The Core Path to Financial Freedom
Based on the wealth logic of "The Almanack of Naval Ravikant," the key lies in three directions: increasing income, investing for compound growth, and managing desires.

Key to Increasing Income
By "productizing yourself" and leveraging tools like capital, labor, code, or media—especially permissionless leverage such as code and media—build a personal brand and directly reach your audience.

Long-Term Investment Strategy
Prioritize improving your knowledge and skills. Avoid over-diversification, emphasize understanding assets rather than blindly following trends, reduce frequent trading, and hold high-quality assets long-term (e.g., tech stocks, cryptocurrencies).

Definition of Financial Freedom
Financial freedom is achieved when your investable assets reach 25 times your annual living expenses. Controlling spending desires and avoiding lifestyle inflation are core to lowering this threshold.

Author Background
Naval Ravikant is the founder of AngelList and an early investor in companies like Uber and Twitter. His philosophy blends business practices and philosophical insights.

Summary
I never really felt interested in this book because its Chinese title felt too much like those generic airport bookstore bestsellers—"The Almanack of Naval Ravikant." It reminded me of clickbait titles like "If You Don’t Understand Management, You’ll Work Yourself to Death!" Plus, I had a preconceived notion that the author’s achievements in Silicon Valley weren’t top-tier. Recently, on a friend’s recommendation, I read it on a flight and found it quite insightful. The author actually only discusses "how to make money" in the first half; the second half delves into wisdom he learned from Buddha, Krishnamurti, Charlie Munger, and others on how to find happiness. The first half is pragmatic, while the second half points directly to the essence. Here, I’ll share the first half, which focuses on making money.

The core ideas, in my opinion, are threefold: 1. How to increase income; 2. How to invest your surplus income for compound growth; 3. How to manage desires and expenses.

1. How to Increase Income: Productize Yourself and Apply Leverage
There are four types of leverage:

• Capital Leverage: Make money work for you (investing).

• Labor Leverage: Lead a team and make others work for you.

• Code Leverage: Use software to automate and scale.

• Media Leverage: Use content to reach and influence audiences.

Among these, code and media are permissionless leverage. They are the keys behind the "new wealthy." You can create software and content that work for you even while you sleep.

How to choose these leverages? Be yourself. No one can compete with you on being you. If you’re good at fundraising and investing, then specializing in investment and asset management might be for you. If you’re skilled at coding, you’re probably already wealthy. But media is a leverage anyone can use: from Ray Dalio in investing to Perplexity in coding, and every KOL—everyone should go DTC (direct to your customer, direct to your audience), just like e-commerce did back in the day. Look at Satoshi Nakamoto: a one-person company using code + media, creating the highest efficiency in human commercial history—a single person built a $2 trillion project.

Be patient and wait for the right moment: Believe that when the world needs a unique skill, you’ll be the one to provide it. In the meantime, build your personal brand on Twitter, YouTube, WeChat Video, or Xiaohongshu, and increase your visibility by offering free value.

How to choose a field? Pick work that excites you. Passion will drive you to invest more than others.

What roles are most essential? Ultimately, you either sell or build. That’s it.

Avoid just "renting out your time": Simply trading time for money (as an employee) makes it hard to accumulate real wealth. You must find ways to decouple time from income.

Manage your energy, not your time: Knowledge workers are like athletes—train and sprint, then rest and复盘; they’re also like lions—either hunting or resting and sleeping.

2. How to Invest Long-Term for Compound Growth
Don’t rush into buying stocks or crypto. First, improve your skills and judgment. You can’t make money beyond your level of understanding. I’ll share more on how and what to learn another time.

Don’t over-diversify: "The more you know, the less you diversify." Only when you have unique knowledge and judgment dare you concentrate your investments.

Understand, don’t follow: Don’t buy something just because others are. Only invest when you truly understand an asset.

Trade less: Excessive trading consumes time and attention. Real wealth often comes from holding quality assets long-term. Of course, if you’re among the tiny minority like a Soros, then your destiny and八字 are suited to making money from trading/leverage/long-short strategies. But 99.999% of people aren’t.

Recommended assets:

1. Stocks: Hold quality companies long-term (especially tech companies), avoid short-term speculation.

2. Startups/Equity: The author is a famous angel investor (e.g., Uber, Twitter) but warns this is extremely risky for ordinary people and requires insider resources and judgment.

3. Cryptocurrencies: He invested early in Bitcoin and Ethereum, believing crypto is a new form of capital and financial infrastructure, but one must清醒ly face its risks and volatility.

3. How to Manage Desires and Expenses to Achieve Financial Freedom
You make money to solve money and material problems. The best way to avoid an obsession with money is not to continuously upgrade your lifestyle as you earn more. As income rises, it’s easy to inflate your lifestyle. If you keep your lifestyle largely unchanged and ideally earn a large sum in a lump rather than piecemeal, you’ll have fewer opportunities to upgrade. This way, you can go further and have a better chance of achieving true financial freedom. Those whose living standards are significantly below their means often enjoy a freedom unimaginable to those busy constantly upgrading their lifestyles.

There’s a common international standard for "financial freedom": If your investable assets reach 25 times your annual living expenses (25x), you’ve achieved financial freedom. So, the less you spend, the lower the threshold. It’s that simple.

Author Profile: Naval Ravikant’s main business achievements include founding AngelList (a platform connecting startups and angel investors, revolutionizing early-stage fundraising); making early investments in tech startups (e.g., Uber, Twitter, Stack Overflow) with a sharp eye for potential; managing venture capital funds (e.g., Hit Forge) and delving into crypto hedge funds like MetaStable Capital; and launching the Spearhead investment program to support entrepreneurs becoming investors, thereby expanding their influence.

