一路向下皆是灵感Inspiration All the Way Down
Nivi：欢迎回到 Naval Podcast——据我所知，自 2020 年以来我们断断续续地更新。今天我们要聊聊一些"如何致富"的内容。我从纳瓦尔过去一年的 Twitter 里挑了一些推文，还借助了一点 SuperGrok 的帮助，我们一条一条过一遍。
其实我的第一个问题是：你告诉我你从埃里克·乔根森那里拿到了一本那本写埃隆的书的早期样书。书里有什么让你意外的东西吗？
Naval：我才读了大概 20%。写得真的很好，就是埃隆用他自己的话讲述自己。我觉得最打动人的，是贯穿全书的那种独立、自主与紧迫感。
我不认为你读这些能学到一套按部就班的流程；你无法模仿他的流程。那是为他量身定做的，是为SpaceX定做的，是为特斯拉定做的。它有具体的语境，但看到他不让任何东西挡在自己面前，看到他近乎痴狂地质疑一切，看到他只强调速度、迭代和不讲废话的执行力，这一切非常鼓舞人心。
这让你忍不住站起来奔跑，在自己的公司里做同样的事。在我看来，这就是好书的作用。如果我听一场史蒂夫·乔布斯的演讲，我会想变得更好；如果我读到埃隆讲他如何执行，我会想执行得更好，然后我会摸索出自己的路。
细节不一定能照搬，但更重要的是，我认为驱动人的正是那份激励。
Nivi：这很有意思，因为我觉得人们把你看作鼓舞人心的榜样——是的，显然如此——同时也觉得你在阐述人们真正会遵循的原则。
Naval：我让我的原则保持在高层次且不完整的状态。部分原因是这样听起来更好，也更容易记住；但同样也因为这样更普适。我对"如何致富"那套内容的一个不满是：人们会在 Twitter 上用 140 或 280 个字符问我高度具体的问题，而我根本没有足够的背景来回答。
这些问题需要语境。这就是为什么我喜欢 Airchat，喜欢 Clubhouse，喜欢语音的形式。以前我还在做 Periscope 直播的时候，当人们问我一个问题，我可以追问他们一个问题，他们又可以再问我一个问题，就这样一层层挖下去，直到触及他们真正想问的核心。
然后我就可以说："嗯，就我所掌握的信息而言，如果我是你，我会这么做。"但这类情况大多高度依赖具体语境，所以很难照搬别人的细节。适用的只有原则。正因如此，我才把内容保持在非常高的层面。
事实上，我认为作者埃里克·乔根森做得很好，他把那些可以引用的金句拆出来，放进各自独立的句子里。也就是说，他把推文从埃隆的作品中抽离了出来。
但我也说不准。我只是按自己的风格来。埃隆有他自己的风格，他以自己的方式激励人；也许我也以自己的方式激励着某个人。我被他激励，也被其他人激励——激励层层传递，无穷无尽。
Nivi: Welcome back to the Naval Podcast where we post intermittently since 2020, I believe. We are going to talk about some How to Get Rich content. I’ve pulled out some tweets from Naval’s Twitter from the last year. I got a little help from SuperGrok as well, and we’re just going to go through them.
Here’s actually my first question. You told me that you got an early copy of the Elon book from Eric Jorgenson. Anything surprising in there?
Naval: I’m only about 20% of the way through. It’s really good. It’s just Elon in his own words. And I think what’s striking is just the sense of independence, agency, and urgency that just runs throughout the whole thing.
I don’t think you necessarily learn a step-by-step process by reading these things; you can’t emulate his process. It’s designed for him. It’s designed for SpaceX, it’s designed for Tesla. It’s contextual, but it’s very inspiring just to see how he doesn’t let anything stand in his way, how maniacal he is about questioning everything, and how he just emphasizes speed and iteration and no-nonsense execution.
And so that just makes you want to get up and run and do the same thing with your company. And to me, that’s what the good books do. If I listen to a Steve Jobs speech, it makes me want to be better. If I read Elon on how he executes, it makes me want to execute better, and then I’ll figure out my own way.
The details don’t necessarily map, but more importantly, I think just the inspiration is what drives.
Nivi: That’s pretty interesting because I think people look to you as inspirational—yes, obviously—but also laying out principles that people actually do follow.
Naval: I keep my principles high level and incomplete. Partially because it just sounds better and it’s easier to remember, but also just because it’s more applicable. One of the problems I have with the How to Get Rich content is people ask me highly specific questions on Twitter in 140 or 280 characters, and I just don’t have enough context to respond.
These things require context. That’s why I liked Airchat. That’s why I liked Clubhouse. That’s why I liked spoken format. Back when I used to do Periscopes, when people would ask me a question, then I could ask a follow-up question back to them and they could ask me another question and we could dig through and try to get to the meat of what they were asking.
And then I could say, “Well, given the information that I have, if I were in your shoes, I would do the following thing.” But most of these situations are highly contextual, so it’s hard to copy details from other people. It’s the principles that apply. And so that is why I keep my stuff very high level.
And in fact, I think Eric Jorgenson, the author, has done a good job of trying to break out the little quotable bits and put them in their own standalone sentences. So he is pulling tweets out of Elon’s work.
But I don’t know. I just do my style. Elon does his; he inspires in his own way. Maybe I inspire someone in my own way. I get inspired by him. I get inspired by others—inspiration all the way down.