Loading...
Loading...
0 / 10 episodes
No episodes yet
Tap + Later on any episode to add it here.
Part 2 of our new format with three frontier founders: Guillermo Rauch (Vercel), Blake Scholl (Boom Supersonic), and Max Hodak (Science). 00:00 Previously… 00:34 The Regulatory Red Queen Race 05:13 Why There's No Innovation in Health Care 09:30 We Need a True 50-State Experiment 13:12 China's FDA Is Beating Ours 16:18 Healthcare Is a Communist Society Inside Capitalism 18:38 Sid's Story: N-of-1 Medicine Transcript: nav.al/regulatory
Part 2 of our new format with three frontier founders: Guillermo Rauch (Vercel), Blake Scholl (Boom Sonic), and Max Hodak (Science). 00:35 Vibe Coding A Turbine Blade 04:04 Open Source Compounds China's Advantage 06:12 You Always Want The Smartest Model 08:41 Software Still Needs Hands 10:40 Humans Are Becoming Verifiers Transcript: http://nav.al/hardware
A new format for the podcast! With three frontier founders: Guillermo Rauch (Vercel), Blake Scholl (Boom Supersonic), and Max Hodak (Science). 01:27 AI Software Factories 04:15 Waste Tokens, Save Time 05:47 Models Instructing Humans 09:30 Is Pure Software Dead? 12:04 You Don't Get Stuck Anymore Transcript: nav.al/tokens
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 — 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 -- 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 -- 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 -- 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 — 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 — Transcript http://nav.al/in-the-arena
http://nav.al/simplest
http://nav.al/good-products
Transcript: http://nav.al/devour
Transcript: http://nav.al/density
Transcript: http://nav.al/fool
Transcript: http://nav.al/agency
Transcript: http://nav.al/reflect
Transcript: http://nav.al/hiring
Transcript: http://nav.al/enjoy
Transcript: http://nav.al/action
Transcript: http://nav.al/yourself
Transcript: http://nav.al/indirect
Transcript: http://nav.al/do
Transcript: http://nav.al/arena
Transcript: http://nav.al/inspiration
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 — 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 — 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 — 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 — 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 — 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 — Transcript http://nav.al/vitalik
Transcript http://nav.al/infinity-1
Transcript http://nav.al/caveman
Transcript http://nav.al/infinite-resources
Transcript: http://nav.al/failure
Transcript http://nav.al/social
Transcript http://nav.al/feedback
Transcript http://nav.al/compromise
Transcript: http://nav.al/decentralization
Transcript http://nav.al/credibility
Transcript http://nav.al/einstein
Transcript http://nav.al/ideas
Transcript http://nav.al/resources
Transcript http://nav.al/far-away
Transcript: http://nav.al/program
Transcript http://nav.al/existence
Transcript http://nav.al/intelligent
Transcript http://nav.al/aliens
Transcript: http://nav.al/mind-blowing
Transcript: http://nav.al/agi
Transcript http://nav.al/species
Transcript http://nav.al/exceptional
Transcript http://nav.al/evolution
Transcript http://nav.al/gravity
Transcript http://nav.al/justified
Transcript http://nav.al/theory
Transcript http://nav.al/infinity
Transcript http://nav.al/optimism
Transcript http://nav.al/pessimism
Transcript http://nav.al/extrapolate
Transcript http://nav.al/ignorance
Transcript http://nav.al/theories
Transcript http://nav.al/advances
Transcript http://nav.al/failures
Transcript http://nav.al/predictions
Transcript http://nav.al/error
Transcript http://nav.al/broaden
Transcript http://nav.al/observed
Transcript http://nav.al/multiverse
Transcript http://nav.al/light
Transcript http://nav.al/probability
Transcript http://nav.al/prove
Transcript http://nav.al/substrate
Transcript http://nav.al/discrete
Transcript: http://nav.al/conjectural
Transcript: http://nav.al/methods
Transcript: http://nav.al/settled
Transcript: http://nav.al/end
Transcript: http://nav.al/vary
Transcript: http://nav.al/explanations Sponsor: http://www.eightsleep.com/infinity
Transcript: http://nav.al/understand Sponsor: http://www.eightsleep.com/infinity
Transcript: http://nav.al/predict Sponsor: http://www.eightsleep.com/infinity
Transcript: http://nav.al/people Sponsor: http://www.eightsleep.com/infinity
Transcript: http://nav.al/knowledge Sponsor: http://www.eightsleep.com/infinity
Transcript: https://nav.al/happiness
Transcript: https://nav.al/read
Transcript: https://nav.al/reach
Transcript: https://nav.al/nullius-2
Transcript: http://nav.al/think
Transcript: https://nav.al/science-2
Transcript: http://nav.al/matt-ridley-2
Transcript: http://nav.al/matt-ridley
Excerpted from the Spearhead podcast: http://spearhead.co
Discovering the truth can change you where self-improvement fails. Transcript: http://nav.al/truth
Even smart people go along with society's lies. Transcript: http://nav.al/consensus
Wise people are quiet Transcript: http://nav.al/silent
Transcript: http://nav.al/peace-motion
The mind should be a servant, not a master. Transcript: http://nav.al/peace
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
Happy people don't have to work as hard. Transcript: http://nav.al/least
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
You're not stuck at your current level of happiness. Transcript: http://nav.al/skill
Happiness is more like poetry than algorithms. Transcript: http://nav.al/math
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
Excerpted from the Spearhead podcast: http://spearhead.co
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.