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Peter Thiel to step down from Meta’s board

nytimes.com

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Re: Peter Thiel to step down from Meta’s board

#101

Post by jonathankoren »

beebmam wrote: post #30
user249 wrote: post #14

This podcast "The Peter Thiel Paradox" [1] explained a lot about the mystery of Peter Thiel to me. Turns out that there is less than meets the eye but he does have a specific talent for manipulating the political systems and government coffers to enrich himself, much like Richard Branson, or so the British podcast claims. [1] https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/the-lrb-p... One nitpick; Theil said "We…

Why do people with this much wealth want even more wealth for themselves? I've never understood this.

Points. It’s just about bragging rights. There’s nothing to it more than that. It’s literally just hoarding like dragon.

Re: Peter Thiel to step down from Meta’s board

#102

Post by [deleted] »

paxys wrote: post #77
hotpotamus wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is he eligible? Looking at his bio it doesn't appear so. Also he seems like he'd be happier pulling the strings of a President JD Vance anyway.

He is eligible if he was born in the US (doesn't look like it) or if either of his parents was a US citizen at the time of his birth. There doesn't seem to be any info online confirming or denying that.

[deleted]

Re: Peter Thiel to step down from Meta’s board

#103

Post by barry-cotter »

gameswithgo wrote: post #68
paxys wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is being the 50th best basketball player on the planet good enough? Why do athletes continue to dedicate their lives in the hopes of being #1? Once your basic needs are met and you have a comfortable standard of living, everything else is a game, and people like to win. Why does anyone need a fancy car? Why does anyone need to compete with their neighbors and coworkers? Why does a billionaire need a superyacht when a…

It is game with millions of human lives being destroyed as a consequence at times.

Humanity, the game. In the original version, conquest, you got points for taking other people’s stuff, which almost always required injuring or killing them. With the addition of the extended economic growth (capitalism) expansion pack you could gain points by making things or providing services people wanted more than what they already had.

Re: Peter Thiel to step down from Meta’s board

#104

Post by pirate787 »

stuaxo wrote: post #96
beebmam wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people with this much wealth want even more wealth for themselves? I've never understood this.

"number go up", they are obsessed with a high score and having more than others playing the same game. It would be sad if it were just that, but the fallout effects so many. I like the idea someone had that beyond a certain point you get a big party to say you won capitalism then the rest of the money you earn goes back into society.

It is a worthy feature of the system that the winners get to direct the resources. Musk used his winnings to found SpaceX and Tesla and other moonshot companies. The alternative is to redistribute everything to people who have proven only that they mismanage resources.

Re: Peter Thiel to step down from Meta’s board

#105

Post by jonathankoren »

palijer wrote: post #67
chrchang523 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like Elon Musk, he wasn't born in the US and is therefore ineligible. (edit: "natural-born citizen" is not as well-defined as I thought, and Ted Cruz qualifies on account of having a US citizen parent at the time of his birth. But it's clear that Thiel doesn't.)

That requirement seems pretty bizarre to myself as a non-US person. Haven't heard of being natural born as a requirement for president before, but seems like another aspect that the US shares with a small list of other countries. It seems pretty on-brand to be honest though, I wonder why that rule exists and what benefit it provides. The first couple presidents couldn't have met it, so I wonder when it was introduced…

It’s an 18th century solution to the problem of foreign kings.

Re: Peter Thiel to step down from Meta’s board

#106

Post by asdff »

palijer wrote: post #67
chrchang523 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like Elon Musk, he wasn't born in the US and is therefore ineligible. (edit: "natural-born citizen" is not as well-defined as I thought, and Ted Cruz qualifies on account of having a US citizen parent at the time of his birth. But it's clear that Thiel doesn't.)

That requirement seems pretty bizarre to myself as a non-US person. Haven't heard of being natural born as a requirement for president before, but seems like another aspect that the US shares with a small list of other countries. It seems pretty on-brand to be honest though, I wonder why that rule exists and what benefit it provides. The first couple presidents couldn't have met it, so I wonder when it was introduced…

It was to prevent foreign influence. The first couple presidents all met it, having been born in territory that became the U.S.. Mexico also did similar things with property rights surrounding the end of the Spanish mission era, in effort to remove Spanish influence.

Re: Peter Thiel to step down from Meta’s board

#107

Post by Consultant32452 »

beebmam wrote: post #30
user249 wrote: post #14

This podcast "The Peter Thiel Paradox" [1] explained a lot about the mystery of Peter Thiel to me. Turns out that there is less than meets the eye but he does have a specific talent for manipulating the political systems and government coffers to enrich himself, much like Richard Branson, or so the British podcast claims. [1] https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/the-lrb-p... One nitpick; Theil said "We…

Why do people with this much wealth want even more wealth for themselves? I've never understood this.

If you're poor it tends to look like "How many houses could a person want?"

If you're rich, it looks like "Everyone else, especially governments, sucks at allocating resources. I will do a better job."

And here's the kicker, being extremely wealthy is the result of being good at the skill of resource allocation.

Re: Peter Thiel to step down from Meta’s board

#108

Post by ComradePhil »

beebmam wrote: post #30
user249 wrote: post #14

This podcast "The Peter Thiel Paradox" [1] explained a lot about the mystery of Peter Thiel to me. Turns out that there is less than meets the eye but he does have a specific talent for manipulating the political systems and government coffers to enrich himself, much like Richard Branson, or so the British podcast claims. [1] https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/the-lrb-p... One nitpick; Theil said "We…

Why do people with this much wealth want even more wealth for themselves? I've never understood this.

I don't think Peter Thiel is in it for the money, not anymore anyway. He is fairly straightforward and has talked about his motivations in various long-form interviews over the years. In my observation, his actions are aligned with his motivations that he has expressed.

Partisan media assigns fabricated evil motivations to explain his actions, like they do with everyone who they view as not on their side. People who get their idea of him from these sources have distorted view of him.

Re: Peter Thiel to step down from Meta’s board

#109

Post by woodpanel »

PeterisP wrote: post #86
jdrc wrote: post #20

Whatever happened to facebook in the span of 1 month that is so different than what was happening the past ~10 years? devaluation in multiple dimensions

Facebook's earlier valuation was reasonable only with an assumption that it will reasonably rapidly grow much, much larger than it is now. The market now started to believe that its long-term growth is going to be slower and more limited (i.e. disbelieving the Meta assertion that they're going to unlock humongous growth through metaverse), so that brings a huge adjustment down, closer to numbers justified by their cu…

I echo OPs coup de grace statements.

The underpinning failure of FB is indicated by

- ad-revenue (97% of FB's revenue) has an uncertain growth-perspective (as seen with the iOS privacy updates)

- Metaverse and VR in general (highlight Zuck's desperate, decade-long search for a new tech-moat) is a fad that is not going mainstream anytime soon

- inability to lead libra into success

All of these failures may seem unconnected but what ties them together is a deep underlying distrust of the company itself by the public

Re: Peter Thiel to step down from Meta’s board

#110

Post by dwmbt »

oger wrote: post #80

Referring to Palantir I once asked him if he ever had a Robert Oppenheimer moment - he did not answer. No more words were needed.

LOL, i would pay money to watch this in real time. another suggestive Thiel anecdote: after PayPal IPO'd the team threw a party to celebrate and he was said to have run a 10 game simultaneous (Thiel would play ten different games, moving through each board one move at a time, down the line) and was only beat by one person (David Sacks). after losing, he flipped the board and apparently responded to being called a sore loser with "show me a great loser and i'll show you a loser." [0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSUM1mvw17w

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