alivira 's review for:

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness by Eric Jorgenson

2.0

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No doubt there are some nuggets of wisdom in here. They are, unfortunately, surrounded by dense forests of platitudes and broetry-like aphorisms that render the text hard for me to enjoy. The book describes a sense of self determinism that I feel resonates well with much of the audience, but to me it seems to come across more like the age-old boomer cry "if I could do it why can't you". That is in fact, how he starts out the book "you could strip away all my wealth and I could probably get it back again".

My favorite is when he removes himself from the line of criticism because "if the exceptions are obvious then either the author is dumb or you are" - gee thanks Naval. I could go on, but maybe this book just wasn't a good personal fit given my values and the way that I perceive life.

Parsing the book here were my useful takeaways:
- Read more
- Meditate more
- Stress less
- Worry only about what you can control, or don't worry at all
- Spend your time on things that matter to you
- Desires lead to unhappiness
- Peace > Happiness

Groundbreaking.