Naval Ravikant
Co-founder of AngelList. Writes and podcasts at nav.al in short, aphoristic pieces on startups, wealth and judgement rather than long essays.
Naval Ravikant did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
Latest x.com
What they believe
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More software will retreat to the server and resist distillation.
Expect more software to retreat to the server and resist “distillation.”
x.comSaid 7 Oct 2026This on korrents
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Functioning institutions are based on merit, not participation.
Every functioning institution is merit-based, not participation-based.
x.comSaid 24 Sept 2026This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Feed
As its own page →Hiding
8 October
7 October
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Their words
Expect more software to retreat to the server and resist “distillation.”
30 September
28 September
24 September
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Their words
Every functioning institution is merit-based, not participation-based.
18 September
From one piece @naval on X 2 beliefs · x.com
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korrents.com
Effective Altruism lets people appear both rational and moral and is the ultimate ego trip.Their words
Effective Altruism lets you appear rational and moral - the ultimate ego trip.
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Their words
People who want to appear moral are attracted to the left. People who want to appear rational are attracted to the right.
16 September
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korrents.com
The best way to pace the AI frontier is to hold labs fully liable for their models' behavior.Their words
The best way to pace the frontier is to hold the labs fully liable for the behavior of their models.
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Their words
The future is more likely AIs fighting AIs (on behalf of humans) than AI fighting humanity.
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korrents.com
If AI is risky like fire, everyone should have it; if it is risky like a nuclear weapon, no one should.Their words
If AI is risky like fire is risky, then you want everyone to have it. If AI is risky like a nuclear weapon is risky, then you want no one to have it.
14 September
13 September
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Their words
On the way to killing all of us, AI will likely kill some of us.
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Their words
Strong liability enforcement could be helpful in the AI debate. If your agent swarm goes rogue, you’re liable. If your weakly protected model gets jailbroken, you’re liable. If you serve a weakly protected OSS model, you’re liable.
12 September
10 September
From one piece @naval on X 2 beliefs · x.com
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Their words
Today's AI hunts and feasts upon the Mozarts, Einsteins, and Shakespeares of our age. To birth a gang of ghostly geniuses that write our code, drive our cars, do our work, and run our world.
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Their words
Yesterday's AIs ate the Internet and became a patchwork mediocrity.
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Their words
The Frontier Lab flywheel is to get the smartest people to use the leading models. Then distill their inputs, your own model’s outputs, and resulting synthetic data and environments. And the people have to use the leading models because they’re locked in mutual competition.
24 August
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Their words
The left is on a project to enforce equality, despite biology and markets. The goal of equality gives claim to the moral high ground, but contradicting biology and markets requires censorship and violence, which makes the whole project immoral.
23 August
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Their words
The people who want to censor (code, speech, money) are the bad guys.
21 August
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Their words
Frontier Labs are incented to be fearful as it provides a moral justification for staying closed. Chinese Labs take the consistent position of doing what’s good for all and being open. So the little guys find themselves in the uncomfortable position of rooting for the Chinese…
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8 November 2025
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29 September 2025
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26 August 2025
7 August 2025
Nothing matches.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 145 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
More software will retreat to the server and resist distillation.
Expect more software to retreat to the server and resist “distillation.”
@naval on X Said 7 Oct 2026
Functioning institutions are based on merit, not participation.
Every functioning institution is merit-based, not participation-based.
@naval on X Said 24 Sept 2026
People who want to appear moral are attracted to the left, while people who want to appear rational are attracted to the right.
People who want to appear moral are attracted to the left. People who want to appear rational are attracted to the right.
@naval on X Said 18 Sept 2026
Show 57 more
Effective Altruism lets people appear both rational and moral and is the ultimate ego trip.
Effective Altruism lets you appear rational and moral - the ultimate ego trip.
@naval on X Said 18 Sept 2026
If AI is risky like fire, everyone should have it; if it is risky like a nuclear weapon, no one should.
If AI is risky like fire is risky, then you want everyone to have it. If AI is risky like a nuclear weapon is risky, then you want no one to have it.
@naval on X Said 16 Sept 2026
AIs fighting AIs on behalf of humans is more likely than AI fighting humanity.
The future is more likely AIs fighting AIs (on behalf of humans) than AI fighting humanity.
@naval on X Said 16 Sept 2026
The best way to pace the AI frontier is to hold labs fully liable for their models' behavior.
The best way to pace the frontier is to hold the labs fully liable for the behavior of their models.
@naval on X Said 16 Sept 2026
Strong liability enforcement could help the AI debate by holding people liable for rogue agent swarms, jailbroken weakly protected models, and weakly protected OSS models they serve.
