Naval Ravikant is an Indian-American entrepreneur and investor

His thoughts, advice and ruminations are documented in “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant” that was compiled by his friend Eric Jorgenson as discussed here during this interview.

The Almanack is a pdf book on the wisdom of Naval and it is free, totally free. You don’t even have to give them your email address. Yes, go here if you didn’t click on the previous link. And I see that they are now selling it on Amazon for money even though you can download it for free?

Here’s my floating review of the Almanack:

The book is divided into two main topics/sections/discussions: Wealth and Happiness:

I will primarily consider the first, “Wealth” since it is involved in business and such. The second “Happiness” goes into health, diet and touches on theology/religion.
And here is my excerpts of his key points that most interested me:

One point that particularly interested me is when (p108) Naval says:

“To me, the principal-agent problem is the single most fundamental problem in microeconomics.

If you do not understand the principal-agent problem, you will not know how to navigate your way through the world.”

I have been interested in the Principal Agent problem for a long time. Not just as cast in economic terms; ‘”how do you get your financial agents to operate in your best interests, as opposed to their interests.” But also in non-financial relationship such as parent/child.

In fact, I wrote an email to our Pastor in 2015 about Jesus and the Principal Agent Problem. Note that God himself almost always uses agents. Most of his human agents are big disappointments. They don’t serve God’s interests (His “will”); they substitute their own interpretation and interests.

But when it comes time to solve the greatest problem in heaven and earth God sends His son Jesus as his agent. The problem is that the world is broken because of man’s rebellion (incited by The Satan) against God. Jesus is the perfect agent in that he does God’s will even though it costs him everything.

Jesus and the Agency Problem

2/16/2015 11:09

To  Pastor,

Last week you asked, “Do you think that Jesus was driven?” Yesterday you asked, jokingly, ‘Why didn’t Jesus cut a deal with the authorities and split the profits?”

Our problem with “driven” is that it has a tinge of “addiction”; especially if it is in the service of immoral or earthly pursuits. But if it is in the service of an admirable goal such as spreading the Gospel (Paul) or making straight the path for the coming of Jesus then yes, Paul and John the Baptist were driven. And so, yes; Jesus was driven.

He was driven to do the will of the Father:

John 6: 38 “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

Matthew 26:39 “Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.””

Jesus was driven because He was an agent of the Lord. He was the perfect agent; He did only His Father’s will; none of His own. All this is related to “the agency problem”. How do we know if the agent we employ is acting in our interest or his own? We use agents all the time. We hire real estate agents, insurance agents. Our doctor is an agent. The barista is our agent. The employer/employee relationship is all about agency. How do we know that these people are acting in our interest and not their own? We hire a pastor to shepherd the flock. How do we know he is acting in our will and not the will of Tim? We appoint a Board Of Directors (BOD) over the church to act in our behalf. Yesterday’s discussion was basically about the terms of the agency and the intent of the BOD. How do we know you’re not going to “buy a Lear jet” with our money? As an aside, I was somewhat surprised that nobody brought up the past. “Last time we trusted you, and look what happened. Why should we trust you again?”

But agents are not just limited to financial relationships. They are central to our most intimate relationships. How does a child know that his parents are acting in his best interest? He doesn’t even know what “agency” means. How do we know our spouses are acting in our best interests? In the best interests of “the couple”?

It’s interesting that God almost always uses agents; either angels or humans or His Only Son. Before the Fall, God interacted directly with Adam and Eve. Afterwards it was almost always agents. In all His power and glory, He could have gone directly to Pharaoh and said, “Let my people go.” But he didn’t. He sent Moses. He sent an angel to Mary. He had excellent agents such as Paul or John the Baptist or Mary. He also had reluctant agents such as Moses, and barely adequate agents such as Jonah.

And so when it came time to solve the biggest problem of all, he did not do it Himself. He sent an agent: His Son Jesus.

And a final aside on yesterday’s sermon. Why did Jesus instruct the healed leper to go visit the priests? I have been reading Ron Rhodes’ “What Did Jesus Mean? Making Sense of the Difficult Sayings of Jesus”. His further explanation is in the attachment. Although interestingly enough, the leper apparently did not go to see the priests since he went about praising Jesus. So, the message to the authorities was undelivered.

Jim

PS: The punchline to the second question is because Jesus came to fulfil the prophets, not to split them.