Learning Naval Ravikant with NotebookLM
I’ve been wanting to go deeper into Naval Ravikant’s thinking. But there are so many videos, and the articles are all long.
So I tried putting all of it into Google’s NotebookLM. And it turns out it’s the most useful tool I’ve ever used for learning.
A tutor that only knows your material
NotebookLM is a free tool from Google. You can add all kinds of sources (PDFs, website links, Google Docs, even YouTube video links), and it helps you summarize them and answers questions based on what’s in that material.
I added 152 sources about Naval. YouTube videos, articles, podcast transcripts. All of it went in.
What makes it different from ChatGPT: it only answers from the material you give it.
So it doesn’t make things up. Every answer even comes with numbered references to the original sources. You can check them. That’s what makes me trust its answers.
For example, I asked about “judgment” according to Naval. It answered right away, in full: the definition, how to cultivate it, how it connects to specific knowledge and leverage. All from the sources I’d uploaded.
It’s like having a personal tutor who’s already read all of Naval’s material before you.
The Studio panel
On the right there’s something called the Studio panel. From all the sources I uploaded, it can generate:
- Audio Overview: a podcast with two hosts discussing your material
- Video Overview: a narrated video with visuals
- Mind Map: so you can see how the concepts connect
- Slide Deck: ready to download as PowerPoint
- Flashcards: for review
- Quiz: complete with an answer key
- Infographic: in 10 styles
- Data Table: a tidy table
Each one is a click away, from the same material.
The one I use most is Audio Overview. It makes a podcast out of my documents. Two AIs chatting, discussing, using analogies. Not a robot voice.
It feels like listening to a real podcast, even though it’s built from a pile of articles I’d normally be too lazy to read. It’s nice to listen to while driving or cooking.
I also just learned the 2026 update added a lot. You can upload ebooks, edit slides by giving it instructions, your chat history gets saved, and flashcards remember your progress. And it now runs on Gemini 3. The answers feel sharper.
Where it fits
From using it, I feel NotebookLM works best when you already have material and want to dig deeper into it.
That could be course material, work reports, a collection of YouTube videos on a particular topic, or long articles you can’t be bothered to read one by one. Just put them in and let it help you work through them.
It’s free. All you need is a Google account. Go to notebooklm.google, create a new notebook, add your sources, and you’re off.
These days I use it together with the Wondering app. Wondering is for learning from scratch, NotebookLM is for deep dives into material I already have.
Both are free, and they complement each other.