Strong liability enforcement could be helpful in the AI debate. If your agent swarm goes rogue, you’re liable. If your weakly protected model gets jailbroken, you’re liable. If you serve a weakly protected OSS model, you’re liable.
@naval on X Said 13 Sept 2026
AI will likely kill some people on the way to killing all of humanity.
On the way to killing all of us, AI will likely kill some of us.
@naval on X Said 13 Sept 2026
Frontier AI labs improve via a flywheel of getting the smartest people on leading models, then distilling their inputs, model outputs, and synthetic data, with users locked in by mutual competition.
The Frontier Lab flywheel is to get the smartest people to use the leading models. Then distill their inputs, your own model’s outputs, and resulting synthetic data and environments. And the people have to use the leading models because they’re locked in mutual competition.
@naval on X Said 10 Sept 2026
Earlier AI systems consumed the Internet and became a patchwork of mediocrity.
Yesterday's AIs ate the Internet and became a patchwork mediocrity.
@naval on X Said 10 Sept 2026
Today's AI feeds on the era's greatest creators, its Mozarts, Einsteins, and Shakespeares, to create ghostly geniuses that write code, drive cars, do work, and run the world.
Today's AI hunts and feasts upon the Mozarts, Einsteins, and Shakespeares of our age. To birth a gang of ghostly geniuses that write our code, drive our cars, do our work, and run our world.
@naval on X Said 10 Sept 2026
Enforcing equality against biology and markets requires censorship and violence, which makes the project immoral whatever its moral claim.
The left is on a project to enforce equality, despite biology and markets. The goal of equality gives claim to the moral high ground, but contradicting biology and markets requires censorship and violence, which makes the whole project immoral.
@naval on X Said 24 Aug 2026
Whoever wants to censor -- code, speech or money -- is the bad guy.
The people who want to censor (code, speech, money) are the bad guys.
@naval on X Said 23 Aug 2026
Frontier labs are incentivised toward fear because it justifies staying closed, which leaves open-source advocates rooting for Chinese labs.
Frontier Labs are incented to be fearful as it provides a moral justification for staying closed. Chinese Labs take the consistent position of doing what’s good for all and being open. So the little guys find themselves in the uncomfortable position of rooting for the Chinese…
@naval on X Said 21 Aug 2026
All user interfaces will converge on the same shape: chat and gestures in, chat and video out.
Eventually, all UI will be chat and gestures in, chat and video out.
@naval on X Said 19 Aug 2026
Vibe coding is the new product management.
So that’s what I mean—product management has taken over coding. Vibe coding is the new product management.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
When there is an abundance of content and apps there is no demand for average; the best one for a use case tends to win the category.
First, the best application for a given use case still tends to win the entire category. When you have such a multiplicity of content, whether in videos or audio or music or applications, there’s no demand for average.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
With AI coding, wealth goes to the aggregator and the long tail, and medium-sized software firms get blown apart.
As the Internet reminds us, the real power and wealth—super wealth—goes to the aggregator. But there’s also a huge distribution of resources into the long tail. It’s the medium-sized firms that get blown apart
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
AI researchers have taken over programming; training models is now its forefront.
Fundamentally, what we’re doing is a new kind of programming, but this is the forefront of programming. This is now the art of programming. These people are the new programmers, and that’s why you can see AI researchers are getting paid gargantuan amounts because they’ve essentially taken over programming.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
Traditional software engineering is not dead; software engineers are now among the most leveraged people on earth.
Does this mean that traditional software engineering is dead? Absolutely not. Software engineers—even the ones who are not necessarily tuning or training AI models—these are now among the most leveraged people on earth.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
Rather than learning how to use an AI, let the AI learn how to be useful to you.
But otherwise, I wouldn’t bother learning how to use an AI—rather let the AI learn how to be useful to you.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
The worry is not unaligned AI but unaligned humans with AI.
So I don’t really worry about unaligned AI. I worry about unaligned humans with AI.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
Intelligence, leverage and judgment are not normally distributed, so outcomes will be supernormal.
Intelligence is not normally distributed. Leverage is not normally distributed. Programmability is not normally distributed. Judgment is not normally distributed, so the outcomes are going to be supernormal.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
Over the very long term, programmers will eat up every other job.
I think every other job out there is going to get eaten up by programmers one way or another over the maximally long term.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
AI makes this a golden age for programming and a more level playing field.
So it is more of a level playing field. I really do think this is a golden age for programming.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
It always helps to have knowledge one layer below your abstraction, because you get closer to reality.
