Naval treats writing as a tool for thinking, not just communication. Like meditation, it’s a mental discipline that sharpens the mind.
He discovered that articulation forces precision. “I can sit around and think my thoughts all day long, but a lot of it’s going to be nonsense. Because there are gaps in thinking where you make leaps, because you’re kind to yourself that you don’t realize you’re making”. Writing eliminates these mental shortcuts by demanding logical structure.
Naval has been “writing a lot since I was young” and considers himself skilled. Yet he still returns to Scott Adams’ blog post “The Day You Became a Better Writer.” “I still open up that blog post and I put it in the background any time I’m writing anything important”. This shows his commitment to continuous improvement.
Adams taught him core principles: “the importance of surprise, the importance of headlines, the importance of being brief and direct and not using adjectives and adverbs and using the active voice and not the passive voice”. When you write publicly, you take ownership of your ideas and build your intellectual reputation.
Writing appears in his essential activities: “Build, sell, write, create, invest, and own”. He views it as infinite leverage that scales thinking beyond immediate conversations. Good writing becomes an asset that compounds over time, creating long-term value.
For Naval, writing tests understanding and reveals unique insights. “And this is where Twitter is great for me, is I try to understand something. And then I try to write it down in such a way that I can remember it, just the basic hook that will point towards the deeper understanding”. If you can’t explain it clearly, you don’t understand it.
He sees different media formats for different people. “If you like long form writing, Substack. If you like short form writing, X. If you like really long form writing, then maybe a bunch of blog posts that turn into a book”. The key is finding what gives you intellectual freedom and feels natural.
Writing also forces you to examine your true motivations. When you articulate your thoughts, you discover what you actually believe versus what you think you should believe.
Naval’s writing philosophy mirrors his approach to knowledge: prefer simplicity, test through articulation, build from fundamentals. Ideas evolve through iteration. Writing clarifies thought more than it communicates it.