As You Can 2:11:26
Be Too Busy to “Do Coffee” 2:16:34
Keep Redefining What You Do 2:20:38
Escape Competition Through Authenticity 2:22:41
Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes 2:28:17
Eventually You Will Get What You Deserve 2:30:53
Reject Most Advice 2:35:00
A Calm Mind, a Fit Body, a House Full of Love 2:37:55
There Are No Get Rich Quick Schemes 2:42:02
Productize Yourself 2:46:42
Accountability Means Letting People Criticize You 2:48:55
We Should Eventually Be Working for Ourselves 2:55:33
Being Ethical Is Long-Term Greedy 2:56:58
Envy Can Be Useful, or It Can Eat You Alive 3:00:23
Principal-Agent Problem: Act Like an Owner 3:03:51
Kelly Criterion: Avoid Ruin 3:10:33
Schelling Point: Cooperating Without Communicating 3:12:03
Turn Short-Term Games Into Long-Term Games 3:13:55
Compounding Relationships Make Life Easier 3:16:36
Price Discrimination: Charge Some People More 3:19:04
Consumer Surplus: Getting More Than You Paid For 3:20:14
Net Present Value: What Future Income Is Worth Today 3:21:03
Externalities: Calculating the Hidden Costs of Products 3:22:05
Bonus Material: Finding Time to Invest in Yourself 3:23:47
Figure out what you're uniquely good at and apply as much leverage as possible.
• Figure out what you're uniquely good at and apply as much leverage as possible 0:00
• Find hobbies that make you rich, fit and creative 1:07
Transcript: http://nav.al/productize-yourself
Get rich quick schemes are just someone else getting rich off you.
• There are no get rich quick schemes 0:00
• We don't have ads because it would ruin our credibility 0:56
• Every founder has to lie to every employee 2:02
• Anyone giving advice on how to get rich should have made their money elsewhere 3:02
Transcript: http://nav.al/rich-quick
When you're finally wealthy, you'll realize it wasn't what you were seeking in the first place.
• When you're wealthy, you'll realize it wasn't what you were seeking 0:00
• A calm mind, a fit body and a house full of love must be earned 1:00
• Practical advice for a calmer internal state 1:52
• A lot of divorces happen over money, a lot of battles happen over internal anger 3:14
Transcript: http://nav.al/finally-wealthy
Most advice is people giving you their winning lottery ticket numbers.
• The best founders listen to everyone but make up their own mind 0:00
• Advice is maxims you can recall later, when you get your own experience 1:29
Transcript: http://nav.al/reject-advice
Apply specific knowledge with leverage and eventually you will get what you deserve.
• On a long enough time scale you will get paid 0:00
• What are you really good at that the market values? 1:59
Transcript: http://nav.al/deserve
Competition will blind you to greater games. You're one step away from a better market.
• Businesses that seem like they're in direct competition really aren't 0:00
• My first company got caught up in the wrong game 1:23
Transcript: http://nav.al/stupid-games
Competition can make you play the wrong game. No one can compete with you on being you.
• Competition will trap you in a lesser game 0:00
• No one can compete with you on being you 1:27
• In entrepreneurship, the masses are never right 2:40
• Combine your vocation and avocation 3:45
Transcript: http://nav.al/competition-authenticity
Become the best in the world at what you do. Keep redefining what you do until this is true.
• Keep redefining what you do until you're the best at what you do 0:00
• Find founder-product-market fit 1:35
Transcript: http://nav.al/redefining
You should be too busy to “do coffee”, while still keeping an uncluttered calendar.
• Be too busy to “do coffee” while keeping an uncluttered calendar 0:00
• People will meet with you when you have proof of work 2:00
• Networking is overrated even early in your career 2:09
Transcript: http://nav.al/meetings
Work as hard as you can. Even though what you work on and who you work with are more important.
• Work as hard as you can 0:00
• But what you work on and who you work with are more important 1:00
• Nobody really works 80 hours a week 2:22
• Inspiration is perishable 3:05
• Impatience with actions, patience with results 3:36
Transcript: http://nav.al/work-hard
If outsourcing a task will cost less than your hourly rate, outsource it.
• Set and enforce an aspirational hourly rate 0:00
• You can't penny pinch your way to wealth 1:27
• My aspirational rate was $5,000/hr 1:56
• If you can outsource something for less than your hourly rate, outsource it 2:57
• Your hourly rate should seem absurdly high 3:39
Transcript: http://nav.al/hourly-rate
Everything we've discussed so far has been setting you up to apply judgment.
