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

The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms
by Nassim Taleb
This is his collection of ancient wisdom. He is also famous for 
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, Antifrag-
ile: Things That Gain from Disorder, and Fooled by Randomness: 
The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets, all of 
which are worth reading. [7]
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210 · 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 
Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics 
Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher
by Richard Feynman
I would give my kids a copy of Rich-
ard Feynman’s Six Easy Pieces and Six 
Not-So-Easy Pieces: Einstein’s Relativity, Symmetry, and Space-
Time. Richard Feynman is a famous physicist. I love both his 
demeanor as well as his understanding of physics.
I’ve also been reading Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from 
the Beaten Track by Feynman and rereading Genius: The Life 
and Science of Richard Feynman, a biography about him. [8]
Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in 
Simple Words by Randall Munroe
A great book by Randall Munroe (cre-
ator of xkcd, a very science-oriented 
webcomic). In this book, he explains 
very complicated concepts, all the way from climate change 
to physical systems to submarines while only using the thou-
sand most common words in the English language. He called 
the Saturn Five rocket “Up Goer Five.” You can’t defi ne a rocket 
as a spaceship or a rocket. It’s self-referential. He says “up goer.” 
It’s this thing that goes up. Kids get it right away. [4]