There’s a kind of knowledge that doesn’t show up on resumes. It’s not taught in college, and you won’t find it in a Google search.
It’s rare. High-leverage. Non-transferable.
It’s the one edge that separates the top 1% from the rest.
This is what Naval Ravikant called specific knowledge. But let me show you how to gain it—in a world flooded with generic content and people playing copycat.
It took me a decade to understand this, but once I finally did, it was game-changing.
Step 1: Stop Following the Algorithm. Follow Your Curiosity.
Specific knowledge is you, at scale.
It’s not something you memorize. It’s something you realize. You don’t stumble into it by accident—you uncover it by obsession.
Follow the breadcrumbs of your fascination. Don’t chase opportunities. Chase what you can’t stop thinking about when the world goes quiet.
Step 2: Build in Public. Attract the Call.
The only way to make specific knowledge visible is to show your process.
Post the work. Share the iterations. Let people see you solve problems they didn’t even know they had. Think of it like this:
If you're not willing to look like a beginner in public, you’ll never become an expert in private.
This is how the right people find you. Not through resumes. Not through networking. But through signal—your signal. In a world of noise, clarity builds leverage.
Step 3: Combine What Only You Can Combine.
Look at your weird intersection.
You love sports, but also legal theory? Good. Mix them. You’re deep in digital marketing, but think like a systems engineer? Use it.
Specific knowledge is forged at the edges of disciplines—where few are bold enough to go. Your unfair advantage lives in the overlap. Where your past mistakes, obsessions, and deep repetitions create something only you can offer.
Step 4: Play Long-Term Games with Long-Term People
The market doesn't reward short-term memory.
It rewards compound interest—in reputation, skill, and execution.
So the move? Find your game. Master your rules. Partner with others who are playing infinite games. Build systems that learn as you do. People will line up to pay you for what feels like play to you—but looks like work to them.
Final Thought...
You either have specific knowledge, or you don’t. But you can’t fake it. And that’s the point.
When you stop outsourcing your intelligence to trends—and start trusting your curiosity, publishing your process, and leaning into your weird edges—you stop being a commodity and start being a category.
And in this economy, being a category of one is the ultimate leverage.