• In an age of infinite leverage, judgment becomes the most important skill 0:00
• Everything else you do is setting you up to apply judgment 1:21
• Judgment is knowing the long-term consequences of your actions 2:40
• Without experience, judgment is often less than useless 3:15
• The people with the best judgment are among the least emotional 4:05
• A lot of the top investors often sound like philosophers 5:18
• The more outraged someone is, the worse their judgment 6:00
Transcript: http://nav.al/judgment
The continuum from laborer to real estate tech company goes from low accountability to high specific knowledge, accountability and leverage.
• Laborers get paid hourly and have low accountability 0:19
• General contractors get equity, but they're also taking risk 1:20
• Property developers pocket the profit by applying capital leverage 2:14
• Architects, large developers and REITs are even higher in the stack 3:16
• Real estate tech companies apply the maximum leverage 4:05
Transcript: http://nav.al/laborer-tech
Ideally, you should pick a business model with network effects, low marginal costs and scale economies.
• Scale economies: the more you produce, the cheaper it gets 0:00
• Zero marginal cost of reproduction: producing more is free 0:51
• Network effects: value grows as the square of the customers 1:34
• Network effect businesses are natural monopolies 2:26
• In a network effect, each new user adds value to the existing users 3:06
• Zero marginal cost businesses can pivot into network effect businesses 5:01
Transcript: http://nav.al/business-models
Labor and capital are limited to the people who control those resources. But products reach global markets.
• Product leverage is a positive-sum game 0:00
• Status goods are limited to a few people 0:57
• The best products tend to be targeted at the middle class 1:25
• Creating wealth with product leads to more ethical wealth 2:06
• You want to use the product that is used by the most people 3:06
• Capital and labor are becoming permissionless 4:24
Transcript: http://nav.al/egalitarian-leverage
Product and media are the leverage of new wealth. Create software and media that work for you while you sleep.
• Product and media are the new leverage 0:00
• Product leverage is where the new fortunes are made 0:55
• Combining all three forms of leverage is a magic combination 1:28
• Product and media leverage are permissionless 2:03
• The robots army is already here—code lets you tell them what to do 2:59
Transcript: http://nav.al/product-media
Wealth requires leverage. Labor and capital are older forms of leverage that everyone is fighting over.
• Our brains aren't evolved to comprehend new forms of leverage 0:00
• Society overvalues labor leverage 1:08
• You want the minimum amount of labor that allows you to use the other forms of leverage 1:56
• Capital has been the dominant form of leverage in the last century 2:40
• You need specific knowledge and accountability to obtain capital 4:52
Transcript: http://nav.al/labor-capital
If you have high accountability, you're less replaceable and you can get a piece of the business.
• Accountability is how you're going to get equity 0:00
• Taking accountability is like taking equity in all your work 0:29
• The downside of accountability is not that large 2:11
• Accountability is reputational skin in the game 4:30
Transcript: http://nav.al/accountability-equity
Embrace accountability. Society will reward you with leverage.
• You have to have accountability to get leverage 0:00
• Take business risks under your own name 0:54
• A well-functioning team has clear accountability for each position 2:09
• People who can fail in public have a lot of power 3:47
Transcript: http://nav.al/accountability-leverage
There's no actual skill called business. Avoid business schools and magazines.
• There's no actual skill called business 0:00
• Doing is faster than watching 0:55
• The number of “doing” iterations drives the learning curve 2:49
• If you're willing to bleed a little every day, you may win big later 3:53
Transcript: http://nav.al/skill-business
If you understand mathematics and logic, you have the basis for understanding everything else.
• The ultimate foundations are math and logic: 0:00
• It’s better to read a great book slowly than to fly through a hundred books quickly: 1:22
• Learn persuasion and programming: 2:08
Transcript: http://nav.al/math-logic
You should be able to pick up any book in the library and read it.
• Read what you love until you love to read: 0:00
• Read the original scientific books in a field: 1:44
• Don't fear any book: 2:43
• The means of learning are abundant, the desire to learn is scarce: 3:54
Transcript: http://nav.al/love-read
Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.
• Learn to sell, learn to build 0:00
• The Silicon Valley model is a builder and seller 1:07
• If you can do both you will be unstoppable 1:52
• I'd rather teach an engineer marketing than a marketer engineering 2:48
• Building is better when you're starting out, sales scales better over time 4:33
Transcript: http://nav.al/build-sell
Specific knowledge tends to be creative or technical. It's on the bleeding edge of technology, art and communication.
