Why does Naval emphasize "reading original works instead of secondary interpretations"?

Why Does Naval Say "Read the Original Work," Like Advising You to "Drink Spring Water, Not Beverages"?

Imagine you’re thirsty and want water.

• Secondhand interpretations: Like a bottle of orange-flavored soda. It quenches your thirst, tastes good, and is convenient—just twist open the cap. But it's loaded with added sugars, colorings, and flavorings, already far removed from the nature of an orange. What you drink is an "processed and packaged" version of orange flavor.
• Reading the original work: Like hiking to a mountain spring yourself, cupping your hands, and drinking clear, cool water. It might require some effort (the hike), and it may taste less "exciting," but you get 100% pure, undiluted water. You can feel its temperature, its sweetness, even the taste of tiny minerals within it.

Naval emphasizes reading the original because, fundamentally, that's the point. He’s not saying secondhand interpretations are worthless. Rather, he believes that if you seek true wisdom, you must go to the source.

Let me break down why "drinking from the spring" is so crucial:

1. Avoiding Distortion in the "Telephone Game"

You've probably played the "Telephone Game"? A line of people, the first sees a message, whispers it to the second, and so on. By the time it reaches the last person, it’s often wildly different.

Secondhand interpretations are the intermediate steps in this game.

• The interpreter's filter: Anyone writing an interpretation, review, or summary brings their own knowledge, biases, and purpose. They unconsciously amplify ideas they agree with and downplay or ignore what they don't understand or disagree with.
• The "Essence" is Defined for You: Summaries tell you "here are the three key takeaways." But this "essence" is the interpreter's essence, not necessarily yours. Perhaps a detail they overlooked is exactly what would have sparked your insight.

When you read the original, you become that first person, getting information straight from the source, without intermediaries.

2. You Exercise Your "Mental Muscles," Not Just "Feed Your Brain Pre-Chewed Food"

Reading summaries is like watching someone else work out. You know the moves, feel like you understand, but your muscles haven't actually grown.

• The process of distillation is key: A good book, especially a classic, is often complex and multi-dimensional. Wrestling with it yourself—understanding the author's logic, identifying core arguments, evidence, and context—this process inherently sharpens your critical thinking and analytical skills.
• Forming your own understanding: Naval strongly emphasizes independent thought. If you keep consuming pre-digested knowledge, your mental framework is built by others. Only by reading, thinking, and wrestling with the material yourself can you internalize knowledge and truly make it part of your intellectual foundation.

Simply put, reading summaries is "consuming information," while reading the original is "building wisdom."

3. You Touch the "Texture" and "Temperature" of the Ideas

Great works aren't just cold information points. They contain the author's emotion, tone, writing style, and historical context. These elements can't be "summarized."

• Feeling the author's style: Reading The Analects, you sense Confucius’s gentleness and resolution; reading Nietzsche, you feel his wildness and subversion. This "feel" is part of the ideas themselves, helping you understand why they thought that way in a more multi-dimensional sense.
• Discovering unexpected treasures: Between the lines of the original, you might find fascinating tangents, brilliant metaphors, or flashes of the author's insight. These are often casualties of summaries aiming for "clarity" and "conciseness," yet they can be the most enjoyable and enlightening parts of reading.

Does this mean secondhand interpretations are useless?

Not at all. Look at it this way:

Secondhand interpretations are a "map," not the "destination."

• A screening tool: With so many books out there, reviews and summaries help us quickly grasp a book's gist to decide if it’s worth the effort of "hiking up the mountain."
• Aid comprehension: After reading the original, if something remains unclear, seeking out high-quality interpretations can offer different perspectives and provide breakthroughs.
• Quick review: Summaries are useful for revisiting the core ideas of books you've read.

In summary:

Naval’s emphasis on reading the original is not "intellectual snobbery," but a pursuit of intellectual quality and independent thinking.

He urges us not to settle for the "intellectual beverages" handed to us by others, but to have the courage and patience to taste the purest, most nourishing "intellectual spring water" at its source. It’s harder, yes. But it’s precisely this "difficulty" that sets you apart.