You can take this all the way down, but it always helps to have knowledge one layer below because you’re getting closer to reality.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
Being an entrepreneur is the opposite of a job, and in the long run everyone is an entrepreneur.
First of all, being an entrepreneur isn’t a job. It’s literally the opposite of a job, and in the long run, everyone’s an entrepreneur.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
Entrepreneurs do not worry about AI taking their job; to someone attempting something very hard, any AI is an ally.
So no entrepreneur is worried about an AI taking their job because entrepreneurs are trying to do impossible things. They’re trying to do very difficult things. Any AI that shows up is their ally and can help them tackle this really hard problem.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
What distinguishes entrepreneurs from everyone else in the economy is extreme agency.
In fact, I would summarize this by saying the key thing that distinguishes entrepreneurs from everybody else right now in the economy is entrepreneurs have extreme agency.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
Today's AIs are not alive: they lack embodiment, desires, survival instinct and therefore agency.
Right now the AIs are not embodied. They don’t have agency. They don’t have their own desires. They don’t have their own survival instinct. They don’t have their own replication. Therefore, they don’t have their own agency.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
Within a few decades it will be unimaginable to get rid of AI just to keep obsolete jobs.
And within a few decades, it’ll be unimaginable that you roll back the clock and get rid of AI, or any kind of software—any kind of technology for that matter—just to keep a few jobs that were obsolete.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
The goal is not to have a job but to have material needs met by robots, minds leveraged by computers, and anyone able to create.
The goal is to have your material needs solvable by robots, to have your intellectual capabilities leveraged through computers, and for anybody to be able to create.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
AI still lacks core human skills such as single-shot learning and the raw creativity to connect anything to anything.
However, what they lack still is a lot of core human skills, like single-shot learning. Humans can learn from just one example. The raw creativity of human beings where they can connect anything to anything.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
Humans are universal explainers: anything possible under the laws of physics, we can figure out by enough questioning.
Humans are universal explainers. Anything that is possible with the current laws of physics as we know them, a human can model in their own heads. Therefore just by enough digging—enough questioning—we can figure anything out.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
The only true test of intelligence is whether you get what you want out of life.
So I would argue, and I think it’s one of my more popular tweets: the only true test of intelligence is if you get what you want out of life.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
In adversarial games, freely available AIs will cancel each other out and the edge that remains will be human.
So in that sense, intelligence is measured in a battlefield—in an arena. It’s a relative construct. I think the AIs are actually going to fail mostly in those regards, or to the extent that they even succeed, because they’re freely available, they will get outcompeted away, and the alpha that will remain would be entirely human.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
To invest in the future you have to live in the future, as an avid early user of technology.
This is why I always say: to invest in the future, you want to live in the future. You want to actually be an avid consumer of technology, because it’s going to give you the best insight on how to use it
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
The means of learning are abundant; it is the desire to learn that is scarce.
So these are incredible tools for self-directed learning. The means of learning are abundant. It’s the desire to learn that’s scarce.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
An AI model that is right 92% of the time is worth almost infinitely more than one right 88% of the time.
The model that’s right 92% of the time is worth almost infinitely more than the one that’s right 88% of the time, because mistakes in the real world are so costly that a couple of bucks extra to get the right answer is worth it.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
AI is not creative: it cannot create a new genre or move people in a truly novel way.
Well, AIs can’t create a new genre of painting. AI can’t move humans with emotion in a way that is truly novel. So in that sense, I don’t think AI is creative.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
Creativity is not just putting things together; it is an answer not foreseeable from the question and what was already known.
I actually don’t think that’s correct. I think creativity is much more in the domain of coming up with an answer that was not predictable or foreseeable from the question and from the elements that were already known.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
Short of a breakthrough, throwing more compute at current AI models will not get them to invent new scientific theories.
There’s another form of creativity where it starts inventing entirely new scientific theories that then turn out to be true. I don’t think we’re anywhere near that, but I could be wrong. The AIs have been very surprising, so I don’t want to get too much in the business of making prophecies and predictions, but I don’t think that just throwing more compute at the current AI models—short of some breakthrough invention—is going to get us there.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
AI may be a motorcycle for the mind, but it still needs a person to ride and direct it.
And so now maybe we have a motorcycle for the mind, to stretch the analogy, but you still need someone to ride it, to drive it, to direct it, to hit the accelerator, and to hit the brake.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
The solution to anxiety, including AI anxiety, is always action.
And so the solution to that anxiety is action. The solution to anxiety is always action.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
All abstractions are leaky, so code an AI writes for you will have mistakes.
