#788: Naval Ravikant and Aaron Stupple — How to Raise a Sovereign Child, A Freedom-Maximizing Approach to Parenting

Aaron Stupple (@astupple) is the author of
The Sovereign Child: How a Forgotten Philosophy Can
Liberate Kids and Their Parents. Naval
Ravikant (@naval) is the co-founder of AngelList. He has
invested in more than 100 companies, including many
mega-successes, such as Twitter, Uber, Notion, Opendoor,
Postmates, and Wish.


Stick around after the end of our three-person conversation to
listen to an exclusive bonus segment that Naval and Aaron
recorded with extra practical tips, as well as
incremental, day-to-day experiments you can test and apply.
It’s super tactical, so you won’t want to miss
it. It begins at 02:17:01.


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Timestamps:


[00:00] Coming up in this episode


[08:40] Who is Aaron, and what makes him qualified to dispense
parenting advice?


[13:44] Taking Children Seriously (TCS) and The Sovereign Child
philosophies.


[17:49] The David Deutsch influence on these tenets.


[22:57] Supporting evidence and long-term case studies.


[27:17] Ways Naval and Aaron have incorporated these philosophies
into their own parenting.


[31:13] How rules work while parenting for freedom-maximizing.


[37:42] Why building knowledge beats coercion.


[43:41] Non-negotiables.


[46:35] Is this method of parenting only accessible to the
educated elite?


[50:05] Handling sibling conflict.


[54:41] How do freedom-maximized kids adapt to an adulthood of
endless societal rules?


[58:55] When kids present counter-accountability.


[01:00:41] One tool does not fix all.


[01:03:52] Putting mistakes to good use.


[01:08:00] Homeschooling, unschooling, and socialization
challenges.


[01:15:56] Building resilience.


[01:20:23] Coping with food and drink cravings.


[01:25:54] Avoiding the terminology of confirmation bias.


[01:31:37] Sports.


[01:35:09] Organically cultivating interests.


[01:38:11] The pros and cons of traditional schooling.


[01:47:24] Parental disagreements and avoiding hypocrisy.


[01:57:18] Four categories of harm that come from rules.


[02:00:38] The benefits of optional constraints.


[02:05:32] Body Electric.


[02:07:03] Things you should know before visiting the emergency
room.


[02:13:18] A hierarchy of knowledge and lessons learned from this
conversation.


[02:17:19] Tactics for addressing sibling (and spousal) conflict.


[02:19:47] Tactics to foster learning.


[02:22:54] The best baby (and adult) sitter.


[02:26:07] Parenting into the teen years.


[02:27:54] Tactics for forming good sleep habits.


[02:31:20] Tactics for encouraging good eating habits.


[02:37:34] Tactics for freedom-maximizing.


[02:42:56] Tactics for minimizing screen and social media
obsession.


[02:55:29] Too cool for rules.


[03:00:14] All information is subject to challenge.


[03:03:10] Happiness and creativity cannot be forced.


*


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