Why does Naval emphasize "avoiding selling your time"?

Okay, here is the translation of the provided content, adhering strictly to your requirements (markdown format, natural English, no extra text):

Bro, you really hit the nail on the head there. Naval's point might sound a bit like Marie Antoinette's "let them eat cake" when you first hear it. But once you chew on it, you'll realize it's just might be the game-changer handles we've all been missing.

Let me break it down in plain English.

First, We Need to Understand What "Selling Your Time" Means

This is the work model for the vast majority of us: getting paid by the hour or the month.

You clock in, work 8 hours, and the boss pays you for that day. You quote a project based on work hours, the client pays you. Whether you're a programmer, designer, lawyer, or food delivery worker, you're essentially trading your limited time for money.

What's the biggest problem with this model? - Its ceiling is painfully low and rigid.

Your Income = Your Hourly Wage × Your Hours Worked

Look at this formula. To increase your income, you basically have two options:

Increase your hourly wage: This is tough. It requires constant promotion, job hopping, becoming a top expert. And there's always an upper limit.
Work more hours: Overtime? Side gigs? But there are only 24 hours in a day. After eating and sleeping, there's only so much time you can sell. You can't get rich working 20-hour days – you'll burn out.

It's like carrying a bucket to fetch water from a well. To get more water, you either need a bigger bucket (raise your hourly wage), or run faster and make more trips (work more hours). But no matter what, the moment you stop, the water stops.

So, What Exactly is Naval Advocating When He Stresses "Avoiding Selling Your Time"?

He's advocating for you to figure out how to "decouple" your income from your time.

How? The answer: Build and harness "Leverage".

Don't let the word "leverage" intimidate you. Basically, it means creating a "thing" that works and earns money for you even while you sleep. This "thing" is your asset.

Naval specifically highlighted two forms of leverage accessible to regular people in this new era:

1. Code (Code) You write software, an app, a website tool. Once it's built, maintenance might be cheap, yet it can serve thousands, even millions, of users worldwide, 24/7. You invested maybe a hundred hours coding it, but that code can generate a continuous stream of income for years to come. Your time investment is one-time; the returns are ongoing.

2. Media (Media) You record one podcast, write one article, make one YouTube video, design one set of stickers/emoji. You invest time to create it once, but once published online, that content can be viewed, listened to, or read repeatedly by countless people. It continues to build your influence, generate ad revenue, or attract potential clients. Even while you're on vacation, your "media asset" is still "working" for you.

Back to the water analogy: Avoiding selling your time means stop fetching water bucket by bucket. Instead, spend your time building an automated "pipeline" for water to flow. Once the pipeline is built, water gushes into your home even while you sleep. Code and media are the most accessible "pipelines" for ordinary people to build in our era.

Why Do This? For Wealth, But More Importantly, For "Freedom"

For Wealth: It's extremely hard to get truly wealthy by selling your time. But by owning an automated money-making "system" (asset), your income has the potential for exponential growth because it's no longer constrained by your personal time.
For Freedom: This is even more crucial. When you no longer need to sell every single minute for survival, you gain autonomy over your time. You can freely decide what to do today, where to travel, whether to spend an afternoon reading, or with your family. When you control your time, you control your life. This is what Naval means by "ultimate wealth."

For Us Regular People, How Do We Actually Do This?

This concept isn't about quitting your job tomorrow. It's about shifting your mindset and taking action.

Secure Your Main Job: Your day job is your stable source of water while you build your "pipeline" – don't cut it off rashly.
Think About "Productizing" Your Skills:
- If you're a designer, instead of just freelancing, could you create a set of design templates, or premium icon packs to sell online?
- If you're a programmer, could you develop a simple tool that solves a specific pain point for a small subscription fee?
- If you're great at cooking, could you systematically create video tutorials for your recipes and share them on YouTube or Bilibili?
- If you write well, could you consistently write articles on a topic you love (e.g., coffee, cat ownership, personal finance) to build your own blog or newsletter?
Start Small: Don't fixate on making a huge splash. Just start writing the first article, recording the first 10-minute podcast episode. The key is the act of "creating" and "releasing" itself.
Be Patient: Building a pipeline is definitely harder than carrying buckets, and at first, maybe no water flows at all. It requires long-term learning and persistence. But once built, the returns are massive.

In Summary:

Naval stressing "avoid selling your time" isn't an empty slogan. He's reminding us: Don't get trapped in the self-perpetuating cycle of trading time for money. Create assets (like code and media) that operate independently of your time, let those assets work for you, and ultimately achieve dual freedom – both financial and temporal.

This is a fundamental shift from a "Worker Mindset" to a "Creator/Owner Mindset."

Hope this explanation helps!