Eric-Jorgenson The-Almanack-of-Naval-Ravikant indd

Confucius says you have two lives, and the second one begins 
when you realize you only have one. When and how did your 
second life begin?
That’s a very deep question. Most people who are past a cer-
tain age have had this feeling or phenomenon; they’ve gone 

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140 · T H E A L M A N A C K O F N A V A L R A V I K A N T
through life a certain way and then gotten to a certain stage 
and had to make some pretty big changes. I’m definitely also 
in that boat.
I struggled for a lot of my life to have certain material and 
social successes. When I achieved those material and social 
successes (or at least was beyond a point where they didn’t 
matter as much), I realized the people around me who had 
achieved similar successes and were on their way to achiev-
ing more didn’t seem all that happy. In my case, there was 
definitely hedonic adaptation: I’d very quickly get used to 
anything.
This led me to the conclusion, which seems trite, that happi-
ness is internal. That conclusion set me on a path of working 
more on my internal self and realizing all real success is inter-
nal and has very little to do with external circumstances.
One has to do the external thing anyway. We’re biologically 
hard-wired. It’s glib to say, “You can just turn it off.” Your own 
life experience will bring you back to the internal path. [7]
The problem with getting good at a game, especially one 
with big rewards, is you continue playing it long after you 
should have outgrown it.
Survival and replication drive put us on the work treadmill. 
Hedonic adaptation keeps us there. The trick is knowing 
when to jump off and play instead.
Who do you think of as successful?

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L E A R N I N G H A P P I N E S S · 141
Most people think of someone as successful when they win a 
game, whatever game they play themselves. If you’re an athlete, 
you’re going to think of a top athlete. If you’re in business, you 
might think Elon Musk.
A few years ago, I would have said Steve Jobs, because he was