Hi everyone,

Hope you've had a great week. I know some of you have dealt with severe storms, so I hope you're all okay.

On to this week's idea:

---

The Three Kinds of Leverage 📐

In Navalmanack, Naval Ravikant discusses three types of leverage: code, capital, and labor. Until fairly recently in my life I'd only experienced the first of these, but my mind has been blown this week by the last.

It all started when I decided to get some help with my video editing. There's tons of sites whereby you can hire specialists to help you with tasks. But this was the first time that I thought to hire someone to perform a task that I had previously been spending 4-5 hours per week doing.

That's when it all connected for me. Leverage is powerful. Having someone make me an icon on Fiverr didn't hit quite like having someone completely replace me. I'm happy to take my 5 hours back and pay an editor that's probably much better than I am anyway.

For me, the three forms of leverage all really come down to time. Let's think about the three examples:

Capital

I currently have capital leverage in the form of a mortgage. Without it, I would have needed to save up for 30 years before buying a house. To quote Naval, it's "the dominant form of leverage in the last century." Thinking back to the Great Recession, this makes a lot of sense.

Code (and Media)

This is the form of leverage I've been most familiar with. That said, in my personal life this leverage has mostly amounted to automating small tasks and building projects for fun. It also comes into play on my YouTube channel, but I'm not really seeing the effects of it there yet. Regardless, I can write a piece of code once and run it infinitely – it's ultimately getting me time back.

Labor

Labor is the oldest form of leverage, and, according to Naval, the most messy because it involves managing people. That said, I think it's worth embracing if you feel you can hire independent, skilled people. I actually can't attest to labor being awesome yet – I haven't hired anybody or seen any results. That said, I'm excited about the prospect of turning responsibilities over to others, more than anything because it means I won't have to spend time on the thing in question.

Regardless of your experience with leverage, I think it's worth thinking about how to use it in your day to day life. After all, it was Archimedes who said:

Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.

---

Pete's Picks ✅

1. What I'm Reading: I picked up Say Nothing on audiobook and think it's going to be an all-timer. Part history and part true crime, it tells the story of a particular period during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Check it out!
2. What I'm Watching: I'm still going down the YouTuber/runner rabbit hole. This week I found Ari Klau and have enjoyed following along with his story – he's a UVA cross-country grad who left his stable job for a shot at becoming a professional triathlete. You know I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.

---

This Week's Video 📹

Reviewing Unicorns' First Website Designs

---

Tweet of the Week 🐦

Note: This tweet got me 50 subscribers because the guys mentioned liked it. What I've seen in my experiment with Twitter this year is that creating conversation with the right people is one of the most important things you can do. Not that I'm an expert or anything.

---

Cheers,

Peter