What Naval Ravikant thinks about measuring intelligence
Co-founder of AngelList. Writes and podcasts at nav.al in short, aphoristic pieces on startups, wealth and judgement rather than long essays.
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2 dated positions, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Naval Ravikant has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Their wordsSo I would argue, and I think it’s one of my more popular tweets: the only true test of intelligence is if you get what you want out of life.
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Their wordsSo in that sense, intelligence is measured in a battlefield—in an arena. It’s a relative construct. I think the AIs are actually going to fail mostly in those regards, or to the extent that they even succeed, because they’re freely available, they will get outcompeted away, and the alpha that will remain would be entirely human.