Naval Ravikant and Nick Kokonas (#737)
This episode is a two-for-one, and that’s because the podcast recently hit its 10-year anniversary and passed one billion downloads. To celebrate, I’ve curated some of the best of the best—some of my favorites—from more than 700 episodes over the last decade. I could not be more excited. The episode features segments from episode #97 “ Naval Ravikant — The Person I Call Most for Startup Advice ” and episode #341 “ Nick Kokonas — How to Apply World-Class Creativity to Business, Art, and Life . “
Please enjoy!
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#737: Naval Ravikant and Nick Kokonas
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What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments .
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
SHOW NOTES
[04:34] Notes about this supercombo format.
[05:53] Enter Naval Ravikant.
[06:05] On uncompromising honesty.
[08:05] What Naval looks for when deciding to invest in a founder.
[11:03] Recommended reading from outside the startup world.
[18:38] Who Naval considers successful.
[21:02] Cultivating non-judgmental awareness.
[26:08] How to replace bad habits with good habits.
[29:31] Naval’s advice for his younger self.
[32:01] Naval’s billboard.
[35:46] Enter Nick Kokonas.
[36:05] Is pressure Nick’s default setting, or are perceived risks an illusion?
[36:55] How do behavioral economics and Richard Thaler influence Nick’s approach?
[41:38] Nick’s transition from philosophy to finance; was philosophy an asset?
[42:43] Why Nick’s professor gave him shorter assignments than classmates.
[44:57] Nick’s introduction to trading; dumbing down academics for clerk job.
[46:42] Why philosophy majors often become traders.
[47:19] Why Nick is glad he didn’t pursue an MBA in 1992.
[48:41] Why Nick thinks his professor singled him out from his peers.
[52:52] Recommended books for aspiring entrepreneurs without philosophy background.
[57:31] Did being a Merc clerk meet Nick’s expectations?
[1:00:02] How Nick followed his father’s entrepreneurial model in trading.
[1:04:38] Why Nick left his mentor after a year to start his own company.
[1:05:41] How Nick and employees trained to quicken mental agility for trading.
[1:08:17] The moment Nick realized he could thrive in trading.
[1:09:02] Recommended resources for becoming a better investor.
[1:11:22] Nick seeks out “high, small hoops” for investment risks.
[1:14:00] Do businesses fail due to difficult model or lack of due diligence?
[1:16:55] When and why Nick decided to enter the restaurant business.
[1:18:26] The dinner leading to Nick and Grant Achatz’s partnership.
[1:27:52] Why Nick chose to open a restaurant out of many risky options.
[1:30:33] How Nick spots talent early that others notice late.
[1:34:07] Questioning restaurant conventions like candles and white tablecloths.
[1:37:09] A now-famous chef was Alinea’s first customer.
[1:38:03] Nick and Grant wouldn’t let designers override their ideas.
[1:38:47] How Nick contributed effectively as a restaurant industry newcomer.
[1:14:19] Why Nick was “horrified” when Alinea won Best Restaurant in 2006.
[1:43:50] Grant’s cancer diagnosis; writing a book and revolutionizing reservations.
[1:45:28] Traditional restaurant reservation systems and Nick’s improvements.
[1:57:17] Bickering at press dinner; avoiding Next becoming “Disneyland of cuisine.”
[2:02:14] Reservation software problems; variable pricing based on day of week.
[2:05:48] The moment Nick realized “This is the best thing I’ve ever built.”
[2:07:41] Why the reservation system’s rewards were worth the asymmetric risks.
[2:10:16] Using Marimekko charts to visualize restaurant and sponsorship data.
[2:16:57] The next industry Nick wants to disrupt: truffles.
[2:18:55] Illuminating black boxes.
[2:26:24] Self-selection of job roles; how Nick’s hiring process has changed.
[2:32:01] Systems Nick uses to cope with a lot of email.
[2:37:43] Importance of engaging on social media, even if unable to respond to all.
[2:39:35] What “puzzle” filters and mini-hurdles in correspondence accomplish.
[2:40:36] Comparing similarities between the music and publishing industries.
[2:49:55] The agency problem as another black box.
[2:54:58] The Hembergers, The Alinea Project, and the upcoming independent Aviary Book.
[3:01:42] A brief discussion about cocktails.
[3:05:42] Books Nick has gifted most and how he personalizes gifts.
[3:08:10] Nick’s billboard.
