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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

#121

Post by m-ee »

waffle_maniac wrote: post #44
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…

There was a comment in a thread on HN a while ago by someone that interviewed with Thiel's hedge fund. Apparently the fund lost a lot of money and Thiel was directing the trading decisions. Other investors pulled their money and it was mostly Thiel's money in the fund going forward.

That was maybe me? If not someone else had the exact same experience. Was an odd interview, took place at a mostly empty office building in the presidio. Afterwards I was wandering around in the fog trying to get a cell signal to call an Uber which added to the ghost town feeling.

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

#122

Post by arvinsim »

okaramian wrote: post #83
gameswithgo wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

If you don't like the game, you should probably vote for politicians that change the rules. There isn't a real bound on wealth within the system we're in, until that changes this is reality and expecting people who play it to be inherently moral is naive. Note that Im not stating a judgement either way, just pointing out how the system currently works.

Except it doesn't work since politicians themselves that benefit from the system.

Think incentives, not ideals.

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

#123

Post by clairity »

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…

thiel isn't that talented or smart, but he did get hella lucky, and that's a sore point for him. so he's used his paypal riches on an extended PR campaign to make everyone believe he's something more than he is. literally every quote and quip i've heard from him is recycled directly from elsewhere, rather than being even a semi-original notion, but he passes it off as wisdom from on high. he wants more than just respect; he wants to be worshipped. if i ever met him, i'd tell him to just go the scientology route and found another fake religion already. he could even fashion himself up as the new new jesus.

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

#124

Post by [deleted] »

leto_ii wrote: post #89
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…

> people like to win True, but there are a host of other things that people like. The idea that "winning" is the ultimate goal in life is more socially induced than immanent. If as a society we decide to foster different attitudes and goals we will obtain different outcomes and different kinds of people (to a certain extent, of course).

[deleted]

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

#125

Post by yalogin »

I was hoping Theil is being opportunistic when he pandered to the previous guy, but looks like he fully believes in that form of governance and really likes everything the guy stands for. So much so that Theil is heavily supporting candidates that are aligned with the previous guy. Very disappointing. I would really like to know what he stands for and what his political motivations are, but I guess its obvious.

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

#126

Post by clairity »

rahulgoel wrote: post #36
Waterluvian wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their pivot to Meta deeply reinforced the writing on the wall. And then their first ever report of a declining user count was the coup de grace. Come to think of it I need to verify that the user count did decline. I only heard that anecdotally.

- DAUs decreased -0.05% from 1,930m in Q3 22 to 1,929m in Q4 22. ("sequentially") - DAUs increased +4.5% from 1,845m in Q4 21 to 1,929m in Q4 22. ("year over year") - See pp18: https://s21.q4cdn.com/399680738/files/doc_financials/2021/q4... DAUs are those using FB app only. Metric for those using all apps (Insta, Whatsapp, etc) increased. Btw - there are ~4.66B internet users - and FB has 77% of those log into one of…

thank god for the 23% of us who have some good sense!

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

#127

Post by starik36 »

omegaworks wrote: post #70

>He has also been seen as the contrarian who has Mr. Zuckerberg’s ear, championing unfettered speech across digital platforms. His conservative views also gave Facebook’s board ideological diversity. What a fawning, iconoclastic corruption of "diversity." The New York Times is blatantly courting Thiel's fascist endeavor. This journalistic abortion glosses over exactly what kind of speech Thiel's cohort seeks not just…

I would take "unfettered speech" over alternatives any day of the week.

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

#128

Post by m-ee »

leto_ii wrote: post #84
waffle_maniac wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a comment in a thread on HN a while ago by someone that interviewed with Thiel's hedge fund. Apparently the fund lost a lot of money and Thiel was directing the trading decisions. Other investors pulled their money and it was mostly Thiel's money in the fund going forward.

Wasn't Eric Weinstein also involved with that hedge fund? Or am I mixing things up?

Possibly. Thiel has Clarium, “Thiel Capital” and “Thiel Macro” associated with his name. Weinstein was a managing director at Thiel Capital.

I interviewed with Thiel Macro years ago when I got the story of the investors pulling out and the fund being primarily Thiel’s money from my interviewer. Not sure which if any of these are the same corporate entity.

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

#130

Post by kelp »

clairity wrote: post #123
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…

thiel isn't that talented or smart, but he did get hella lucky, and that's a sore point for him. so he's used his paypal riches on an extended PR campaign to make everyone believe he's something more than he is. literally every quote and quip i've heard from him is recycled directly from elsewhere, rather than being even a semi-original notion, but he passes it off as wisdom from on high. he wants more than just resp…

He’s actually very Christian and I’m told attends services every week. I’m not sure what denomination though.
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