Play Long-Term Games with Long-Term People
Naval Ravikant · 2018
"The biggest gains in wealth, relationships, and reputation come from compounding — which requires playing long-term games (and being seen playing them honestly) with long-term people, since compounding only works if the game doesn't reset."
Naval's argument is that the biggest rewards in life — compounding wealth, deep relationships, a durable reputation — take a long time to build and can be destroyed quickly by a single act of short-term self-interest; the rational strategy, even if you only care about your own outcomes, is to consistently choose long-term games and long-term partners, since that's the only setting where compounding, rather than one-off zero-sum wins, is even possible.
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The Surprising Power of the Long Game
"The 'long game' — small, boring, unglamorous daily investments that compound over years — reliably outperforms the 'short game' of chasing immediate, visible wins, because the long game's advantages accumulate invisibly until they become undeniable, while the short game's costs likewise compound until they become unavoidable."