[3:09:49] Parting thoughts.
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
Connect with Naval Ravikant:
Naval Podcast | AngelList | Website | Twitter
Lying by Sam Harris | Amazon
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius | Amazon
The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti by Jiddu Krishnamurti | Amazon
Striking Thoughts by Bruce Lee | Amazon
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin | Amazon
What Is Non-Judgmental Awareness, Anyway? | HuffPost Life
Crumb | Prime Video
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse | Amazon
The Lion of Olympic Weightlifting, 62-Year-Old Jerzy Gregorek (Also Featuring: Naval Ravikant) | The Tim Ferriss Show #228
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg | Amazon
Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger by Charlie Munger | Amazon
Connect with Nick Kokonas :
The Alinea Group | Tock | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
The Aviary Cocktail Book by Nick Kokonas, Allen Hemberger, and Grant Achatz | Amazon
Life, on the Line: A Chef’s Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat by Grant Achatz and Nick Kokonas | Amazon
The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life by Timothy Ferriss | Amazon
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis | Amazon
Wall Street | Prime Video
How to Turn Failure into Success | The Tim Ferriss Show #256
Colgate University
A River Runs Through It | Prime Video
Chicago Mercantile Exchange | Wikipedia
Chicago Research and Trading Group | Amazon
The Socratic Method | The University of Chicago Law School
The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell | Amazon
Bertrand Russell on Ludwig Wittgenstein | YouTube
The Nature of Things by Lucretius | Amazon
The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt | Amazon
MIT OpenCourseWare | Free Online Course Materials
Lord of the Flies by William Golding |Amazon
Hand Signal Galleries | Trading Pit History
First Options
Option Theory | Investopedia
The Wolf Of Wall Street | Prime Video
Chicago Board of Trade | Wikipedia
20 Years Already? Alan Greenspan and the ‘Irrational Exuberance’ Flop | MarketWatch
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) | Wikipedia
Asymmetrical Risk/Reward | Asymmetry Observations
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Amazon
The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Amazon
“So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance?” (Clip) | Dumb and Dumber
Long Lost Lamented Restaurants Power Hour: Trio | Eater Chicago
Blue Trout and Black Truffles: The Peregrinations of an Epicure by Joseph Wechsberg | Amazon
The Great History of Fernand Point and La Pyramide | Vienne Condrieu Tourisme
eGullet Forums
Alinea
Crucial Detail
Bocuse d’Or
Chef’s Table with Grant (Volume 2, Episode 1) | Netflix
The Aviary
Husk
Sean Brock’s Opening Day Review of Alinea | eGullet
Chartres Cathedral
Alinea — The Business Plan | eGullet
The French Laundry
Alinea is the Best Restaurant in Chicago | Chicago Magazine
A Man of Taste: A Chef with Cancer Fights to Save His Tongue | The New Yorker
Next
Dinner: The Toughest Ticket in Town | GQ
Next: Paris 1906 | A Life Worth Eating
When Paris Flooded, 1910 | Rare Historical Photos
OpenTable
Rackspace
Marimekko Chart — A Complete Guide | FusionCharts
How to Make a Marimekko Chart (Video) | MekkoGraphics
Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger by Charles T. Munger | Amazon
The Boring Company
US Commodity Futures Trading Commission
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy | Amazon
About the Best Sellers | The New York Times
Weta Workshop
Pixar
Industrial Light and Magic
The Alinea Project
Peychaud’s Bitters
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Sam Harris
Marcus Aurelius
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Bruce Lee
Charles Darwin
Elon Musk
Steve Jobs
Marc Andreessen
Satoshi Nakamoto
Buddha
R. Crumb
Hermann Hesse
Jerzy Gregorek
Charlie Munger
Warren Buffett
Grant Achatz
Richard Thaler
Jerome Balmuth
Bertrand Russell
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Friedrich Nietzsche
Rene Descartes
Lucretius
Dagmara Kokonas
Jim Hanson
Nassim Taleb
Howard Marks
Jim Carrey
Captain America
Gordon Ramsay
Martin Kastner
Thomas Keller
Daniel Boulud
Sean Brock
Ruth Reichl
Auguste Escoffier
Stephen Bernacki
Jason Fried
Brian Fitzpatrick
Aaron Wehner
Allen Hemberger
Sarah Hemberger
Eric Jeffus
The post Naval Ravikant and Nick Kokonas (#737) appeared first on The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss .
