In Most Difficult Things in Life, The Solution is Indirect

Naval: In most interesting, difficult things in life, the solution is indirect. That was part of the How to Get Rich tweetstorm, which is, if you want to get rich, you don’t directly just go for the money. I suppose you could like a bankster, but if you’re building something of value and you’re using leverage and you’re taking accountability and you’re applying your specific knowledge, you’re going to make money as a byproduct. And you’re going to create great products, going to productize yourself and create money as a byproduct. The same way, if you want to be happy, you minimize yourself and you engage in high flow activities or engage in activities that take you out of your own self and you end up with happiness. By the way, this is true in seduction as well. You don’t seduce a woman by walking up and saying, “I want to sleep with you.” That’s not how it works. Same with status. The overt pursuit of status signals low status, it’s a low status behavior to chase status because it reveals you as being lower in the status hierarchy in the first place. It’s not the fact that everything has to be pursued indirectly. Many things are best pursued directly. If I want to drive a car, I get in and I drive the car. If I want to write something, then I just sit down and write something. But the things that are either competitive in nature or they seem elusive to us—part of the reason for that is that those are the remaining things that are best pursued indirectly.

Start from wherever you are with whatever you have. Progress is better than perfection.

I always think of it like this. Apply the logic of sleep to life. The reason you can’t sleep is because you’re trying. Sleep isn’t something you do. You build conditions then sleep arrives.

The most powerful outcomes in life are often the byproducts of deep focus, not direct pursuit. At Rice AI, we are not chasing fame or hype. We are focused on building real intelligence, real robotics and real value. The results will speak for themselves 🍚🤖

The harder you chase money or validation, the further they go away. Focus on building skills, creating things people value, and enjoying the process. The rewards show up naturally when you’re not desperate for them.

you solve the external by mastering the internal.

Very fun to unpack this

Love this -- many things you're best pursuing indirectly. Also made me think of pursuing things indirectly like iterating. You can't always be moving directly at the target but tiniest steps iterating towards it

I agree 💯

Don't get hung up chasing the thing or outcome you want. Focus on your purpose, big or small, and the results will show up naturally, like they were meant to.

my subconscious is like a quiet genius intern that does all the real work while i'm distracted with dumb stuff

Its like you have to do 100 things. all are somehow interconnected and eventually something will boom. And then only you can connect the dots backward.

Time and distance are connected through a knot of a problem.   The distance to your peace is the time it takes for the problem to appear and the mind to accept it. Once you receive it well, you can relax and work on a solution with energy. That is indirect enough.

Life advice: You think you know your purpose, but the harsh truth is you probably don't. Your deepest purpose is discovered through your current ones, through what your gut tells you to do RIGHT NOW. Just do all kinds of shit to gain all kinds of experience. That's the way.

Banger

The hardest truths don’t shout. They emerge—in silence, through presence. Lately, we’ve been exploring connection not through control, but through awareness. A protocol of respect, not permission. Grateful for your clarity, always.

Creating something of value is the fastest path to get rich.

@mamedzavr

I am liking these voice posts more 🔥🔥

overall, enjoying the happiness of the pursuit, whether direct or indirect seems like a winning strategy.

Life is at core is series of contradictions/paradoxes we live through one after another until we die, only to be in awe of the unknowns (read: magic) shaped by our limited awareness.

@iamheadie

The direct approach is often the wrong approach.. Learn the flanking maneuver.. Sun tzu wrote a book including it.. Lao tzu wrote a book including it.. Often the harder you want for something pushes it further away.. Wu Wei

if my goal is to raise the ceiling or floor of the world, how indirect is the solution? is the answer to do research on bleeding-edge tech or work at a meaningful company or start a typical startup to make money or just choose a problem that will uplift the quality of life?

Agree, but my spin is, sometimes we must be chosen, not choose?

Money mates, and rank are what physics calls a lagging indicator.

Indirect is the new direct.

Interesting. Direct approaches often optimize for local maxima. Indirect routes might uncover hidden leverage. What's the equivalent of an "indirect solution" in early-stage startup strategy, particularly for finding product-market fit? Is it about exploring adjacent user need...

Wonderfully succinct.

The solution tends to be more direct when there’s no other person involved, eg writing, or driving. However when we try to accomplish things that involve other people, making money, seducing etc, we come face to face with the intention of others. If their intentions align with yours then the solution is direct.

Flailing works surprisingly well too, because it’s an authentic response to one’s environment, rather than putting the weight of responsibility on an external process and acting mechanically, ignoring the obvious. (insight from your friend Kapil)

You try to lift a heavy rock with your own hands and you fail. You find a sufficiently long lever and you succeed. That's it, I think.

@ExpectedValues It reminds me of the book “Obliquity”, by @ProfJohnKay

IDEEZA is cooking up something fresh at the intersection of Web3 and AI! What's the most innovative use case you're excited about? 🤖💡 #Web3 #AI @MAKE_IDEEZA

And the extreme of indirect is 180°: solutions which consist on taking a step back and infer from a yet more fundamental base instead of patching the original one into submission.