Naval Ravikant is one of the most respected investors and thinkers of our time.
He credits reading 1-2 hours per day as the main reason he's been so successful.
Here are 43 reading tips from @naval:
1) Read what you love until you love to read.
2) Read the books they want to ban.
3) Reading a book isn’t a race—the better the book, the more slowly it should be absorbed.
4) I always spent money on books. I never viewed that as an expense. That’s an investment to me.
5) Good books are worth re-reading. Great books are worth re-buying.
6) The smarter you get, the slower you read.
7) If you can speed read it, it isn't worth reading.
8) Reading is the ultimate meta-skill and can be traded for anything else.
9) A vacation is a very expensive way to schedule the time to read a book in peace.
10) Reading is more efficient when at rest. Audio is more efficient when in motion.
11) Read to satisfy your own natural curiosity, not to impress or accomplish.
12) The genuine love for reading itself, when cultivated, is a superpower.
13) If it doesn’t grab my attention within the first chapter in a meaningful, positive way, I’ll either drop the book or skip ahead a few chapters.
14) Most books should just be summaries so I leave most books unfinished and only make it all the way through a few. The best ones can’t be easily summarized.
15) I don’t believe in delayed gratification when there are an infinite number of books out there to read. There are so many great books.
16) We live in the age of Alexandria, when every book and every piece of knowledge ever written down is a fingertip away. The means of learning are abundant—it’s the desire to learn that is scarce.
17) Learn to love to read, and all human knowledge is available to you right now.
18) If they wrote it to make money, don't read it.
19) Sequels are rarely good because the author that dumped decades of insights into the first book is suddenly given months to produce a second.
20) Assigned reading is propaganda.
21) I read out of curiosity and interest. The best book is the one you’ll devour.
22) Read enough, and you become a connoisseur. Then you naturally gravitate more toward theory, concepts, nonfiction.
23) Listening to books instead of reading them is like drinking your vegetables instead of eating them.
24) Study logic and math, because once you've mastered them, you won't fear any book.
25) No book in the library should scare you...You should be able to take any book down off the shelf and read it. A number of them are going to be too difficult for you. That’s okay—read them anyway. Then go back and reread them and reread them.
26) When you’re reading a book and you’re confused, that confusion is similar to the pain you get in the gym when you’re working out. But you’re building mental muscles instead of physical muscles. Learn how to learn and read the books.
27) Read originals and read classics. If you’re interested in evolution, read Charles Darwin. Don’t begin with Richard Dawkins (even though I think he’s great). Read him later; read Darwin first.
28) I came up with this hack where I started treating books as throwaway blog posts...I felt no obligation to finish any book. Now, when someone mentions a book to me, I buy it. At any given time, I’m reading somewhere between ten and twenty books.
29) If the book is getting a little boring, I’ll skip ahead. Sometimes, I start reading a book in the middle because some paragraph caught my eye. I’ll just continue from there, and I feel no obligation whatsoever to finish the book.
30) Any book that survived for two thousand years has been filtered through many people. The general principles are more likely to be correct. I wanted to get back into reading these sorts of books.
31) I have very poor attention. I skim. I speed read. I jump around. I could not tell you specific passages or quotes from books. At some deep level, you absorb them, and they become threads in the tapestry of your psyche. They kind of weave in there.
32) Read books, avoid news.
33) I probably read 1-2 hours a day, and that puts me in the top .00001%. I think that alone accounts for any material success that I’ve had in my life and any intelligence that I might have.
34) Number of books completed is a vanity metric. As you know more, you leave more books unfinished. Focus on new concepts with predictive power.
35) If I read a book and that I know it’s amazing, I’ll buy multiple copies, partially to give away, partially because I have them lying around the house.
36) I got over this idea of reading a large number of books...It’s a show-off thing, it’s a signaling thing...I no longer track books read or even care about books read, it’s about understanding concepts.
37) I would rather read the best 100 books over and over again until I absorb them rather than read all the books.”
38) I avoid the whole business and self-help category because you generally have one good idea and it’s buried in hundreds or thousands of pages and lots of anecdotes.
39) Feel free to skip around; it’s your book. There are books that I’ve literally started in the middle. I’ve read near to the end and then I’ve put it down...That liberation, that freedom just allows me to read.
40) Just like the best workout for you is the one that you’re excited enough to do every day, the same way I would say the books...to read are the ones that you’re excited about reading all the time.
41) I think the most important way to read is to pick up a lot of books, start reading them all. Put down any book instantly that doesn’t grab you and you don’t have reading and just keep going until you find something that does speak to you.
42) The great thing about reading is you can use that to pick up any new skill. So if you learn how to learn, it’s the ultimate meta skill.
43) I believe you can learn how to be healthy, you can learn how to be fit, you can learn how to be happy, you can learn how to have good relationships, you can learn how to be successful….You can trade it for any other skill. And that all begins with reading.
He credits reading 1-2 hours per day as the main reason he's been so successful.
