Naval Ravikant
Angel investor · AngelList and the Naval podcast
Co-founder and chairman of AngelList, an early investor in Twitter, Uber and Postmates, and the writer behind the How to Get Rich series on nav.al. The other half of what he publishes now carries as much of his reputation. It covers happiness treated as a trainable skill, desire described as a contract to be unhappy, and an hour of sitting still every morning. He records his podcast with Nivi, his AngelList co-founder. Full transcripts go up on his own site.
- Entries
- 30
- Does
- 20
- Recommends
- 9
- Discusses
- 1
Apps
6 apps in this stack
- AppDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Claude
Claude Code pulled him back into programming after decades away, and he says he got addicted straight away. He opens Claude on his phone to drive a terminal running on his desktop, or runs it in the cloud, then has it build apps and ship them to an app store he built for himself. One of them tracks his workouts.
Source: nav.al: A Return to CodeVisit claude.ai (opens in a new tab)On record from 5 of 62 tracked people: 5 do it - AppDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Codex
He started on Claude Code and brought in Codex for the thornier bugs and the deeper problems. It sits in his review loop too: push a branch and Codex fires automatically on the pull request alongside the other agents. That roundtable helps less than it sounds like it should, he says, because the models mostly agree.
Source: nav.al: A Return to CodeVisit developers.openai.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - AppDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Gemini
Search questions go to Gemini. He calls the product frustrating, timing out on the app and losing the plot, but rates the data underneath: the Google crawl plus YouTube. It is not the best model in his view, just the one sitting on the best index.
Source: nav.al: A Return to CodeVisit gemini.google.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - AppDoes it$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Grok
Grok is the one he counts on for a straight answer, the least filtered of the frontier models by his description. Access to X makes it good on news, and he rates it on hard scientific and mathematical questions. He says all four leading models have a place in his work.
Source: nav.al: A Return to CodeVisit grok.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it - AppDoes itFREE, no cost
GitHub
GitHub is the hinge in his coding setup. Code written with Claude gets pushed there as a pull request, and he has wired it so Codex and Gemini fire automatically on every one. He calls that a roundtable of AIs and says it has been less useful than you might think.
Source: nav.al: A Return to CodeVisit github.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it - AppDoes itFREE, no cost
X (Twitter)
Asked how he takes notes, he said he does not: Twitter is the note taking. He reads until something clicks, forces the idea down to fit the character limit, posts it as an aphorism and gets picked apart by strangers listing the exceptions. Then he goes quiet for a while.
Source: The Knowledge Project #18 transcript: Naval Ravikant, The Angel PhilosopherVisit x.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it
Books
6 books in this stack
- BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Eric Jorgenson collected his sayings into a book, which he says was very nice of him. He points people at the free version online and notes that he makes no money from it.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #473 transcript: Naval Ravikant on Happiness and Reducing AnxietyView item: The Almanack of Naval RavikantOn record from 3 of 62 tracked people: 3 recommend it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Awareness
Asked where someone should start with the philosophy he reads, he names Anthony de Mello and calls him fantastic. A Way to Love or Awareness, either one. He adds that none of it is worth picking up unless self-reflection is something you actually want to do.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #473 transcript: Naval Ravikant on Happiness and Reducing AnxietyView item: AwarenessOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The Beginning of Infinity
For epistemology he says read Deutsch and stop there, starting with the first three chapters of this one. The middle he calls a slog through quantum computation, physics and evolution, and that is where he thinks most readers struggle. He first read Deutsch years earlier and treated him like any other physicist, which he says was wrong.
Source: nav.al: Most Books Should Be Skimmed, A Few Should Be DevouredView item: The Beginning of InfinityOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The Happy Body
Jerzy Gregorek trained him and he keeps sending friends and relatives, though he admits he has gifted more sessions than he has taken himself. He recommends the books, and likes that Gregorek refuses every excuse people offer about genetics, age or big bones.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show transcript: Jerzy Gregorek and Naval RavikantView item: The Happy BodyOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The Rational Optimist
Everything Matt Ridley has written gets his recommendation, he says, and he names this one alongside Genome, The Red Queen and Origins of Virtue. Ridley is where he goes for the evolution and progress material.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show transcript: Naval RavikantView item: The Rational OptimistOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - BookRecommends$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The Untethered Soul
The crazy roommate image he uses for the voice in his head came from Michael Singer, and he calls this a good book. What he takes from it is that your own thoughts deserve the same skepticism you would apply to a stranger talking at you.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #473 transcript: Naval Ravikant on Happiness and Reducing AnxietyView item: The Untethered SoulOn record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it
Gear
3 pieces of gear in this stack
- GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Kindle e-reader
Fifty or so books sit on his Kindle at once. He opens it, looks through and reads whichever one fits his mood that day, plus six or seven print copies he cycles through.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show transcript: Naval RavikantView item: Kindle e-readerOn record from 6 of 62 tracked people: 6 do it - GearDoes it$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
iPad
Most of his reading is on Kindle, he says, though not on a Kindle: it is the app running on an iPad. Books he really likes he buys in print as well, so a copy is in reach either way. He has spent money on books since before he had any, and counts it as investment rather than expense.
Source: The Knowledge Project #18 transcript: Naval Ravikant, The Angel PhilosopherVisit apple.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 3 of 62 tracked people: 3 do it - GearDoes it$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
iPhone
The apps he vibe codes land on his own phone through the app store he built for himself, so a two line description over dinner can be a working app five minutes later. He opens Claude on the phone to drive a terminal on his desktop. Apple keys those builds to named devices, so friends and family get them and nobody else does.
