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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

#221

Post by spaetzleesser »

mxxx wrote: post #216
spaetzleesser wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people think intelligence means people behave according to their ethics. In reality intelligence doesn’t mean that you are a good guy. A lot of “bad” guys are very intelligent. Not many people could pull off what Pablo Escobar or El Chapo did. Elizabeth Holmes from Theranos is pretty smart.

Elizabeth Holmes is facing 20 years in prison. Pretty smart.

A lot of smart people do dumb things. The Enron guys were pretty smart and went to jail. The people who blew up the financial markets in 2008 were very intelligent. Actually they were the smartest: made the public believe the world would go under if they couldn't keep their bonuses and receive a bailout.

I consider myself pretty intelligent and I have done plenty of dumb things although with some thinking I could have known they are dumb.

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

#222

Post by telotortium »

vineyardmike wrote: post #167
tacitusarc wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never understood the perspective that what Thiel did too Gawker was anything but good. Love or hate the guy, he just funded a lawsuit that Gawker assumed they would beat using the classic tactics of bankrupting their opponent. I despise those tactics, it was (rightly IMO) determined that Gawker acted illegally and caused massive damage, and if the Hulk Hogan had been funded by literally any other billionaire I t…

Gawker was not a major corp at all, it was a tiny publication. I don't think they thought they would beat him via bankrupting him at all. Thiel approached a ton of people who Gawker wrote about, and volunteered to fund suits until he found a winner. Thiel was not the rich hero, he was trying to a chip in the armor for a long time to seek revenge on a petty grudge.

> Gawker was not a major corp at all, it was a tiny publication.

Lol, in 2014 Gawker had $45m in revenue (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gawker_Media#cite_note-BI-18), and it had hundreds of employees. Sure, it wasn't quite the NYT, but it wasn't a newsletter or a local paper by any means.

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

#223

Post by spaetzleesser »

clairity wrote: post #197
spaetzleesser wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“ thiel isn't that talented or smart, but he did get hella lucky,” To get and stay where he is you have to be pretty smart. Maybe not in the way you define it but most people wouldn’t be able to do what he did. This will get me in trouble but I think the same can be said about Trump. The way he pushed himself into the presidency against resistance from the media and the established parties was pretty phenomenal. You…

i wasn't claiming thiel was dumb, just that in his case, luck overwhelmed, and that he's not as smart and talented as he'd want the world to believe (that everything he's achieved is solely due to his own brilliance only). trump is, in a way, a good analogue. he also claims rare intelligence, but it's pretty clear he's not smart at all. he happened to be propelled by daddy's wealth, and translated that into infamy vi…

You think he could bully his way into becoming president and dominating the republican party by sheer luck? Even if I wanted to I couldn't do it what he did and I doubt you could do it either.

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

#224

Post by lariati »

geodel wrote: post #162
clairity wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> thiel isn't that talented or smart, but he did get hella lucky, This is true for more than 99% of extremely successful people. It is only worth mentioning when one does not like any particular successful person.

He has a whole chapter in his book about this nonsense viewpoint that is quite thought provoking.

"Everything is just stochastic process bro" is such a dumb view of the world masquerading as an intelligent thought.

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

#225

Post by [deleted] »

golemotron wrote: post #140
TuringNYC wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the case of Peter Thiel, the Koch family, and Robert Mercer, it is quite clear that the end goal is no longer wealth, but reshaping politics, geo-political power, and thought for multiple generations.

Wow. No one on the left does that?

[deleted]

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

#226

Post by imbnwa »

deanCommie wrote: post #133
zls wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the one law class I took, presidential eligibility was the example used to introduce our discussion of "standing". He framed the discussion specifically around a hypothetical Schwarzenegger run. The professor said that although it shouldn't be allowed, if Schwarzenegger actually ran, no one would have standing to sue him, so he would be allowed after all. The prof spoke in a way that implied this is an accepted tr…

This is a surprisingly illustrative anecdote. America is incredible at "doing the right thing" when push comes to shove - regardless of policy, procedure, or legalese. In so many ways, going through life in the US means people figure out how to help you, unblock you, or ignore hurdles. Allowing Arnold to become president if he was interested is clearly such thing - no sensible person would think it should be prevente…

Unwritten rules are everything in America

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

#227

Post by lariati »

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 mean usually throughout history at some level of wealth people want some kind of political type of glory.

If not that then some kind of patronage of the arts.

The problem with leisure is pretty constant really once you don't have to work.

You can only party all the time for so long before your addictions catch up with you. It is like the delusional of retiring to the beach to drink wine all day. Maybe fun for a few weeks but 6 months? You will be in bad shape rather quick.

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

#228

Post by HWR_14 »

Obi_Juan_Kenobi wrote: post #165
nbardy wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that Thiel's public fund often takes loss because he is hedging other financial risk he is taking.(e.g. holding palantir after IPO, large VC investments in industries that may turn out to be based on immature research)

Hahaha you don't believe that, do you?

If that's true, it's more evil than just being bad at investing. Leveraging other people's money to make contrarian bets as a hedge to the investments you believe in enough to put your money in, when the reason those people are giving you money is to align their money with yours, is ethically if not legally fraud.

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

#229

Post by HWR_14 »

throwaway1777 wrote: post #148
jvp wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, no one has ever put it this way. I like the reference to sports! I'd still be happy as a backup QB for 10 years making bank though. Cushy!

Backup qbs don’t make much more then software engineers… just saying. The league minimum is like 700k.

The league minimum for a rookie is something like 700k. It goes up with experience/longevity.

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

#230

Post by [deleted] »

TearsInTheRain wrote: post #218
totesraunch wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you have multiple game running isn't the trick just to play the move your opponent plays from the previous board? Do in reality you're only playing one game and everyone else is playing each other.

Thats a good way to lose half your games

[deleted]
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