And all abstractions are leaky. So when you have a computer programming for you—when you have Claude Code or equivalent programming for you—it’s going to make mistakes.
A Motorcycle for the Mind Said 19 Feb 2026
Complex systems that work usually come from a simple thing iterated, while complex systems designed up front tend to fall apart.
There’s a theory in complexity theory that whenever you find a complex system working in nature, it’s usually the output of a very simple system or thing that was iterated over and over.
Find the Simplest Thing That Works Said 1 Oct 2025
The most critical person in taking a product from zero to one is the one, usually the founder, who can hold the whole problem in their head.
The most critical person to take a great product from zero to one is the single person—usually the founder—who can hold the entire problem in their head and make the trade-offs, and understand why each component is where it is.
Find the Simplest Thing That Works Said 1 Oct 2025
Be a polymath, a generalist who can pick up every specialty to the 80/20 level, rather than a generalist dodging specialisation.
It’s funny—everybody says “I’m a generalist,” which is their way of copping out on being a specialist. But really what you want to be is a polymath, which is a generalist who can pick up every specialty, at least to the 80/20 level, so they can make smart trade-offs.
Find the Simplest Thing That Works Said 1 Oct 2025
Physics trains you to deal with reality because it is unforgiving enough to beat the falsities out of you.
The best people that I’ve met in almost any field have a physics background. If you don’t have a physics background, don’t cry. I have a failed physics background. You can still get there the other ways, but physics trains you to interact with reality, and it is so unforgiving that it beats all the nice falsities out of you.
Find the Simplest Thing That Works Said 1 Oct 2025
In social science you can hold cuckoo beliefs and may end up with 10% real knowledge and 90% false.
Whereas if you’re somewhere in social science, you can have all kinds of cuckoo beliefs. Even if you pick up some of the abstruse mathematics they use in social sciences, you may have 10% real knowledge, but 90% false knowledge.
Find the Simplest Thing That Works Said 1 Oct 2025
Tinkerers are always at the edge of knowledge because they use the latest tools and parts to build things.
The tinkerers are always at the edge of knowledge because they’re always using the latest tools and the latest parts to build the cool things.
Find the Simplest Thing That Works Said 1 Oct 2025
Good products, like good explanations, are hard to vary.
That doesn’t just apply to good explanations. It applies to product development. Good products are hard to vary.
Good Products Are Hard to Vary Said 29 Sept 2025
Good writing is dense and interconnected enough that readers meet its knowledge at the level they are ready for.
Good writers write with such high density and interconnectedness that their works are fractal in nature. You will meet the knowledge at the level at which you are ready to receive it.
Good Products Are Hard to Vary Said 29 Sept 2025
To learn epistemology, read David Deutsch.
If you just want to know epistemology, read David Deutsch—full stop.
Most Books Should Be Skimmed, A Few Should Be Devoured Said 26 Sept 2025
On human nature read old, time-tested books; for specific knowledge you get paid for, stay on the bleeding edge.
When it comes to anything about human nature, I say go read the Lindy books—the older books, the ones that have survived the test of time. But if you want to develop specific knowledge, get paid for it, do something useful, then you want to stay on the bleeding edge.
The Best Authors Respect the Reader’s Time Said 24 Sept 2025
The best authors respect the reader's time.
But the best authors respect the reader’s time, and Schopenhauer is very much in that vein.
The Best Authors Respect the Reader’s Time Said 24 Sept 2025
From what he has observed, people who work hard, persist and take responsibility succeed on a long enough time scale.
From what I have observed, the truth of the matter is: People who work very hard and apply themselves and don’t give up and take responsibility for the outcomes on a long enough time scale, end up succeeding in whatever they’re focused on.
It Is Impossible to Fool Mother Nature Said 22 Sept 2025
Real feedback comes from free markets and nature; feedback from other people is usually fake.
Feedback from other people is usually fake. Awards are fake. Critics are fake. Kudos from your friends and family are fake.
It Is Impossible to Fool Mother Nature Said 22 Sept 2025
A company optimising for magazine covers or industry awards is failing; customers are the real feedback.
If you’re optimizing your company to end up on the cover of a magazine, or to win an industry award, you’re failing.
It Is Impossible to Fool Mother Nature Said 22 Sept 2025
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.
Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.
