Escape Competition Through Authenticity
Naval Ravikant · 2019
"No one can compete with you on being you. Competition drags you into games chosen by other people's desires; the way out is to build something that is an extension of who you actually are, then adjust until it meets a market."
Who is going to write a better Dilbert than Scott Adams, or a better Calvin and Hobbes than Bill Watterson? Who out-Rogans Joe Rogan? Naval's point is that these people have no competitors — not because they beat everyone, but because what they sell is an extension of who they are, and nobody else can be them. Most people never get there because they are busy competing. We are mimetic creatures: surrounded by artists we want to be artists, surrounded by founders we want to be founders, and self-esteem gets outsourced to whichever status game the people nearby happen to be playing. Competition is not just stressful; it drives you to the wrong answer.
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Specific Knowledge & Leverage
"Specific knowledge — skills you can only acquire by pursuing genuine curiosity, not by following a credentialed path — combined with leverage (labor, capital, code, or media) is what lets one person's judgment produce outsized results."