How does Naval view English as a global leverage?

Okay, let's talk about this topic.

Imagine you want to move a heavy boulder. Trying to do it with your bare hands won't work, but if you have a long enough pole (a lever), you can easily pry it up with little effort.

The "leverage" Naval talks about is that pole in our lives – the thing that allows us to achieve disproportionately large rewards with a relatively small input.

In the past, this kind of leverage might have been "capital" (money making money) or "labor" (hiring people to work for you). But Naval believes that in the internet age, us ordinary people have gained access to two new, and more powerful, types of leverage:

Code: Writing software or an app enables it to serve thousands, even millions, of users worldwide, 24/7.
Media: One blog post, podcast, or video can be read or viewed by countless people, creating massive influence.

These two forms of leverage have near-zero marginal cost – meaning the cost of serving 10 people is almost the same as serving 10,000 people.

So, what role does "English" play in this?

Simply put, English acts as the universal language and operating interface for wielding both of these new types of leverage.

In Naval's view, English itself isn't the leverage, but it is the interface – the handle – you need to grasp and utilize the powerful levers of "code" and "media." Without this interface, you can't effectively use the leverage, no matter how potent it might be.

Here's how we can understand this:

1. It Provides Access to Cutting-Edge Knowledge

Learning to code? The best tutorials, the latest developer documentation, the most active communities (like GitHub, Stack Overflow) – they are overwhelmingly in English. By the time something is translated into Chinese, the technology might already be outdated.
Doing scientific research? The most cutting-edge papers and the most significant academic conferences primarily use English.
Investing? Want to understand the latest developments on Wall Street or innovation trends in Silicon Valley? The primary sources are all in English.

In essence, in our era, English is the default "output format" for the knowledge generated by the world's brightest minds on the global frontier. Mastering English provides you with a VIP pass to this top-tier knowledge repository, allowing you to access information directly at the source.

2. It Provides the Simplest Path to Globalize Your "Product"

Your "product" could be a piece of writing, a video, software, or even your personal brand.

An illustration:
- Create an outstanding video in Chinese, and your potential audience is primarily people in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese – roughly 1.4 billion people.
- Make the same exceptional video in English, and your potential audience becomes nearly the entire global internet population – over 4 billion people – including the world's most affluent consumers and diverse thinkers.

See? Simply switching languages multiplies the potential reach of your leverage (media) several times over. English enables you to broadcast your ideas and creations directly to the entire planet, rather than being confined to a single country or region. That's the leverage of globalization.

3. It Serves as a Bridge to Global Talent and Capital

Need to raise funds for your startup? The top global venture capital firms operate primarily in English.
Want to hire a top-tier programmer or designer located on the other side of the world? English is almost certainly the required language for communication and collaboration.
Participating in an international open-source project, collaborating with brilliant people worldwide? The communication platform will be in English.

English allows you to transcend geographical barriers and connect with the world's most talented individuals and its most abundant capital.

To Summarize

Therefore, within Naval's mental framework:

English isn't merely a "foreign language"; it's a fundamental skill, a "protocol" that connects you to the global network.

It's not about abandoning your native tongue, but about equipping yourself with an additional "global mode" switch. Mastering English amounts to attaching the longest possible lever arm to the fulcrum of your life's efforts, allowing you to leverage the world's knowledge, markets, and opportunities with the lowest possible input cost. For anyone seeking to create wealth and influence in the modern world, this is truly one of the highest-ROI personal investments available.