The Core Path to Financial Freedom
Based on the wealth logic of "The Almanack of Naval Ravikant," the key lies in three directions: increasing income, investing for compound growth, and managing desires.

Key to Increasing Income
By "productizing yourself" and leveraging tools like capital, labor, code, or media—especially permissionless leverage such as code and media—build a personal brand and directly reach your audience.

Long-Term Investment Strategy
Prioritize improving your knowledge and skills. Avoid over-diversification, emphasize understanding assets rather than blindly following trends, reduce frequent trading, and hold high-quality assets long-term (e.g., tech stocks, cryptocurrencies).

Definition of Financial Freedom
Financial freedom is achieved when your investable assets reach 25 times your annual living expenses. Controlling spending desires and avoiding lifestyle inflation are core to lowering this threshold.

Author Background
Naval Ravikant is the founder of AngelList and an early investor in companies like Uber and Twitter. His philosophy blends business practices and philosophical insights.

Summary
I never really felt interested in this book because its Chinese title felt too much like those generic airport bookstore bestsellers—"The Almanack of Naval Ravikant." It reminded me of clickbait titles like "If You Don’t Understand Management, You’ll Work Yourself to Death!" Plus, I had a preconceived notion that the author’s achievements in Silicon Valley weren’t top-tier. Recently, on a friend’s recommendation, I read it on a flight and found it quite insightful. The author actually only discusses "how to make money" in the first half; the second half delves into wisdom he learned from Buddha, Krishnamurti, Charlie Munger, and others on how to find happiness. The first half is pragmatic, while the second half points directly to the essence. Here, I’ll share the first half, which focuses on making money.

The core ideas, in my opinion, are threefold: 1. How to increase income; 2. How to invest your surplus income for compound growth; 3. How to manage desires and expenses.

1. How to Increase Income: Productize Yourself and Apply Leverage
There are four types of leverage:

• Capital Leverage: Make money work for you (investing).

• Labor Leverage: Lead a team and make others work for you.

• Code Leverage: Use software to automate and scale.

• Media Leverage: Use content to reach and influence audiences.

Among these, code and media are permissionless leverage. They are the keys behind the "new wealthy." You can create software and content that work for you even while you sleep.

How to choose these leverages? Be yourself. No one can compete with you on being you. If you’re good at fundraising and investing, then specializing in investment and asset management might be for you. If you’re skilled at coding, you’re probably already wealthy. But media is a leverage anyone can use: from Ray Dalio in investing to Perplexity in coding, and every KOL—everyone should go DTC (direct to your customer, direct to your audience), just like e-commerce did back in the day. Look at Satoshi Nakamoto: a one-person company using code + media, creating the highest efficiency in human commercial history—a single person built a $2 trillion project.

Be patient and wait for the right moment: Believe that when the world needs a unique skill, you’ll be the one to provide it. In the meantime, build your personal brand on Twitter, YouTube, WeChat Video, or Xiaohongshu, and increase your visibility by offering free value.

How to choose a field? Pick work that excites you. Passion will drive you to invest more than others.

What roles are most essential? Ultimately, you either sell or build. That’s it.

Avoid just "renting out your time": Simply trading time for money (as an employee) makes it hard to accumulate real wealth. You must find ways to decouple time from income.

Manage your energy, not your time: Knowledge workers are like athletes—train and sprint, then rest and复盘; they’re also like lions—either hunting or resting and sleeping.

2. How to Invest Long-Term for Compound Growth
Don’t rush into buying stocks or crypto. First, improve your skills and judgment. You can’t make money beyond your level of understanding. I’ll share more on how and what to learn another time.

Don’t over-diversify: "The more you know, the less you diversify." Only when you have unique knowledge and judgment dare you concentrate your investments.

Understand, don’t follow: Don’t buy something just because others are. Only invest when you truly understand an asset.

Trade less: Excessive trading consumes time and attention. Real wealth often comes from holding quality assets long-term. Of course, if you’re among the tiny minority like a Soros, then your destiny and八字 are suited to making money from trading/leverage/long-short strategies. But 99.999% of people aren’t.

Recommended assets:

1. Stocks: Hold quality companies long-term (especially tech companies), avoid short-term speculation.

2. Startups/Equity: The author is a famous angel investor (e.g., Uber, Twitter) but warns this is extremely risky for ordinary people and requires insider resources and judgment.

3. Cryptocurrencies: He invested early in Bitcoin and Ethereum, believing crypto is a new form of capital and financial infrastructure, but one must清醒ly face its risks and volatility.

3. How to Manage Desires and Expenses to Achieve Financial Freedom
You make money to solve money and material problems. The best way to avoid an obsession with money is not to continuously upgrade your lifestyle as you earn more. As income rises, it’s easy to inflate your lifestyle. If you keep your lifestyle largely unchanged and ideally earn a large sum in a lump rather than piecemeal, you’ll have fewer opportunities to upgrade. This way, you can go further and have a better chance of achieving true financial freedom. Those whose living standards are significantly below their means often enjoy a freedom unimaginable to those busy constantly upgrading their lifestyles.

There’s a common international standard for "financial freedom": If your investable assets reach 25 times your annual living expenses (25x), you’ve achieved financial freedom. So, the less you spend, the lower the threshold. It’s that simple.

Author Profile: Naval Ravikant’s main business achievements include founding AngelList (a platform connecting startups and angel investors, revolutionizing early-stage fundraising); making early investments in tech startups (e.g., Uber, Twitter, Stack Overflow) with a sharp eye for potential; managing venture capital funds (e.g., Hit Forge) and delving into crypto hedge funds like MetaStable Capital; and launching the Spearhead investment program to support entrepreneurs becoming investors, thereby expanding their influence.