Recommends rcmnd
rcmnd What they recommend 59 things, 60 mentions — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
Recommends Objective Knowledge
The first thing I would do is start meditating, and then I would read, concurrently I would read Objective Knowledge by Karl Popper.
x.com 10 Sept 2023
Recommends The Fabric of Reality
I’m currently stuck in a loop where, at least in science, I’m only going to read The Beginning of Infinity and The Fabric of Reality over and over again until I understand them fully.
nav.al 10 Mar 2021
Recommends The Beginning of Infinity
I’m currently stuck in a loop where, at least in science, I’m only going to read The Beginning of Infinity and The Fabric of Reality over and over again until I understand them fully.
nav.al 10 Mar 2021
Show 57 more
Recommends Ashtavakra Gita
It moves around. Keep coming back to I Am That, Direct Truth, Vasistha's Yoga, Jed McKenna, and Ashtavakra Gita.
x.com 16 Feb 2021
Recommends Vasistha's Yoga
It moves around. Keep coming back to I Am That, Direct Truth, Vasistha's Yoga, Jed McKenna, and Ashtavakra Gita.
x.com 16 Feb 2021
Recommends Direct Truth
It moves around. Keep coming back to I Am That, Direct Truth, Vasistha's Yoga, Jed McKenna, and Ashtavakra Gita.
x.com 16 Feb 2021
Recommends I Am That
Beginning of Infinity, Rational Optimist, Skin in the Game are all amazing. If you want more eastern philosophy, try Siddhartha, I am That, Jed McKenna.
x.com 17 Jan 2021
Loved Skin in the Game
Beginning of Infinity, Rational Optimist, Skin in the Game are all amazing. If you want more eastern philosophy, try Siddhartha, I am That, Jed McKenna.
x.com 17 Jan 2021
Recommends The Beginning of Infinity
Start with The Beginning of Infinity.
x.com 2 May 2020
Liked What is Life?
Current reading list. Most into “The Beginning of Infinity” and “What is Life?” at the moment.
x.com 4 Aug 2019
Liked The Unwritten
No single favorite, but I liked V for Vendetta, Watchmen, The Boys, Transmetropolitan, Planetary, Sandman, and The Unwritten.
x.com 8 Jun 2019
Liked The Sandman
No single favorite, but I liked V for Vendetta, Watchmen, The Boys, Transmetropolitan, Planetary, Sandman, and The Unwritten.
x.com 8 Jun 2019
Liked Planetary
No single favorite, but I liked V for Vendetta, Watchmen, The Boys, Transmetropolitan, Planetary, Sandman, and The Unwritten.
x.com 8 Jun 2019
Liked Transmetropolitan
No single favorite, but I liked V for Vendetta, Watchmen, The Boys, Transmetropolitan, Planetary, Sandman, and The Unwritten.
x.com 8 Jun 2019
Liked The Boys
No single favorite, but I liked V for Vendetta, Watchmen, The Boys, Transmetropolitan, Planetary, Sandman, and The Unwritten.
x.com 8 Jun 2019
Liked Watchmen
No single favorite, but I liked V for Vendetta, Watchmen, The Boys, Transmetropolitan, Planetary, Sandman, and The Unwritten.
x.com 8 Jun 2019
Liked V for Vendetta
No single favorite, but I liked V for Vendetta, Watchmen, The Boys, Transmetropolitan, Planetary, Sandman, and The Unwritten.
x.com 8 Jun 2019
Loved The Order of Time
Read Permutation City
Vasishta Yoga, The Book of Nothing, Math (Better Explained), Skin in the Game, 12 Rules for Life, The Path to Love, Faraday Maxwell and the Electromagnetic Field, Direct Truth, The Gay Science, Permutation City, The Order of a Time, and many, many others.
x.com 14 Aug 2018
Read The Gay Science
Vasishta Yoga, The Book of Nothing, Math (Better Explained), Skin in the Game, 12 Rules for Life, The Path to Love, Faraday Maxwell and the Electromagnetic Field, Direct Truth, The Gay Science, Permutation City, The Order of a Time, and many, many others.
x.com 14 Aug 2018
Read Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field
Vasishta Yoga, The Book of Nothing, Math (Better Explained), Skin in the Game, 12 Rules for Life, The Path to Love, Faraday Maxwell and the Electromagnetic Field, Direct Truth, The Gay Science, Permutation City, The Order of a Time, and many, many others.
x.com 14 Aug 2018
What others say about Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field →
Read The Path to Love
Vasishta Yoga, The Book of Nothing, Math (Better Explained), Skin in the Game, 12 Rules for Life, The Path to Love, Faraday Maxwell and the Electromagnetic Field, Direct Truth, The Gay Science, Permutation City, The Order of a Time, and many, many others.
x.com 14 Aug 2018
Read 12 Rules for Life
Vasishta Yoga, The Book of Nothing, Math (Better Explained), Skin in the Game, 12 Rules for Life, The Path to Love, Faraday Maxwell and the Electromagnetic Field, Direct Truth, The Gay Science, Permutation City, The Order of a Time, and many, many others.