• Specific knowledge can be taught through apprenticeships 0:00
• Specific knowledge is often highly creative or technical 0:45
• Specific knowledge is specific to the individual and situation 2:02
• You can't be too deliberate about assembling specific knowledge 3:01
• Build specific knowledge where you are a natural 4:44
Transcript: http://nav.al/creative-technical
Arm yourself with specific knowledge. It can't be trained but it can be found by pursuing your genuine curiosity.
• Arm yourself with specific knowledge 0:00
• Specific knowledge can't be trained 1:47
• Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your curiosity 2:34
• Building specific knowledge will feel like play to you 3:53
Transcript: http://nav.al/specific-knowledge
Don't partner with cynics and pessimists. Their beliefs are self-fulfilling.
• Don't partner with pessimists 0:00
• Partner with rational optimists 1:20
• We're descended from pessimists 2:28
• BOCTAOE 4:13
Transcript: http://nav.al/rational-optimists
Picking partners with high intelligence, energy and integrity is the three-part checklist that you can't compromise on.
• Pick business partners with high intelligence, energy and integrity 0:00
• Motivation of the people you work with has to come intrinsically 1:18
• Integrity is what someone does, despite what they say they do 2:18
Transcript: http://nav.al/intelligence-energy-integrity
Pick an industry where you can play long-term games with long-term people. All returns in life come from compound interest over many turns of the game.
• Play long-term games with long-term people 0:00
• When you switch industries, you're starting over from scratch 2:21
• Long-term players make each other rich 4:02
• Returns come from compound interest in iterated games 4:49
Transcript: http://nav.al/long-term
The Internet has massively broadened the possible space of careers, by allowing you to scale any niche obsession.
• The Internet has massively broadened the possible space of careers 0:00
• The Internet allows you to scale any niche obsession 1:22
• Escape competition through authenticity 3:33
Transcript: http://nav.al/possible-careers
Society will pay you for creating what it wants, but doesn’t know how to get, and delivering it at scale.
• Give society what it wants, but doesn't know how to get—at scale 0:00
• Figure out what product you can provide and then figure out how to scale it 0:57
Transcript: http://nav.al/product-scale
People living far below their means enjoy a freedom that people busy upgrading their lifestyles just can't fathom.
• People living below their means have freedom 0:00
• The most dangerous things are heroin and a monthly salary 0:38
• Ideally, you'll make your money in discrete lumps 1:17
Transcript: http://nav.al/salary-freedom
You won't get rich renting out your time, because you can't earn non-linearly.
• You won't get rich renting out your time 0:00
• Renting out your time means you're essentially replaceable 1:23
• You must own equity to gain your financial freedom 2:17
• You want a career where your inputs don't match your outputs 2:41
Transcript: http://nav.al/renting-time
Build your character in a way so luck becomes deterministic.
• Build your character so luck becomes your destiny 0:00
• Build your character so opportunity finds you 1:12
• You have to be a little eccentric to be out on the frontier by yourself 2:39
Transcript: http://nav.al/luck-destiny
Making money isn't about luck. It's about becoming the kind of person who makes money.
• Making money isn't about luck 0:00
• Blind luck 0:46
• Luck from hustling 0:55
• Luck from preparation 1:35
• Luck from your unique character 1:51
• In 1,000 parallel universes, you want to be wealthy in 999 of them 2:54
• Wealth stacks up one chip at a time, not all at once 4:11
Transcript: http://nav.al/money-luck
We're the only animals who cooperate across genetic boundaries, because we can track credits and debits in voluntary exchanges.
• Free markets are intrinsic to the human species 0:00
• Too many takers and not enough makers will plunge a society into ruin 1:48
Transcript: http://nav.al/capitalism-intrinsic
Wealth isn't about taking something from somebody else—it's about creating abundance for the world.
• Ethical wealth creation makes abundance for the world 0:00
• Everyone can be wealthy 1:28
Transcript: http://nav.al/ethical-wealth
The difference between wealth, money and status.
• Wealth is assets that earn while you sleep 0:56
• Money is how we transfer wealth 2:28
• Status is your rank in the social hierarchy 3:08
Transcript: https://nav.al/seek-wealth
This is the first interview between Naval and Nivi on How to Get Rich. These interviews are based on Naval's tweetstorm at https://twitter.com/naval/status/1002103360646823936.