Attention: The Real Currency Of Life, According To Naval Ravikant
Rarely can a three-hour podcast hold my attention. But Chris Williamson’s conversation with Naval Ravikant did, in part because of the mic-dropping moment nestled near the end:
“The currency of life isn’t money. It’s not even time. It’s attention.”
I’m not sure there is a modern wisdom saying that better encapsulates the battle we all face in the frenetic information age in which we find ourselves.
So, this week, we’ll unpack more of Ravikant’s wisdom on this topic and conclude with three simple questions you can ask yourself in order to walk away from this week’s edition with wisdom that can make your life better. Today.
Tony’s also back from vacation, and in addition to his Weekly Market Update, Tony and I hit record for a short video podcast answering a great viewer question.
Thanks for joining us!
Tim
Tim Maurer, CFP®, RLP®
Chief Advisory Officer
In this Net Worthwhile® Weekly you'll find:
Financial LIFE Planning:
The Real Currency Of Life
Quote O' The Week:
Audrey Hepburn
Special Podcast:
Why Markets Shrug Off Crises
Weekly Market Update:
The Counterintuitive Nature Of (Market) Crises
Financial LIFE Planning
“Money is important,” Naval explains, “and let’s you trade certain things for time, but it doesn’t really buy you time.”
He invites us to ask Warren Buffett or Michael Bloomberg if they can buy more time. (I’ll be sure to send them a note.) And while access to good medical care is certainly a financial hurdle for many, the point is well taken: Even the richest person on their deathbed can’t buy themselves another day of life.
“Time itself doesn’t even mean that much,” Ravikant continues, “because the time can be wasted because you’re not really present for it. You’re not really paying attention.”
And that’s where the killer question hits us right in the gut:
How are we spending our attention? How are you?
A Real-Time Reminder
I need look no further than yesterday to recall a moment where I found myself checking X and LinkedIn—while in the presence of my 19-month-old daughter, who resorted to irresistible adorableness to reclaim my attention. “Hug?” she asked, reaching her little arms in my direction. “Kiff?” (Her vernacular for kiss.)
She offered instantaneous forgiveness, while I lamented the fact that I’d have to make this confession public, because the example is all too perfect for the point I’m making now:
Unlike money, our time is a true zero-sum game. We can make more money in a myriad of ways, but each minute expires at the end of 60 seconds, regardless of the health of our cash flow or net worth statements.
Busyness as a Badge: An Attention Trap
How much of this most precious of currencies do we fritter away every day? Even those among us who may be inclined to wear our busyness as a badge of business honor. Perhaps especially us? Do the accolades, likes, and shares compensate for the misallocation of our attention?
If you’re interested to see how 12 legit thought leaders identified how they know when they’re too busy--and how they unbusy themselves--click HERE.
Don’t get me wrong—I’m not telling you how to spend your attention. Sure, things like social media and video games might be easy targets for examples of misallocated musing, but the potentially life-changing insight illuminated here was first shared on social media, for goodness’ sake. Furthermore, for more than a decade, my 19-year-old son has been able to spend quality hours of kinship with his cousin—700 miles away—every week, thanks to the advent of collaborative video games.
The lesson isn’t to eliminate, but to direct: choose the apps, the times, even the posts that reinforce your attention, not fracture it.
Ravikant addresses another low-hanging fruit for judgementalism, the negative news. We can spend our attention on the news, Ravikant concedes. “And if you want to, that’s fine. There’s no right or wrong here.”
It’s more about what you do with the attention we dedicate that makes the difference. “Maybe you need to pick something in the news, learn about that problem, adopt that problem, and solve it,” for example. “But be careful,” he concludes, “because your attention is the only thing you have.”
This Is Not a Hustle Manifesto
Lastly, I want to conclude with what this attention acknowledgment is not: It’s not a rallying cry for glorifying the grind or a time-driven demand to maximize every moment with (apparent) productivity. Ravikant bursts a lot of hustle-culture bubbles when he says, “Hard work is really overrated. How hard you work matters a lot less in the modern economy.” (Heresy!?)
Elsewhere, he concludes that discipline is a poor substitute for genuine passion: “Discipline is just you fighting with yourself to do something you don’t want to do. So, I would say it’s more important to find something that you want to do.”
3 Questions to Reclaim Your Attention (and Your Life)
So, perhaps this is the conclusion, in the form of three questions:
How—and on what—are you spending your attention?
Is that how you truly want to spend it?
If not, what’s one shift that could better align your attention with your aspirations?
This post was originally published for Forbes.com.
