Younger parents tend to ask my parents for advice.
I've condensed some key points over the years.
Run these psyops on your children:
- You are gifted intellectually
- You can unlock your supreme athleticism.
- Work diligently on skills and education that nobody can take away from you. That is the secret to everlasting confidence.
- You are the type of person who can achieve whatever you want when you discipline yourself to work for it – It does not just happen.
- You have an unending capacity to work, you are not lazy.
- You set your standard. Others are to fit in with you.
- Never worry about making friends, once you truly get comfortable being alone, people are drawn to you.
- Everything is a skill. You can learn anything; anything becomes more interesting the more you learn about it.
- Whatever you're interested in, be excellent in your chosen path. You will be supported.
- Genius is a state accessible to you.
- Nobody has the right to disrespect you, even at your young age. In any room you find yourself in, you have valuable contributions. They have inherent valuable because the words come through someone like you.
- Do not shrink yourself. You deserve to take up space.
- You can come to me for anything, even if you think I'll be upset – which I might be. But with me, you can unburden your conscience with the truth. I'm with you always.
I will always be the fortress that supports you until my dying days; and when I'm gone, gaze upon the spread of the heavens.
Know that I support you still.
The “bike-shed” effect, originally described by C. Northcote Parkinson.
To illustrate this phenomenon, let’s compare a conversation about building a nuclear power plant with building a bike shed.
Most people rightly assume that they know nothing about something as complex as a nuclear power plant and so won’t voice an opinion. Most people wrongly assume, however, that they know something about building a bike shed and will argue until the cows come home about every detail down to paint color.
Everyone you meet (every male, at least) will have a strong opinion about how you should train and eat. For the next two to four weeks, cultivate selective ignorance and refuse to have bike-shed discussions with others.
Friends, foes, colleagues, and well-intentioned folks of all stripes will offer distracting and counterproductive additions and alternatives.
Nod, thank them kindly, and step away to do what you’ve planned. Nothing more and nothing different.
List of books mentioned in @EricJorgenson's @TheNavalmanack, according to Gemini:
Nonfiction
The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World by David Deutsch
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves by Matt Ridley
Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters by Matt Ridley
The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by Matt Ridley
The Origins of Virtue by Matt Ridley
The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge by Matt Ridley
Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb
The Bed of Procrustes by Nassim Taleb
The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb
Antifragile by Nassim Taleb
Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb
Six Easy Pieces and Six Not-So-Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman
Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track by Richard Feynman
Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick
Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words by Randall Munroe
Thinking Physics: Understandable Practical Reality by Lewis Carroll Epstein
The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant
The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg
Poor Charlie’s Almanack by Charlie Munger
Reality Is Not What It Seems by Carlo Rovelli
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli
The Compleat Strategyst by J.D. Williams
The Evolution of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod
Pre-Suasion by Robert Cialdini
Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
Zero to One by Peter Thiel
Seeking Wisdom by Peter Bevelin
Principles by Ray Dalio
The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford
Philosophy & Spirituality
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
The Book of Life by Jiddu Krishnamurti
Total Freedom by Jiddu Krishnamurti
The Tao of Seneca
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
The Book of Secrets by Osho
The Great Challenge by Osho
The Way to Love by Anthony de Mello
The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle
Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It by Kamal Ravikant
How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan
Striking Thoughts by Bruce Lee
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
Theory of Everything (Dreamstate Trilogy) by Jed McKenna
Jed Talks #1 and #2 by Jed McKenna
Atmamun, Direct Truth, and A Master’s Secret Whispers by Kapil Gupta
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant
Fiction & Science Fiction
Ficciones and Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach
God’s Debris by Scott Adams
The Iliad by Homer
Graphic Novels & Comics
Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis
The Boys by Garth Ennis
Planetary by Warren Ellis
The Sandman by Neil Gaiman
Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
Dilbert by Scott Adams
Note: @naval also mentions reading the "originals" and foundational texts by authors such as Charles Darwin, Adam Smith, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Ralph Waldo Emerson .
Just finished @EricJorgenson’s “The Book of @elonmusk”.
My main takeaway: this is what, as @nntaleb calls it, “soul in the game” looks like.
Solid read. Leaves me optimistic and motivated for the future.