x.com 14 Aug 2018
Read Math, Better Explained
Vasishta Yoga, The Book of Nothing, Math (Better Explained), Skin in the Game, 12 Rules for Life, The Path to Love, Faraday Maxwell and the Electromagnetic Field, Direct Truth, The Gay Science, Permutation City, The Order of a Time, and many, many others.
x.com 14 Aug 2018
Read The Book of Nothing
Vasishta Yoga, The Book of Nothing, Math (Better Explained), Skin in the Game, 12 Rules for Life, The Path to Love, Faraday Maxwell and the Electromagnetic Field, Direct Truth, The Gay Science, Permutation City, The Order of a Time, and many, many others.
x.com 14 Aug 2018
Recommends Understand
“Understand” by Ted Chiang is a brilliant revisit of “Flowers for Algernon.” Drop everything and read it.
x.com 17 Jul 2018
Loved Nexus
Recommends The Sun Rises in the Evening
Check out “The Sun Rises in the Evening” by Osho. Bit mystical but he’s not wrong.
x.com 25 Apr 2018
Liked Freedom from the Known
Freedom from the Known is just as good.
x.com 30 Mar 2018
Recommends The Evolution of Cooperation
You may want to try The Compleat Strategyst, The Origins of Virtue, The Evolution of Cooperation, etc.
x.com 15 Jan 2018
Recommends The Compleat Strategyst
You may want to try The Compleat Strategyst, The Origins of Virtue, The Evolution of Cooperation, etc.
x.com 15 Jan 2018
Recommends The Rational Optimist
Depending on your mood, either The Sovereign Individual, Sapiens, Siddhartha, Total Freedom (JK), The Untethered Soul, or the Rational Optimist. Books are cheap, buy all and skim them for the one that grabs you.
x.com 22 Dec 2017
Recommends The Untethered Soul
Depending on your mood, either The Sovereign Individual, Sapiens, Siddhartha, Total Freedom (JK), The Untethered Soul, or the Rational Optimist. Books are cheap, buy all and skim them for the one that grabs you.
x.com 22 Dec 2017
Recommends Total Freedom
Depending on your mood, either The Sovereign Individual, Sapiens, Siddhartha, Total Freedom (JK), The Untethered Soul, or the Rational Optimist. Books are cheap, buy all and skim them for the one that grabs you.
x.com 22 Dec 2017
Recommends Siddhartha
Depending on your mood, either The Sovereign Individual, Sapiens, Siddhartha, Total Freedom (JK), The Untethered Soul, or the Rational Optimist. Books are cheap, buy all and skim them for the one that grabs you.
x.com 22 Dec 2017
Recommends Sapiens
Depending on your mood, either The Sovereign Individual, Sapiens, Siddhartha, Total Freedom (JK), The Untethered Soul, or the Rational Optimist. Books are cheap, buy all and skim them for the one that grabs you.
x.com 22 Dec 2017
Recommends The Sovereign Individual
Depending on your mood, either The Sovereign Individual, Sapiens, Siddhartha, Total Freedom (JK), The Untethered Soul, or the Rational Optimist. Books are cheap, buy all and skim them for the one that grabs you.
x.com 22 Dec 2017
Loved Ficciones
Snow Crash, “Understand” (Ted Chiang), Ficciones (Borges), short stories by Vonnegut, Bradbury, Heinlein, Asimov, Greg Egan.
x.com 16 Dec 2017
Loved Snow Crash
Snow Crash, “Understand” (Ted Chiang), Ficciones (Borges), short stories by Vonnegut, Bradbury, Heinlein, Asimov, Greg Egan.
x.com 16 Dec 2017
Recommends Thinking Physics
Mixed on Pre-Suasion
Presuasion is good but closer to a single-themed book.
x.com 20 Nov 2016
Liked Influence
Influence was fundamental and had a lot to teach.
x.com 20 Nov 2016
Recommends Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha
Core Teachings of the Buddha, free online.
x.com 22 Feb 2016
What others say about Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha →
Loved The Prophet
Loved The Dark Knight Returns
V for Vendetta, The Boys, Transmetropolitan, Sandman, Fables, The Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, The Unwritten.
x.com 30 Jan 2016
Loved Fables
V for Vendetta, The Boys, Transmetropolitan, Sandman, Fables, The Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, The Unwritten.
x.com 30 Jan 2016
Recommends Rick and Morty
There are original Rick and Morty comic books by the same writers. Just as funny, different content. Must read!