Source: nav.al: A Return to CodeVisit apple.com (opens in a new tab)On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 2 do it
Protocols
5 entriesStructured routines and practices with a defined method.
Weight came off across roughly a decade with no single realization behind it. He credits going paleo, understanding low-carb eating and getting rid of processed food, and describes the change as habit by habit rather than a program. Backsliding, he says, has almost never happened.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show transcript: Naval RavikantHis number was 5,000 dollars an hour, chosen before he had real money, and he used it to decide what not to do. Arguing with the electrician failed the test; so did returning a broken speaker. He admits he did those things anyway, and that he still argues about it with his wife and his mother.
Source: nav.al: Set an Aspirational Hourly RateAll the benefits in life come from compound interest, he says, whether what is compounding is money, learning or goodwill. That needs an unbroken run with the same people, which is his argument for picking an industry where everyone is still around for the next game.
Source: nav.al: Play Long-term Games With Long-term PeopleAnything a company can train someone to do can be trained into a cheaper someone, so he argues that pay collects around knowledge nobody knows how to teach. You find it by following genuine curiosity, in his account, not by picking whichever field currently looks profitable.
Source: nav.al: Arm Yourself With Specific KnowledgeFirst see whether the meeting can be a call, then an email, then a text. If it has to happen, his advice is to walk it or stand it, and keep it short and small. Eight people around a conference table get nothing done, in his description.
Source: nav.al: Be Too Busy to Do Coffee
Habits
10 entriesRecurring behaviors recorded in public statements.
Reading runs constantly rather than on a schedule: around fifty books open on a Kindle, six or seven more in print, every one of them in progress. He says he can give a mini-review of any of them but has not actually finished one.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show transcript: Naval RavikantSixty minutes, first thing, every day for at least sixty days, letting the mind do whatever it wants and forcing nothing. He says he had about two and a half years of it behind him at that point and had missed roughly a dozen days. It is the single most important thing he does, in his words, though he adds that he cannot explain what happens in there.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #473 transcript: Naval Ravikant on Happiness and Reducing AnxietySitting alone with no drink, no phone, no book and no headphones is how he says you find out what the quality of your life actually is. He describes time spent by himself as the most important time he has, and credits it for how self-contained he now feels.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #473 transcript: Naval Ravikant on Happiness and Reducing AnxietyHe has a daily workout he does, but argues the specific routine matters far less than moving every single day at the same time. Seven days a week with no exceptions, early. Other bad habits then fix themselves, in his account, because late nights and heavy caffeine stop being survivable.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show transcript: Naval RavikantHis calendar holds almost nothing, and he says people who see it nearly weep. He stays busy the entire time regardless. A meeting without a strict agenda gets a flat no, on the grounds that a full calendar and a full mind between them will destroy any chance of doing something good.
Source: nav.al: Be Too Busy to Do CoffeeEvery six months he tries to break one bad habit, and every six months to a year tries to pick up a good one. Everything else stays static in the meantime. You never learn to break habits by reading about it, he says, only by breaking one.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show transcript: Naval RavikantSequence plays no part in it. He opens the Kindle, finds whichever book matches his mood, jumps to the part that looks most interesting and reads that. The payoff, he says, is that it keeps him reading on a regular basis.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show transcript: Naval RavikantSchopenhauer, Krishnamurti, the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching: one of them is always going, usually a reread, and he reads at night before sleep. He picks up one or two things to reflect on afterward. It is not a formula, he says, and he only does it because the material genuinely interests him.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #473 transcript: Naval Ravikant on Happiness and Reducing AnxietyThe line about wanting to read the best hundred books over and over rather than all the books came from a Twitter account called illacertus, and he credits it as such. In science he says he is stuck in a loop on two Deutsch books until he understands them fully.
Source: nav.al: Read the Best 100 Books Over and Over AgainDrinking holds together friendships and evenings that would not survive without it, he argues, so quitting means replacing your friends and finding new things to do. He is candid that this is the hard part, and calls breaking an addiction socially unacceptable for that reason.
Source: nav.al: Breaking Addiction Is Socially Unacceptable
In their own words
Checked word for word against the linked source
“And you sit for 60 minutes every day and you do it for at least 60 days. And you do it first thing in the morning. … And I’ve been doing this for about two and a half years now. And I’ve probably missed about a dozen days total.”
The Tim Ferriss Show #473 transcript: Naval Ravikant on Happiness and Reducing Anxiety (opens in a new tab) · 15 Oct 2020 “put down the drink, put down the computer, put down the smartphone, put down the book, put down the headphones, just sit by yourself, doing nothing. And then you will know what the quality of your life actually is because that’s what you’re always running away from.”
The Tim Ferriss Show #473 transcript: Naval Ravikant on Happiness and Reducing Anxiety (opens in a new tab) · 15 Oct 2020 “The more important thing is just doing some kind of physical activity every single day. If you can, make it the same activity at the same time, because that will teach you the power of habits.”
The Tim Ferriss Show transcript: Naval Ravikant (opens in a new tab) · 2 May 2016 “Based on my mood, I’ll flip through to whatever book matches my mood. I’ll flip to whatever part of it looks the most interesting, and I’ll just read that part. I don’t read in the sequential order.”
The Tim Ferriss Show transcript: Naval Ravikant (opens in a new tab) · 2 May 2016 “First, I keep a very clean calendar. I have almost no meetings on it. When some people see my calendar, they almost weep.”
nav.al: Be Too Busy to Do Coffee (opens in a new tab) · 8 May 2019
Stack notes are paraphrased. Anything in quotation marks is a short excerpt copied from the transcript it links to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.