The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

I am sitting firmly on the fence with this book, giving it three encouraging stars.

It isn't written well enough for a better review, but instead put together by a biographer as a summary of tweets and quotes, therefore coming across as rather amateurish, bloggish and disjointed in places, while also making it hard to describe and rate.

Even though it's a disjointed affair, this is a good self-help book and some of the quotes within are amazing and the reason I'm writing this review is to share some of them with you. If you need motivational self-help and a kick up the proverbial back side, be sure to check it out.

"Be a maker who makes something interesting people want. Show your craft, practise your craft, and the right people will eventually find you."

"The worst outcome in this world is not having self-esteem. If you don’t love yourself, who will?"

"You have to enjoy it and keep doing it, keep doing it, and keep doing it. Don’t keep track, and don’t keep count because if you do, you will run out of time."

"If you can’t decide, the answer is no."

"If you have two choices to make, and they’re relatively equal choices, take the path more difficult and more painful in the short term."

"Working out for me is not fun; I suffer in the short term, I feel pain. But then in the long term, I’m better off because I have muscles or I’m healthier."

"Most fit and healthy people focus much more on what they eat than how much."

"To me, happiness is not about positive thoughts. It’s not about negative thoughts. It’s about the absence of desire, especially the absence of desire for external things."

“All of man’s troubles arise because he cannot sit in a room quietly by himself.”

"You are more than just your habits."

<i>"But if you’re not spending your time doing what you want, and you’re not earning, and you’re not learning—what the heck are you doing?"</i>

And that's pretty much the book in a nutshell, a self-help volume with endless streams of quotes, which definitely isn't for everyone because of how patronising and disjointed it is, but there are some strong messages here on how to lead a better life. This is a worthy read.