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What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

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Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#11

Post by wavefunction »

sievebrain wrote: post #6
Nate75Sanders wrote: post #3

A related article that does a good job of explaining why Thiel supports Trump: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/21/peter-thi... EDIT: (to explain why) No other analysis I've seen anywhere of Thiel at the RNC takes into account this very, very important attempt at explaining Thiel's reasons: """ Now, in 2016, Thiel has finally found a politician capable of seizing that opportunity: a disruptor-in-chief…

I found it a relatively poor article actually. It's longer than the speech itself yet says less: http://time.com/4417679/republican-convention-peter-thiel-tr... From the man's own words, it seems to be a combination of: • A shared feeling that America was once great, and it can be again, but currently is in decline. No other politician except Trump says this. • Dislike of foreign wars, a feeling that only Trump says…

I would like to hear a definition of "greatness" from these people like Trump or Thiel tossing it about so casually yet naming it their main impetus.

Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#12

Post by wavefunction »

neom wrote: post #2

This article fails to address the growing divide between east coast and west coast technologist and entrepreneurs. Many of us in New York are ashamed and embarrassed by the valley, and are looking to change it via negation.

Of course there are more than just the coasts.

Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#13

Post by sievebrain »

Nate75Sanders wrote: post #7
sievebrain wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found it a relatively poor article actually. It's longer than the speech itself yet says less: http://time.com/4417679/republican-convention-peter-thiel-tr... From the man's own words, it seems to be a combination of: • A shared feeling that America was once great, and it can be again, but currently is in decline. No other politician except Trump says this. • Dislike of foreign wars, a feeling that only Trump says…

I didn't walk away with anywhere near the analysis you did, so I added an edit to my original post. You can't simply hear Thiel's speech and directly get what he wants, because saying it would cause too much backlash. He wants to use the government's massive resources to carry out projects that he's aligned with -- perhaps even that he has control over.

But where's the evidence? The prognostications of a Guardian journalist is not evidence. Your last line is written as if it's a fact, but that's not even close to being a fact. Peter Thiel routinely gets backlash over his opinions, the man revels in it. Why would he suddenly start obfuscating his views now?

Over time I have become weary of people trying to explain voters preferences by asking "why are you voting this way", listening to the answer and then saying, "no, you're wrong. you're actually voting for that because X, Y, Z". How rude is that? People say what they want, they have no incentive to lie, and then they aren't believed?

We saw this a lot with the Brexit vote. Leave voters were asked by pollsters "why will you vote leave" and were told either "because I am tired of competing with low-wage immigrants for jobs" or "because I think the EU is flawed and cannot reform". Then a whole bunch of pundits started saying that no, it's actually not like that at all, it's actually a backlash against the elite, or racism, or whatever alternative explanation they preferred. But there was no evidence of this.

Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#14

Post by thormathison »

As an attorney and someone in tech, I used to strongly admire Thiel. He left biglaw and took a gamble, and it paid off. But between his support for Trump and the Gawker nonsense, I no longer have any respect for the man. Anyone on record supporting trump is on the wrong side of history.

Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#15

Post by nunyabuizness »

TimJRobinson wrote: post #8
sievebrain wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found it a relatively poor article actually. It's longer than the speech itself yet says less: http://time.com/4417679/republican-convention-peter-thiel-tr... From the man's own words, it seems to be a combination of: • A shared feeling that America was once great, and it can be again, but currently is in decline. No other politician except Trump says this. • Dislike of foreign wars, a feeling that only Trump says…

I understand trump over Clinton, but I don't understand why trump over Gary Johnson. He is a self proclaimed libertarian and the libertarian party is polling the highest in their history. Other than being anti war trump is the furthest from being a libertarian in Republican presidential history.

Because he can't win and people don't like throwing away their votes on ideology. First-past-the-post voting systems all but guarantee that when you vote for a third-party candidate, you're only really helping the first-party candidate most unlike the one you voted for (which is how we got Bush over Gore in 2000).

Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#16

Post by jackfoxy »

Nate75Sanders wrote: post #3

A related article that does a good job of explaining why Thiel supports Trump: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/21/peter-thi... EDIT: (to explain why) No other analysis I've seen anywhere of Thiel at the RNC takes into account this very, very important attempt at explaining Thiel's reasons: """ Now, in 2016, Thiel has finally found a politician capable of seizing that opportunity: a disruptor-in-chief…

Multi-lateral trade agreements running to thousands of pages that nobody reads, sweeping comprehensive legislation written by lobbyists also not read by the representatives voting on it (not even by the sponsoring representatives) with multiple attached amendments (often having no relationship to the underlying bill), legislation carefully crafted to give benefit to a tiny constituency (sometimes even a single individual), and the establishment's lackeys in the press call this "liberal democracy". This is more like government of the elitists, by the elitists, for the elitists. If it were to perish from the earth, what would replace it? This is panicking the establishment. (Not endorsing any particular alternative.)

Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#17

Post by sievebrain »

neom wrote: post #10
alex_c wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a member of either community - can you expand on the difference you see between the two?

Some people are building toys for children, some people are building tools for humans. Both are fine, in moderation. I think we see more and more the NYC tech culture feels like they are trying to build real things, the valley is stuck in consumerism and has lost the ability to push the needle, much of this is due to poorly considered greed and linear thinking. :(

What is "linear thinking"?

Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#18

Post by w1ntermute »

sievebrain wrote: post #17
neom wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people are building toys for children, some people are building tools for humans. Both are fine, in moderation. I think we see more and more the NYC tech culture feels like they are trying to build real things, the valley is stuck in consumerism and has lost the ability to push the needle, much of this is due to poorly considered greed and linear thinking. :(

What is "linear thinking"?

It's one of those buzzwordy terms currently in vogue in the tech industry. It's a hipper way of saying "not creative/disruptive". The b-school equivalent would be "thinking inside the box". For example, here's sama (president of YC)[0]:

> Very rare and extremely powerful combination: the ability to think both clearly and very non-linearly. Most people lucky to have one.

An example of nonlinear thinking by sama[1]:

> the company wanted to come visit our offices so they could make sure we were a 'real' company. At that time, we were only 5 guys. So we hired a bunch of our college friends to 'work' for us for the day so we could look larger than we actually were. It worked, and we got the contract.

As you might expect, Peter Thiel prefers to be a contrarian and use his own term for it: Zero to One[2].

0. https://www.twitter.com/sama/status/699330028404772864

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3048944

2. https://www.amazon.com/Zero-One-Notes-Startups-Future/dp/080...

Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#19

Post by jamesblonde »

sievebrain wrote: post #13
Nate75Sanders wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't walk away with anywhere near the analysis you did, so I added an edit to my original post. You can't simply hear Thiel's speech and directly get what he wants, because saying it would cause too much backlash. He wants to use the government's massive resources to carry out projects that he's aligned with -- perhaps even that he has control over.

But where's the evidence? The prognostications of a Guardian journalist is not evidence. Your last line is written as if it's a fact, but that's not even close to being a fact. Peter Thiel routinely gets backlash over his opinions, the man revels in it. Why would he suddenly start obfuscating his views now? Over time I have become weary of people trying to explain voters preferences by asking "why are you voting this…

The same reason that websites/search-engines that rank what people are looking for do not ask for explicit feedback. When people give give explicit feedback they don't always give honest or accurate motivation for their preferences. Implicit feedback (observing behavior) works much better.

Re: What Silicon Valley Insiders Think of Peter Thiel’s Speech at RNC

#20

Post by 650REDHAIR »

neom wrote: post #10
alex_c wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a member of either community - can you expand on the difference you see between the two?

Some people are building toys for children, some people are building tools for humans. Both are fine, in moderation. I think we see more and more the NYC tech culture feels like they are trying to build real things, the valley is stuck in consumerism and has lost the ability to push the needle, much of this is due to poorly considered greed and linear thinking. :(

Tools for humans.... Sure.

http://www.businessinsider.com/business-insider-2015-silicon...

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