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Thiel says he’s trying to get entrepreneurs to go after bigger problems (2014)

technologyreview.com

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Re: Thiel says he’s trying to get entrepreneurs to go after bigger problems (2014)

#21

Post by dalbasal »

I really don't see his perspective on a lot of these.

I don’t think we’re living in an incredibly fast technological age. - ..speaking on innovation in fields outside of computing.

I agree that the pace of tangible improvement in some fields (eg construction) has not been as fast as others, but a lot of things have been changing fast. Think of simple manufactured goods. Chairs, plates, etc. The labour efficiency or just end-user price and choice is far better today compared to a generation ago. For a lot of goods (eg clothes) most of the cost to the end user happens between factory door and checkout. We could be doing a lot better at that, but the actual process of turning sunshine, water & air into t-shirts and washing detergent is not stagnant. This happened during a period where China's annual addition of low cost employees to the global pool kept average wages and efficiency low. Labour efficiency would (will) be even higher as their wages rise.

Progress is complicated. But I can't see how he comes to his conclusions. Maybe I'm missing some context.

Re: Thiel says he’s trying to get entrepreneurs to go after bigger problems (2014)

#22

Post by noir_lord »

mythrwy wrote: post #16
noir_lord wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Necessary perhaps not but bitingly sharp, on-topic and worthy of a smile yes. Also with the canonisation of Mr Thiel around this place it's handy to put his statements in a proper context. If you think as I do there isn't much to admire about him TBH.

Why do people think Mr. Thiel supports a Muslim registry? Has he ever indicated that? Because he backed a candidate who sometimes says dumb things in order to get votes from certain groups doesn't mean he himself supports the full rhetoric. Parties are coalitions. Not everyone who is a Democrat can be accused of supporting every dumb statement or bad position from Clinton or Pelosi.

I never made the claim that he did, you need to ask up thread.

Re: Thiel says he’s trying to get entrepreneurs to go after bigger problems (2014)

#23

Post by [deleted] »

mythrwy wrote: post #16
noir_lord wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Necessary perhaps not but bitingly sharp, on-topic and worthy of a smile yes. Also with the canonisation of Mr Thiel around this place it's handy to put his statements in a proper context. If you think as I do there isn't much to admire about him TBH.

Why do people think Mr. Thiel supports a Muslim registry? Has he ever indicated that? Because he backed a candidate who sometimes says dumb things in order to get votes from certain groups doesn't mean he himself supports the full rhetoric. Parties are coalitions. Not everyone who is a Democrat can be accused of supporting every dumb statement or bad position from Clinton or Pelosi.

[deleted]

Re: Thiel says he’s trying to get entrepreneurs to go after bigger problems (2014)

#24

Post by xiaoma »

montycantsin wrote: post #2

Do you think he's referring to a Muslim registry or drones?

It's too bad to see the thread steered away from the entreprenurial topics covered by the article and into a tired political flamewar.

Whatever political disagreements we might have with the author, that's no reason to cheat ourselves out of learning from his expertise as one of the most successful entrepreneurs and investors of our age.

Re: Thiel says he’s trying to get entrepreneurs to go after bigger problems (2014)

#27

Post by torbjorn »

xiaoma wrote: post #24
montycantsin wrote: post #2

Do you think he's referring to a Muslim registry or drones?

It's too bad to see the thread steered away from the entreprenurial topics covered by the article and into a tired political flamewar. Whatever political disagreements we might have with the author, that's no reason to cheat ourselves out of learning from his expertise as one of the most successful entrepreneurs and investors of our age.

I completely agree.

The human tendency toward partisanship is holding all of us back.

Re: Thiel says he’s trying to get entrepreneurs to go after bigger problems (2014)

#28

Post by kobeya »

noir_lord wrote: post #22
mythrwy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people think Mr. Thiel supports a Muslim registry? Has he ever indicated that? Because he backed a candidate who sometimes says dumb things in order to get votes from certain groups doesn't mean he himself supports the full rhetoric. Parties are coalitions. Not everyone who is a Democrat can be accused of supporting every dumb statement or bad position from Clinton or Pelosi.

I never made the claim that he did, you need to ask up thread.

There was more evidence from your comment that you did indeed claim such a thing, than there is evidence for Mr. Theil supporting a Muslem ban.

Which is the problem with the original post that unnecessarily politicized an inherently non political article, eliminating value of any surrounding discussion.

It was not witty, not sharp, and contributed nothing while taking a great deal away.

Re: Thiel says he’s trying to get entrepreneurs to go after bigger problems (2014)

#29

Post by dang »

montycantsin wrote: post #2

Do you think he's referring to a Muslim registry or drones?

Inflammatory snark on divisive topics is something we're trying to avoid here. So is using the site for partisan battle.

Please don't create accounts to break the HN guidelines with.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html

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