Naval despises meetings. He views them as industrial age coordination masquerading as productivity.
His most famous expression of this philosophy was owning “idontdocoffee.com.” While he admits this was “rude, and petulant, and stupid”, it revealed his core insight: “I hate meetings”. This wasn’t rudeness; it was authentic rebellion against conventional business theater.
Naval operates on a hierarchy of communication efficiency. “Meetings should really be phone calls, phone calls should be e-mails. And e-mails should just be text”. Each step strips away complexity through iteration toward true signal.
The asymmetric waste of meetings appalls him. “One person is talking, seven people listening, you’re literally just dying an hour at a time”. This is zero-sum destruction of leverage. Seven minds could create wealth separately; instead they sit idle.
Naval’s anti-meeting stance reflects deeper truths about time scarcity and compound returns. “A busy calendar and a busy mind will destroy your ability to do great things in this world”.
The incentives are broken. Meeting requests stem from desire for social validation, not value creation. They’re mimetic behavior—we meet because others meet.
Business travel for meetings epitomizes poor judgment. “Getting on a plane to fly halfway around the world for one meeting, which never amounts to anything”. Five years ago, Naval resolved never to travel for business. This wasn’t laziness; it was accountability to first principles.
Empty calendar time enables focused attention. He advocates “empty space” for thinking. “It’s only after you’re bored that you have the great ideas”. This solitude is when deep reading and synthesis happen.
Success amplifies the meeting problem. High-status people get “drowned in death of a thousand cuts” with requests. Naval’s solution: “ruthlessly, ruthlessly disappoint everybody”. This requires courage to break social habits.
His evolution from confrontational “idontdocoffee.com” to “just ghost, I just disappear” shows intellectual honesty. He learned that selective attention builds rather than destroys reputation.