x.com 18 Aug 2015
Recommends Raptitude
Loved "Waking Up." Also check the Raptitude blog.
x.com 1 Jun 2015
Loved Waking Up
Loved "Waking Up." Also check the Raptitude blog.
x.com 1 Jun 2015
Recommends The Red Queen
And everything by @mattwridley is worth reading - Genome, Red Queen, Origin of Virtue, etc.
x.com 21 Mar 2015
Recommends Genome
And everything by @mattwridley is worth reading - Genome, Red Queen, Origin of Virtue, etc.
x.com 21 Mar 2015
Loved A Cultural History of Physics
Poor Charlie's Almanac, A Cultural History of Physics, Total Freedom (Krishnamurti).
x.com 21 Mar 2015
Loved Poor Charlie's Almanack
Poor Charlie's Almanac, A Cultural History of Physics, Total Freedom (Krishnamurti).
x.com 21 Mar 2015
Recommends The Salmon of Doubt
That article is also in his collected-essay book, "The Salmon of Doubt." Recommended.
x.com 14 Mar 2014
Loved The Lifecycle of Software Objects
Another masterpiece of SciFi by Ted Chiang: "The Lifecycle of Software Objects"
x.com 19 Jan 2013
Liked A Soldier of the Great War
For historical fiction, I like "A Soldier of the Great War"
x.com 17 Sept 2012
Read The Macintosh Way
his "The Macintosh Way" led me into tech!
x.com 21 Feb 2011
Recommends Soon I Will Be Invincible
"Soon I will be Invincible" - Austin Grossman
x.com 29 Dec 2010
Recommends Lord of Light
Highly recommend "Lord of Light" by Zelazny as well.
x.com 18 Sept 2010
Recommends The War Nerd
check out "The War Nerd" by Gary Brecker, or read one of his columns at The Exile.
x.com 22 Aug 2010
Where they publish
Site nav.al Their own site: the essays and the podcast, in short pieces. Has a feed.
Short, aphoristic pieces on startups, wealth, judgement and attention — closer to compressed notes than essays, which is the form they are known for. Carries a feed.
Recent
- Live in the Future 3 Jul 2026 Naval with three founders who are living in the future: Garry Tan (Y Combinator), Daniel Francis (Abel Police), and Farbood Nivi (A-LIST). More
- The AI Industrial Revolution 1 Jun 2026 Full episode with 20 minutes of new material at the end. With Guillermo Rauch (Vercel), Blake Scholl (Boom Supersonic), and Max Hodak (Science). Nivi: Welcome. You’re listening to Naval Podcast, your authoritative sourc…
- The Regulatory Frontier 30 May 2026 Part 3 of our four-part discussion with three frontier founders: Guillermo Rauch (Vercel), Blake Scholl (Boom Supersonic), and Max Hodak (Science Corp). Also see Part 1: Waste Tokens, Save Time, Part 2: Vibe Coding Hard…
Show 7 more
- Vibe Coding Hardware 29 May 2026 See Part I here. Nivi: Hey Blake, how are you applying all this at Boom Supersonic? It completely changes the role of software and hardware developers. From day one we tried to take a lot of traditional engineering work…
- Waste Tokens, Save Time 27 May 2026 Welcome. You’re listening to the Naval Podcast, your authoritative source for new knowledge. We’re trying something new today. I have three frontier founders with us—three good-looking guys, actually, and a fourth good-…
- Sell the Truth 11 May 2026 Hi, you’re listening to the Naval Podcast. This is his regular co-host, Nivi. There are only two skills you have to have in life: How to build and how to sell. Today we’re going to talk about the sales side. Naval is a…
- ‘Nothing Ever Happens’ Is Over 4 May 2026 You’re listening to the Naval Podcast. This is Nivi. There’s no set topic for this episode—it will be a potpourri. The Fully Interconnected Startup Naval, how are you using AI at Impossible, your current company, to cha…
- A Return to Code 28 Apr 2026 You’re listening to the Naval Podcast. This is Nivi, his regular co-host. Today we’re going to talk about vibe coding. Let me tee up the conversation with a tweet from Naval from March 23rd: “AI coding agents can now de…
- A Motorcycle for the Mind 19 Feb 2026 Hey, this is Nivi. You’re listening to the Naval Podcast. For the first time in recorded history, we are not at the same location. I am actually walking around town and Naval might be doing the same, so there might be s…
- Curate People 8 Nov 2025 You’re listening to the Naval Podcast. Today we’re going to be talking about recruiting, hiring, team, and culture. There’s a famous quote from Vinod Khosla, “The team you build is the company you build.” Or in other wo…
Link verified 1 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
x.com @naval Where the aphorisms appear first, usually as threads.