Quote O' The Week
From a Belgian‑born British actress and humanitarian, renowned for her iconic roles in Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, who later devoted her life to UNICEF’s global work.
Audrey Hepburn
“The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.”
Why Markets Shrug Off Crises: Investment Insights From the Middle East Conflict
In this short, 8-minute episode, Tim and Tony address a great listener question: How is it that the market can go up when the world seems to be going down?
Weekly Market Update
Markets the world over rejoiced this week when WWIII didn’t materialize:
+ 3.44% .SPX (500 U.S. large companies)
+ 2.09% IWD (U.S. large value companies)
+ 3.00% IWM (U.S. small companies)
+ 2.94% IWN (U.S. small value companies)
+ 2.95% EFV (International value companies)
+ 4.01% SCZ (International small companies)
+ 0.68% VGIT (U.S. intermediate-term Treasury bonds
The Counterintuitive Nature Of Markets During Crises
Contributed by Tony Welch, CFA®, CFP®, CMT, Chief Investment Officer, SignatureFD
In the aftermath of the U.S. attack on Iranian nuclear infrastructure, we received some client questions on the implications for portfolios. Would it spike the price of oil? Would supply chains be destabilized if the Strait of Hormuz was closed? Will stocks need to price in a new geopolitical risk premium?
The questions were generally phrased in a risk-averse tone. Ned Davis Research calls events like this a “crisis event.” They keep a running total of them inclusive of events like Pearl Harbor, the JFK assassination, the Arab oil embargo, U.S. bombing Libya, 9/11, Israel invading Gaza, the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, etc. Some of these events are geopolitical, others are market based. But one thing that most have in common is a weak initial market reaction followed by a subsequent rally. On median, the market has dropped -3% on the reaction date but then rallied 5% in the next month, 9% in the next six months, and 17% over the next year.
A study like this reminds us that the market may trade in the near-term based on sentiment, positioning, and geopolitics, but over longer time periods, returns are dictated by fundamentals. We should ask ourselves, “is this event going to hurt corporate earnings?” If not, then chances are good that a negative immediate reaction will be followed by recovery. We would classify the U.S. strike as one of those. Of course, if oil prices were to rise meaningfully, that could in fact dent corporate profits but that does not appear to be the case yet.
Chart O’ The Week
The Message from Our Indicators
Last week, we got updates on consumer confidence, the housing market, and probably most importantly, consumer income, spending, and inflation. The quick synopsis is that there appears to be some underlying weakness in the data from last week. Consumer confidence fell for the sixth time in seven months. In housing, existing home prices fell for the second consecutive month and new home sales dropped 13.7% in June, somewhat offset by a pickup in existing home sales. Digging into the personal income and outlays data, personal income fell -0.4% in May and consumer expenditures decreased -0.1%.
On a real basis, personal income fell -0.7%, implying that consumers lost some purchasing power last month. The inflation data in the report was relatively benign, showing an uptick of 0.1% on the month. PCE inflation is the Fed’s favored metric and for the last year, was up 2.3% and 2.7% when one strips out food and energy. While these figures are much improved from the 2022 inflation spike, inflation remains above the Fed’s targeted 2%. The implication is that a rate cut may not be likely until September. We still view economic expansion as our base case but follow through from May’s weak consumer numbers into subsequent months could call the expansion case into question. For now, we rate the macro environment as neutral.
From a fundamental perspective, we will soon be turning to the Q2 earnings season. The consensus of analyst earnings estimates is 12.4% growth over the past four quarters. Analysts expect Q3 and Q4 earnings growth to also come in north of 10%. We are skeptical that earnings can continue to deliver double-digit growth in the face of slowing consumer expenditures and some rising input cost pressures. But as long as the economy remains in expansion, we believe earnings should at least come in positively. That’s important because valuations are stretched. The market has historically been able to remain at elevated valuation as long as earnings have been growing. However, earnings contractions from a point of expensive valuations have tended to see market prices correct. We rate the fundamentals as bullish for now but there are downside risks as the year progresses should consumer income and expenditures continue to decline.
Finally, from a technical perspective, the bull market has been reestablished following the sharp post-Liberation Day declines. On Friday, the S&P 500 traded to a new all-time high. Prior new all time highs have tended to build on themselves, begetting further all-time highs. Market participation has been strong coming off the April 8th low, implying that there is a high probability that the April 2025 to April 2026 time period will see positive returns. Our belief is that those returns will be in line with the growth in earnings. So, if analysts are correct and earnings grow about 10% over the next year, then that would be the approximate upside we would expect. For now, we would rate the trend as bullish and the overall indicator set as constructive.
Have a great rest of your weekend!
Tim