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

Ravikant presents happiness as a learnable skill rather than an inherited trait or random occurrence, fundamentally redefining how individuals might approach their emotional well-being. He describes his personal transformation from rating his happiness at 2-3 out of 10 to consistently achieving 9 out of 10, attributing this change primarily to deliberate learning and practice rather than external circumstances like wealth.

Ravikant’s core thesis centers on happiness as the absence of desire rather than the presence of positive emotions. He argues that true happiness emerges when nothing feels missing from one’s life; this creates internal silence, as the mind stops oscillating between past regrets and future anxieties. This perspective draws heavily on Buddhist philosophy and ancient wisdom traditions, particularly the concept that all positive thoughts inherently contain their negative counterparts, creating endless cycles of satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

The philosophical framework Ravikant presents reflects contemporary Western adaptations of Eastern meditation practices, popularized through secular mindfulness movements since the 1970s. His emphasis on accepting reality as fundamentally neutral also echoes Stoic philosophy, particularly the works of Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus, though he presents these ideas through a modern entrepreneurial lens. This approach may resonate particularly well with achievement-oriented individuals who traditionally focus on external validation and is part of a broader 21st-century revival of Stoic ideas (for example, in Ryan Holiday’s 2016