Joe Rogan Experience with Naval Ravikant - Part 3

This is a continuation of the dissection of the conversation between Joe Rogan and Naval Ravikant (as recorded in episode #1309 of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast). In Part 1 & 2 of this article, I went over selected statements made by Naval, analyzing them through my own understanding and experience. I covered roughly 60 minutes of the 2-hour podcast. In Part 3 I will continue the analysis, sharing my thoughts and highlighting the parts of the podcast I found intriguing, interesting, and inspirational.?

The following is organized by a time-stamp followed by a statement, a citation, taken from the podcast. All citations are by Naval unless stated otherwise. The citations are followed by my comments.??

[1:00:18] “The most powerful people in the world today are the people who are writing the algorithms for Twitter and Facebook and Instagram because they’re controlling the spread of information, they’re literally rewriting people’s brains, they’re programming the culture”

Uh, no. One word: influence. The most powerful people are the ones telling those who write algorithms what these algorithms should do. Sure, developers have the knowledge and the skills to create amazing solutions, but it is true for many other people and many other skills. The majority of us, even the brilliant ones, need direction to create something of the magnitude Naval is talking about. Creativity is in each one of us, we seldom have the time to make use of it or, better yet, have a plan of what to do with it and direct it accordingly.?

[1:16:44] “Most of modern life, all our diseases are diseases of abundance, not diseases of scarcity”

Well said. Overabundance. Everywhere. Except for our sense of understanding of ourselves, the purpose of one's life, the holy grail. It may very well be the product of overabundance everywhere else. Too much information, too many choices, too many distractions, too many desires, too many things we really don’t need but learn that we should need them. All of it takes us away from ourselves. Do you know who you are and are you ok with it? Naval sums it up by paraphrasing Pascal’s quote “All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

[1:19:55] “really all it is is the art of doing nothing”

Meditation. The art of doing nothing. I love this short but to-the-point definition of meditation. Keeping still, especially in your mind. Maybe that’s why it’s not easy. It’s not instant either, that’s for sure. It shouldn’t be forced though. With enough repetition, you might achieve silence. Reps, reps, reps. Life is all about repetition, also in meditation. I think that growing up we increase the level of expectation - what we expect from ourselves - and decrease the level of patience and understanding. We expect to be right, we expect an endeavor will pan out, even if we never conducted it before (e.g. starting a business), we expect to still our minds when meditating because that’s what’s described as the end result. And we want the end result. We just forget that it takes countless tries to learn to walk, to learn to speak, to learn anything new for that matter. We get impatient. You can find answers in the stillness of mind. Just repeat your patience to meditation every time, until. Just like you learned how to walk. You repeated the movements until.?

[1:20:43] “it’s self-therapy, it’s just that instead of paying a therapist to sit and listen to you, you’re listening to yourself, and you just have to sit there as those emails go through one by one, you work through each of them until you get to the magical inbox zero”

Continuing on meditation, the emails Naval is talking about are your unresolved situations and issues. Once you process them, once you get to inbox zero, the meditation starts. For me, meditation starts the moment you start processing everything that’s accumulated over the years. Following this approach, I don’t get frustrated that I did not meditate, that I am merely on a path to meditation. I may never reach inbox zero. But at least I made the effort of processing what’s in me. I meditated in my own way. I prefer this approach, which reminds me of learning to play a sport (you start playing from day one, not once you know everything and practiced every move), than the “factory” approach - where production (aka meditation) starts once you build the factory, set up the processes and are ready to manufacture (aka meditate).?

[1:24:31] “the way we think you get peace is by resolving all your external problems, but there is unlimited external problems so the only way to actually get peace is on the inside by giving up this idea of problems”

“Problems are a sign of life” - Norman Vincent Peale.

“If you have a target that is not getting you new problems, you have the wrong target” - Grant Cardone.

Wait,?how to give up the idea of problems when the world is filled with them, when our life since birth is filled with them? Since birth? That’s right, but when you’re an infant, a toddler, do you even know the concept of a problem? Your problems are someone else's problems, as they most likely will be for the rest of your life, but then you grow consciousness, you learn concepts which are not yours, but of the culture, you’re in. Then you take on other people’s problems. Isn't that how the whole business world is built? You should solve other people’s problems when you can’t even solve your own. I am not repelling Peale’s or Cardone’s view on problems. Just trying to understand how in the world run by problems (just watch any news) can you give up the idea of them? I’d love to ask an infant and get a response. They know how to approach problems because they don’t know what problems are.?They might the personification of what Naval is talking about.

In Part 4 I will cover the final 40 minutes of episode #1309 of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.?

The link to the episode:?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qHkcs3kG44