Here are 43 reading tips from @naval:
1) Read what you love until you love to read.
2) Read the books they want to ban.
3) Reading a book isn’t a race—the better the book, the more slowly it should be absorbed.
4) I always spent money on books. I never viewed that as an expense. That’s an investment to me.
5) Good books are worth re-reading. Great books are worth re-buying.
6) The smarter you get, the slower you read.
7) If you can speed read it, it isn't worth reading.
8) Reading is the ultimate meta-skill and can be traded for anything else.
9) A vacation is a very expensive way to schedule the time to read a book in peace.
10) Reading is more efficient when at rest. Audio is more efficient when in motion.
11) Read to satisfy your own natural curiosity, not to impress or accomplish.
12) The genuine love for reading itself, when cultivated, is a superpower.
13) If it doesn’t grab my attention within the first chapter in a meaningful, positive way, I’ll either drop the book or skip ahead a few chapters.
14) Most books should just be summaries so I leave most books unfinished and only make it all the way through a few. The best ones can’t be easily summarized.
15) I don’t believe in delayed gratification when there are an infinite number of books out there to read. There are so many great books.
16) We live in the age of Alexandria, when every book and every piece of knowledge ever written down is a fingertip away. The means of learning are abundant—it’s the desire to learn that is scarce.
17) Learn to love to read, and all human knowledge is available to you right now.
18) If they wrote it to make money, don't read it.
19) Sequels are rarely good because the author that dumped decades of insights into the first book is suddenly given months to produce a second.
20) Assigned reading is propaganda.
21) I read out of curiosity and interest. The best book is the one you’ll devour.
22) Read enough, and you become a connoisseur. Then you naturally gravitate more toward theory, concepts, nonfiction.
23) Listening to books instead of reading them is like drinking your vegetables instead of eating them.
24) Study logic and math, because once you've mastered them, you won't fear any book.
25) No book in the library should scare you...You should be able to take any book down off the shelf and read it. A number of them are going to be too difficult for you. That’s okay—read them anyway. Then go back and reread them and reread them.
26) When you’re reading a book and you’re confused, that confusion is similar to the pain you get in the gym when you’re working out. But you’re building mental muscles instead of physical muscles. Learn how to learn and read the books.
27) Read originals and read classics. If you’re interested in evolution, read Charles Darwin. Don’t begin with Richard Dawkins (even though I think he’s great). Read him later; read Darwin first.
28) I came up with this hack where I started treating books as throwaway blog posts...I felt no obligation to finish any book. Now, when someone mentions a book to me, I buy it. At any given time, I’m reading somewhere between ten and twenty books.
29) If the book is getting a little boring, I’ll skip ahead. Sometimes, I start reading a book in the middle because some paragraph caught my eye. I’ll just continue from there, and I feel no obligation whatsoever to finish the book.
30) Any book that survived for two thousand years has been filtered through many people. The general principles are more likely to be correct. I wanted to get back into reading these sorts of books.
31) I have very poor attention. I skim. I speed read. I jump around. I could not tell you specific passages or quotes from books. At some deep level, you absorb them, and they become threads in the tapestry of your psyche. They kind of weave in there.
32) Read books, avoid news.
33) I probably read 1-2 hours a day, and that puts me in the top .00001%. I think that alone accounts for any material success that I’ve had in my life and any intelligence that I might have.
34) Number of books completed is a vanity metric. As you know more, you leave more books unfinished. Focus on new concepts with predictive power.
35) If I read a book and that I know it’s amazing, I’ll buy multiple copies, partially to give away, partially because I have them lying around the house.
36) I got over this idea of reading a large number of books...It’s a show-off thing, it’s a signaling thing...I no longer track books read or even care about books read, it’s about understanding concepts.
37) I would rather read the best 100 books over and over again until I absorb them rather than read all the books.”
38) I avoid the whole business and self-help category because you generally have one good idea and it’s buried in hundreds or thousands of pages and lots of anecdotes.
39) Feel free to skip around; it’s your book. There are books that I’ve literally started in the middle. I’ve read near to the end and then I’ve put it down...That liberation, that freedom just allows me to read.
40) Just like the best workout for you is the one that you’re excited enough to do every day, the same way I would say the books...to read are the ones that you’re excited about reading all the time.
41) I think the most important way to read is to pick up a lot of books, start reading them all. Put down any book instantly that doesn’t grab you and you don’t have reading and just keep going until you find something that does speak to you.
42) The great thing about reading is you can use that to pick up any new skill. So if you learn how to learn, it’s the ultimate meta skill.
43) I believe you can learn how to be healthy, you can learn how to be fit, you can learn how to be happy, you can learn how to have good relationships, you can learn how to be successful….You can trade it for any other skill. And that all begins with reading.
PS: If you enjoyed this thread and are looking for
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-awesome book recommendations
-insightful book summaries
-tips to read more books
Join 35,000+ readers here:
alexandbooks.beehiiv.com
And here are a few of Naval's reading tips visualized:
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