What felt like play to you but work to others?
That question sits at the centre of specific knowledge.
I learned about this concept from Naval Ravikant.
His idea is simple: Specific knowledge is the kind of knowledge or skill that is highly specific to you.
It is not just what you studied in school.
It is not just a degree.
And it is not a skill you chose to develop only because someone said it pays well.
Specific knowledge is more personal than that.
It typically comes from:
- Your natural strengths
- Your genuine curiosity
- Your repeated interests
- Your upbringing
- How you responded to life
Naval says that if a skill can be easily taught to thousands of people in the same way, it is probably not specific knowledge.
That does not mean school is not useful.
School helps.
Training helps.
It is useful to learn about the foundations of things.
But the part people pay most for is often the part that is hard to copy.
That is where specific knowledge lives.
How do you find what you should build specific knowledge in?
You typically find it by looking backward.
Ask yourself:
- What did I naturally do as a child or teenager?
- What felt effortless to me, but hard to others?
- What do people keep telling me I’m good at?
Naval’s point is that specific knowledge often starts as something that felt normal to you, but other people noticed you were unusually good at it.
That is why many people miss it.
It feels so natural to them that they do not even think of it as a skill.
Maybe it is:
- Explaining things clearly
- Selling
- Learning quickly
- Writing
- Telling stories
- Building systems
“No one can compete with you on being you.” — Naval
That line matters.
Because many people spend years copying others instead of noticing what is already strong within them.
What does building specific knowledge feel like?
Naval says it often feels like play to you, but work to others.
That does not mean it is easy.
It can still be hard.
It can still require effort.
It can still take years.
It just means:
- You are naturally drawn to it
- You recover faster after building it
- You want to keep building it
- You can stay with it longer than most people
That matters because the person who is deeply into the thing will typically outperform the person who is only doing it for money or status.
How do you build specific knowledge?
Once you’ve found what you want to build specific knowledge in, you build it by doing.
Not only by thinking.
Not only by reading.
By doing.
That is a big part of Naval’s view.
Specific knowledge can often be learned, but not neatly taught.
You typically build it through:
- Effort
- Practice
- Real-world experience
- Trial and error
A simple path looks like this:
- Find what is natural: Notice what felt, and still feels, like play to you.
- Build it through action: Do the thing in the real world.
- Watch for signals:
You may be onto something if:
- People ask you for help in one area again and again
- You learn faster there
- You enjoy going deeper
- Your output is stronger than expected
How do you build wealth using specific knowledge?
Building specific knowledge is not enough to build wealth.
Naval’s formula is: Specific knowledge + accountability + leverage = wealth
In simple words:
- Find what you are uniquely good at
- Get good enough that people can trust you
- Make it visible
- Solve real problems with it
- Then use leverage to scale it
That leverage can be:
The internet makes this much easier than before.
Before the internet, being highly specific could be a disadvantage.
Say you were great at coaching executives in public speaking.
Before the internet:
- Your market was limited to the executives in your city
- You had to work 1-on-1
- You had to go to them, or they had to come to you
- Your income was mostly limited by your time
- Your earnings were limited by your hourly rate
With the internet:
- Your audience can be executives anywhere in the world
- You can publish content that reaches many people at once
- You can build trust before ever speaking to someone directly
- You can still do 1-on-1 coaching, but you are not limited to it
- You can create other offers too: courses, workshops, books, group sessions
So instead of only selling your time, you can build assets around your specific knowledge.
In today's day and age, your specificity is not your disadvantage.
It is your advantage.
What feels natural to me?
Let’s go back in time.
What felt natural to me?
Two practices.
Writing and speaking.
1) Writing
When I was a kid, I wrote a lot.
Writing felt natural to me.
Not effortless.
But natural.
That matters.
Because building specific knowledge does not have to be easy.
It just has to feel more natural to you than it does to most people.
So I built a foundational level of specific knowledge in writing early on.
And now I’m building on that foundation.
How?
By writing as much as I can.
More specifically, by:
- Writing newsletter articles
- Writing LinkedIn posts
- Journaling
So I’m not only relying on what felt natural to me in childhood.
I’m practising the skill to get better at it.
2) Speaking
Speaking also felt natural to me.
When I was younger:
- I was trained in Indian classical music.
- I sang in public at competitions.
- I took part in debates and elocutions at school
Later:
- I co-hosted a podcast with a friend at university (The Passion Project Podcast)
- I gave many presentations at university and in business school
Again, it was not effortless.
But it felt natural.
So I also built a foundational level of specific knowledge in speaking.
And now I’m building on that too.
How?
Through:
- Speaking on my podcast, Uplift
- Hopefully speaking at events hosted by schools and corporates (I've spoken at one school so far).
- Recording videos of myself explaining concepts (on the way).
What am I using writing and speaking for?
Right now, I’m using writing & speaking to create content in two areas:
1) Personal growth
This comes from my own life.
Ever since I left India for Switzerland at 14, I pushed myself into personal growth.
Over the years, that has included:
- lifting
- running
- fasting
- breathwork
- journaling
- affirmations
- reading
All this has been a part of my journey and to an extent still is a part of my journey (except running because my back doesn’t like it when I run).
I have spent years trying things, learning from them, and understanding what helps me grow.
So part of what I will write and speak about will come from lived experience.
2) Personal branding
This started in a very personal way in 2024.
In one of my classes at Esade Business School, I learned something simple: Strong brands have clear identities. And clear identities lead to better decisions.
I wanted that clarity for myself.
So I built a system to gain clarity on my identity.
I called it the Personal Identity System.
At the time, I was not fully aware of personal branding.
I just wanted clarity on my identity.
Later, when I learned more about personal branding, I discovered that what I had built for myself could also serve as the foundation of a personal brand.
That was the click.
I haven’t formally studied personal branding.
So here’s how I’m building my knowledge in it:
- Applying what I learned from marketing work at five companies (where I interned)
- Applying what I learned at IE University and Esade Business School
- Applying what I’m learning as I build my own personal brand
- Applying what I’m learning from studying the personal branding space
My plan is simple:
- Learn personal branding by building my own personal brand.
- Then share what I learn with others.
So if I simplify everything: My specific knowledge is not “personal branding” or “personal growth” by themselves.
My deeper specific knowledge is in writing and speaking.
And I am choosing to apply those two skills to:
- Personal growth
- Personal branding
How?
By writing & speaking about them.
How might I use this to build wealth?
If I build enough trust, I could use this combination to build wealth through:
- Consulting
- Workshops
- Online courses
- Books
I don’t know yet.
And I’m fine with not knowing yet.
I’ll see what the audience responds to.
Then I’ll decide.
Your turn
If you have not found your specific knowledge yet, ask yourself:
- What did I naturally do as a child or teenager?
- What felt like play to me, but work to others?
- What do people keep telling me I’m good at?
And if you think you have found it:
- Build it.
- Build something out of it.
- Monetise it.
- Scale it.
Thank you for reading,
Yuvraj Mehta
How I developed my understanding of this concept