The original home of most of the writing: threads that later become posts on the site. Follows nobody, which is itself part of the method they describe.
Recent
- Turns out the “Open” part refers to *your* code. 8 Oct 2026
- Models are the last moat in software. AI can train on essays and rewrite them. AI can decompile software and recode it. AI can ingest art and recreate it. But AI itself doesn’t want to be “distilled.” Expect more software to retreat to the server and resist “distillation.” 7 Oct 2026
- When you look back, you’ll wish you’d just done the long-term version of everything. 30 Sept 2026
Show 17 more
- No one can fill the hole left by another human. 28 Sept 2026
- Every functioning institution is merit-based, not participation-based. 24 Sept 2026
- People who want to appear moral are attracted to the left. People who want to appear rational are attracted to the right. Effective Altruism lets you appear rational and moral - the ultimate ego trip. 18 Sept 2026
- The future is more likely AIs fighting AIs (on behalf of humans) than AI fighting humanity. 16 Sept 2026
- The best way to pace the frontier is to hold the labs fully liable for the behavior of their models. 16 Sept 2026
- If AI is risky like fire is risky, then you want everyone to have it. If AI is risky like a nuclear weapon is risky, then you want no one to have it. 16 Sept 2026
- "When liability exposure approaches 0—when no one pays the price for unverified failures—verification budgets collapse...Deployers flood the Runaway Risk Zone with unmonitored agents, capturing the gains of automation while socializing catastrophic risks." 14 Sept 2026
- Strong liability enforcement could be helpful in the AI debate. If your agent swarm goes rogue, you’re liable. If your weakly protected model gets jailbroken, you’re liable. If you serve a weakly protected OSS model, you’re liable. 13 Sept 2026
- On the way to killing all of us, AI will likely kill some of us. In that case, who’s liable? 13 Sept 2026
- The most important question is whether AI will be Godlike, Genius, or Jagged. 13 Sept 2026
- AI isn’t going away. Barring unprecedented global government coordination, it isn’t even slowing down. The only real decision is whether to centralize power, or disperse it. Do you fear the technology? Or a small number of people controlling the technology? 12 Sept 2026
- Challenge what they say, not who they are. 12 Sept 2026
- I’m not an AI doomer, but my firsthand experience dating back to 2020 is that the researchers expressing concerns are sincere. The closer they are to the research, the more worried they seem to be. 12 Sept 2026
- The Frontier Lab flywheel is to get the smartest people to use the leading models. Then distill their inputs, your own model’s outputs, and resulting synthetic data and environments. And the people have to use the leading models because they’re locked in mutual competition. 10 Sept 2026
- Yesterday's AIs ate the Internet and became a patchwork mediocrity. Today's AI hunts and feasts upon the Mozarts, Einsteins, and Shakespeares of our age. To birth a gang of ghostly geniuses that write our code, drive our cars, do our work, and run our world. 10 Sept 2026
- Children are free until they learn that there are constraints to the world, and then we call them adults. 1 Sept 2026
- When we see perfection in an idea, we call it truth. When we see it in a person, we call it love. When we see it in a thing, we call it beauty. 1 Sept 2026
Link verified 1 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
Podcast Naval Hosts the Naval podcast.
Recent
- Live in the Future 2 Jul 2026
- Full Episode: The AI Industrial Revolution 1 Jun 2026
- Sell the Truth 11 May 2026
Show 17 more
- 'Nothing Ever Happens' Is Over 4 May 2026
- A Return to Code 28 Apr 2026
- A Motorcycle for the Mind 18 Feb 2026
- Curate People 30 Oct 2025
- In the Arena 7 Oct 2025
- Find the Simplest Thing That Works 2 Oct 2025
- Good Products Are Hard to Vary 29 Sept 2025
- Most Books Should Be Skimmed, A Few Should Be Devoured 23 Sept 2025
- The Best Authors Respect the Reader's Time 22 Sept 2025
- It Is Impossible to Fool Mother Nature 21 Sept 2025
- Blame Yourself for Everything, and Preserve Your Agency 26 Aug 2025
- Pause, Reflect, See How Well it Did 7 Aug 2025
- Hiring a Podcast Editor and Naval's Chief of Staff 3 Aug 2025
- You Have to Enjoy It a Lot 31 Jul 2025
- Find Your Specific Knowledge Through Action 30 Jul 2025
- When You Truly Work for Yourself 26 Jul 2025
- In Most Difficult Things in Life, The Solution is Indirect 25 Jul 2025
Link verified 25 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
About the English under a post
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