These five people will help you get smarter and richer

Five High Value Internet Personalities

Woody’s World has been renamed to ZeitGeist. Check the end of this post for an explanation.

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Start Educating Yourself

If you really wanted to, you could google,

"What books do they read at Harvard?"

and start educating yourself.

But an even better solution is to find a credible individual who you want to be like, find out what books they recommend, and start reading.

Five High-Value Creators

In the spirit of self-education, I will present you five of my favorite creators who provide exceptional value online.

Balaji Srinivasan

First up is @Balajis on Twitter.

Balaji is a polymath, former professor at Stanford, and one of the earliest public adopters of Bitcoin.

He makes bold geopolitical predictions that often come eerily true. For example, this one about COVID:

Balaji Srinivasan @balajis

Going viral What if this coronavirus is the pandemic that public health people have been warning about for years? It would accelerate many pre-existing trends. - border closures - nationalism - social isolation - preppers - remote work - face masks - distrust in governments

Here is his worldview summarized by Dickie Bush (more on Dickie in a second):

Dickie Bush 🚢 @dickiebush

The most FASCINATING thinker I'd never heard of: @balajis. After his recent chat with @david_perell, I inhaled every other podcast he's been on with: • @APompliano • @ShaneAParrish • @Jason • @KyleTibbitts Here are his 10 most thoughtful ideas on the future Thread...

Also, his episode on Tim Ferriss show last November became Tim's most downloaded episode for 2021 almost immediately.

The book that best represents his worldview might be the Sovergning Individual:

Recommend

Next is Naval

Naval inspired me to pursue wealth as a means to freedom. I discovered Naval while in Croatia, and for most of 2020-2021, I exclusively read books recommended by him:

Naval Reading List 1

Naval Reading List 2

His teachings have been compiled in this book for free.

Lastly, he is best known for his advice on building wealth, but his teachings about happiness are even better:

Naval @naval

Desire is a contract that you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.

Andrew Kirby

Andrew Kirby blew up on YouTube as a productivity guru.

At first, I was skeptical of him, especially after he started selling an online productivity course for thousands of dollars, but I have grown to respect him.

Firstly, he has helped spread powerful ideas over the years, like dopamine detox (temporarily starving your brain of pleasure to combat overstimulation and feel motivated again) and Stoicism.

After achieving financial freedom at age 22, Andrew came out of early retirement with a host of Naval content:

Andrew Kirby @IAmAndrewKirby

I'm 22. Here's how I used @naval's thread to make $1m online. ↓

Naval @naval

How to Get Rich (without getting lucky):

That was the motivation I needed to finally start my own YouTube channel.

When he opened a free online school for creators, I joined the first cohort. His guidance has been essential to my early YouTube growth.

Dickie Bush

Next is Dickie Bush

Dickie Bush writes fire twitter threads. If you are interested in online writing or storytelling, this is your guy.

Dickie Bush 🚢 @dickiebush

The most creative company of the last 30 years: Pixar. Back in 2011, Pixar storyboard artist Emma Coats shared their "22 Rules For Storytelling." And the rules are a must-read for writers, entrepreneurs, and anyone who wants to tell captivating stories. Here's the breakdown:

Akira the Don

Akira mixes spoken word over lofi beats. The first time you hear his music, it might feel a bit unorthodox, but it also might change your life.

Also, Akira introduced me to Jordan Peterson and Naval, which sent me down a rabbit hole of self-development for which I am forever grateful.

A list of people Akira has synthesized to music:

• Jordan Peterson (New)

• Scott Adams (from How to Author Your Future blog post)

• Naval

• David Goggins

• Joe Rogan

• Jocko Willink

• Graham Hancock

• Gary Vee

• Marcus Aurelius (Yes, the Emperor of Rome)

• Alan Watts

Honorable mentions

Other people who provide great value on the internet.

• Jordan Peterson (self-development content)

• Paul G

• Scott Adams (self-development content)

• Tim Ferriss 

• Joe Rogan

• Ray Dalio

• Dr. Andrew Huberman

• Ryan Holiday

• Derek Sivers

Notes

I noticed there are no women on this list. That was unintentional and if you follow a woman creator who provides great value online, I’d love to hear from you.

Also, the obvious risk of this system is falling down an ideological rabbit hole or blindly accepting their words as truth. That is why I try to consume content from multiple people.

Summary

Those were five people who provide tremendous value on the internet.

Just because I find these people credible does not mean you should believe everything they say is true. But they have proven helpful in the past, and I generally remain open-minded to much of their suggestions.

We will discuss filtering good information from bad information in a future post.

P.S. Why did I rename Woody’s World to ZeitGeist?

1. I like German

   • Zeitgeist is a beautiful German word for Spirit of the Times

2. Self-publication is the spirit of the times

3. To convert more YouTube viewers into subscribers

   1. Ninety percent+ of my YouTube viewers are German

Please let me know your feedback on the new name—positive or negative!