The Angel Philosopher Naval Ravikant on Reading, Making Decisions, Habits, and the Purpose of Life

KEYPOINTS

• 01

  Reading an hour a day puts you in a tiny minority, and the habit matters more than the book.

  As a latchkey kid in New York, raised by a single mother working several jobs, Naval spent every afternoon at the library until it closed. Nobody told him what he should read, so he climbed from comics to mysteries, fantasy, sci-fi, science, math and philosophy. He reads one to two hours a day, which he thinks puts him in the top 0.01%, and credits it for any material success he’s had. Like exercise, the key is doing it daily: the best book is the one you’re excited to read. Even when broke, he treated books as an investment. He buys about ten times more than he finishes.

• 02

  Treat books like blog archives: skim, skip, and reread the great ones.

  Blogs and the internet shortened everyone’s attention span. Naval brought books back by reading them like blogs: jumping around until something grabs him, and finishing without guilt only if it’s good. Most nonfiction makes one point and then piles on examples. He drops a book if the author states something plainly false, like dismissing thermodynamics, because then he can’t tell true from false. He would rather reread about 100 great books, among them Sapiens, the Durants’ Lessons of History, Krishnamurti, Osho, Matt Ridley and Feynman. He prefers originals like Adam Smith and Darwin over a hundred retellings, since most bestsellers are read for social approval and the rewards in life come from leaving the herd.

• 03

  Your top priority is the one you’ll never claim to lack time for.

  ‘I don’t have time’ really means ‘it’s not a priority.’ A fuzzy set of ten or fifteen priorities means you achieve none. Naval ranked his: physical health first, then mental, then spiritual, then family, then everything else. So every morning he works out for however long it takes, ‘even if the world is imploding,’ and misses only a handful of days a year. The workout also helped him cut back on drinking. Late nights ruined the next morning’s session, and he realized he drank to get through social settings he didn’t enjoy, so he narrowed his social circle and switched to red wine, which naturally limits itself.

• 04

  Happiness is what’s left when nothing feels missing.

  Naval sees happiness not as positive thoughts, since every positive implies a negative, but as the absence of desire, especially for external things. When nothing is missing, the mind stops racing into the past or future and goes quiet. Clinging to happiness ends it. He is trying to quiet his ‘monkey mind’: brushing his teeth before this interview, he caught himself rehearsing imaginary answers and returned to just brushing. Children are happy because they’re absorbed in the moment. He thinks people chase thrills, flow and alcohol largely to escape the voice in their heads.

• 05

  Life is a single-player game, so drop jealousy.

  Society rewards competitive games others can see, like fitness and money, but training yourself to be happy is entirely internal: ‘you’re born alone, you’re gonna die alone.’ Naval cites Warren Buffett’s question: would you rather be the world’s best lover known as the worst, or the worst known as the best? Jealousy faded for Naval once he realized he couldn’t take just one person’s body and another’s money; he would have to become that whole person, which he didn’t want. Meditation doesn’t give you control over your mind at first, but it shows you how out of control it is, and seeing that separation is a kind of liberation.

• 06

  Hold a few values you won’t compromise on.

  Naval’s values: honesty, so his words match his thoughts and he never splits his mind to manage what he says; only long-term dealings, because everything good compounds; only peer relationships, neither above nor below anyone; and no anger, which the Buddhists compare to a hot coal you hold while waiting to throw it. He follows Buffett’s rule of criticizing the general approach and praising specific people. Freedom used to mean being free to do anything. Now it means being free from anger, from reactivity, from obligation. Looking back decade by decade, his biggest regret is not what he did but the anger and emotion he brought to it.

• 07

  Avoid errors rather than chase brilliant calls, and set up systems.

  Leverage means being right a bit more often is worth hundreds of times more; a 10% edge on a billion dollars is $100 million. Studying complexity theory taught Naval how little anyone can predict, so he focuses on eliminating what won’t work rather than picking winners. Angel investing suits this because you can lose only what you put in but can make 10,000 times it. He would rather see 10,000 companies, back 500 with a chance and double down on the five winners than bet big on ten. His goal is to do well in 999 of 1,000 possible versions of his life. He doesn’t use checklists for decisions, and he warns against copying others: ‘no one in the world is gonna beat you at being you.’

• 08

  Watch for integrity, simplicity and long-term thinking.

  How people treat others shows their integrity. If someone says ‘I’m only taking advantage of him, I’d never do that to you,’ remember how easily they can redefine who counts as a friend. People with integrity negotiate generously, and those who talk up their own honesty are usually covering for something. ‘The closer you want to get to me, the better your values have to be.’ Real understanding builds up from basics: a charlatan explains simple things in complicated ways, while Feynman built math from the number line to pre-calculus in three pages. Naval looks for founders who know their field, love the work and are willing to commit ten years. Great people get great outcomes; you just have to be patient.