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Book review : The Almanack of Naval Ravikant

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Despite my lack of expertise in writing book reviews, I felt compelled to share my thoughts after finishing ‘The Almanack of Naval Ravikant‘ by Eric Jorgenson this weekend.

It is one of those books sprinkled with words of wisdom, without preachiness.

This book reminds me of other wisdom-filled works like Charlie Munger’s ‘Poor Charlie’s Almanack‘ and Clayton Christensen’s ‘How Will You Measure Your Life‘.

Let me be clear – this book is a collection of tweets and other thought nibbles, neatly organized by topics.

But it brings out Ravikant’s wisdom and experience shine through, offering us a fresh perspective on life.

The book is divided into 2 broad categories:

  • Wealth
  • Happiness

In the section on wealth, Naval delves into various aspects of financial success, including wealth creation strategies, leveraging resources effectively, choosing the right career path, developing crucial mental models, and honing decision-making skills.

He posits that happiness is a choice available to everyone, and he explores habits that foster joy, as well as methods for personal growth, self-care, and achieving inner freedom.

The book concludes with a philosophical exploration of life’s meaning and the importance of aligning one’s actions with personal values

Allow me to share some of my key takeaways from the book. These highlights only scratch the surface of the wisdom within these pages – I highly recommend grabbing a copy for yourself to fully appreciate its depth and insights!

  • Learn to sell. Learn to build. If you can do both, you will be unstoppable.
  • Specific knowledge cannot be taught, but it can be learned.
  • Intentions don’t matter. Actions do. That’s why being ethical is hard.
  • If you don’t own a piece of a business, you don’t have a path towards financial freedom.
  • Earn with your mind, not your time.
  • Retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for an imaginary tomorrow.
  • Hard work is really overrated. How hard you work matters a lot less in the modern economy.
  • You don’t get rich by spending your time to save money. You get rich by saving your time to make money.
  • “Clear thinker” is a better compliment than “smart.”
  • What you want is principles. You want mental models.
  • Read what you love until you love to read.
  • Happiness is the state when nothing is missing.
  • First, you know it. Then, you understand it. Then, you can explain it. Then, you can feel it. Finally, you are it.
  • The greatest superpower is the ability to change yourself.

I dabble around with a lot of books and there are many unfinished ones in my reading list. This book is one of very few I managed to finish in recent times!

Thanks, Naval for sharing your wisdom with all of us! Please keep writing…

How To Be Good At Negotiation

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Oxford Dictionary describes negotiation as a discussion aimed at reaching an agreement. But you and I know that is a lot more complex than that.

Not all of us, especially nerdy engineers, enjoy negotiations. However, to be a successful tech leader, you need to master this art.

Whether it is prioritizing features for the next release or convincing a top engineer to join your team – good negotiation is vital.

In this issue, I will share two things:

  1. Negotiation tips from Chris Voss’ bestseller – Never Split the Difference
  2. Framework to plan your next Negotiation meeting

Negotiation tips from “Never Split the Difference”

former FBI negotiator. I can never do justice to the book in a few bullet points – I strongly recommend you get a copy and read it if you are interested in the topic.

But I will try to summarize the key takeaways here:

  • A good negotiation starts with listening. Make it about the other person, validate their emotions, and establish trust in the conversation
  • Use mirroring to encourage the other person to empathize and create a bond with you. A good technique is to repeat the last 3 critical (or important) words the other person just said, which helps in a stronger connection
  • Watch your voice tone as it makes a difference too. Some example tones used by professional negotiators are late-night DJ, playful, professional, and assertive
  • Labeling is a technique to validate the other person’s emotion by giving it a name and acknowledging it. It often starts with “It sounds like… It feels like… It seems like…” and describe their emotional state
  • Don’t just focus on a “Yes”. Use “No” tactically to eliminate options that are not relevant or interesting to both parties
  • Before getting to a “Yes”, you need to get the other party to say “That’s right”. You can do that by a good summary of their expectations and emotional state, and get an affirmation. This takes you one step closer to closing the deal

You can read a detailed summary of the book on Shortform (paywall).

Now that you have some tips, let’s look at a template to prepare for the next negotiation.

Negotiation prep template

Please note this is not a one-size-fits-all template for all negotiations. But it can be a good starting point for most.

#1 Figure out what you want

  1. What do you want to achieve in the negotiation? (your end goal, e.g., securing a job offer)
  2. What is it you want more of? (key differentiator, e.g., at least a 30% salary raise)
  3. What are the issues over which you will be negotiating? (e.g., salary, location, hybrid mode, stock options)
  4. What are the potential agreement options for each issue?
  5. What is the relative or weighted contribution of each option to your final decision?
  6. What is your reservation price and alternatives for your negotiation? (a reservation price is the least favorable point at which you can accept a negotiation)
  7. Which factors influence your stance the most and why?

#2 Figure out what your counterpart wants

  1. What problem of theirs will your proposal solve?
  2. What are your counterpart’s goals in the negotiation?
  3. What are their likely issues?
  4. What are their likely interests and why?

#3 Develop your negotiation strategy

  1. How will you gather the additional information you need?
  2. What information do you still need to assess?
  3. What are any potential holes in your strategy?
  4. What are your sources of power? (e.g., a skill that is very rare in the market)
  5. What strategies and tactics will you employ to achieve your goals, taking into account the preferences, goals, and strategies that your counterpart is likely to employ?
  6. Will you make the first offer? (It is important to decide as the negotiation will generally pivot around this)

I hope you have some solid tips and a template to rock your next negotiation. Often, this skill helps at better decision-making as well.

If you have any additional tips, feel free to share it as comments!

How hands-on an Engineering Leader should be?

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Engineering leader toolkit

Most of know and realise by this time that a hands-on engineering leader is respected and probably more successful in their career. But there are other key responsibilities for senior leaders, in addition to be technically active. In this post, I will share my thoughts on how hands-on an engineering leader should be and how to maintain a healthy balance with other duties.

What we mean by hands-on engineering leader?

By hands-on, we mean that an engineering leader, irrespective of his or her seniority, must be able to understand working details of products and applications they own.

Here are some example hands-on activities of a software engineering leader:

  • Participate and contribute to system architecture
  • Lead technical design and solution discussions
  • Understand technical and delivery metrics
  • Articulate with engineerings in technical language

But, do these alone justify the role of a leader?

Probably not. The true value of a senior engineering leader comes from another important contribution.

A senior leader must be a multiplier – enabling and empowering others to perform at their fullest potential.

If you haven’t read it yet, Multipliers by Liz Wiseman is an excellent book on this topic.

A leader must create a right environment and help everyone in the team play their “A” game. This is where their true value comes in.

Also in his iconic book High Output Management, Andy Grove talks about high leverage activities for managers and leaders.

A high leverage activity is something that sets an individual or team for success over an extended period of time.

Here are some high leverage activities for a software engineering leader:

  • Coaching, training and mentoring employees
  • Effective 1:1 meetings
  • Creating a culture of efficient meetings
  • Setting up right tools and platforms to increase engineering productivity
  • Using right metrics and creating feedback loops for better software delivery

In short, any activity that has a throughtput-to-effort ratio greater than 1:1 is a high leverage activity.

To be or not to be…

In essence, as you grow in your career as an engineering leader – try and maintain a good mix of hands-on and high leverage activities.

While being hands-on is essential to continue and wield your expert power, high leverage activities are the ones that can up your game to the next level.

Always remember – “What got you here, won’t get you there!” (Thanks Marshall Goldsmith!)