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Lecture 5, How to Start a Startup: Peter Thiel

startupclass.samaltman.com

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Re: Lecture 5, How to Start a Startup: Peter Thiel

#51

Post by james1071 »

onewaystreet wrote: post #34
jonalmeida wrote: post #33

I think Peter is mistaken as to why science goes about inventing things with little financial gain. There are some people that don't want money (who would have thought?), but find more value in the research. It's fair to say that on the other hand, there are those who also want some sort of financial gain, so there should be a way for them to go about this. > "If people at Twitter make billions of dollars, it must be…

Thiel isn't saying that scientists don't want to make money, but that there is an attitude shared by many of them that making money is somehow wrong. Thiel believes that this attitude is just cover for the fact that so few scientists are able to make money from their discoveries even if they want to. You should go back and listen again to what Thiel said, this isn't something he believes. He is describing society's r…

Thought he said something quite different, which is that people explain the fact that scientists don't make money from their discoveries by saying that they aren't interested in doing so.

His point was that it was the nature of scientific discovery that made it hard to capture any value from it, not a characteristic of scientists.

Re: Lecture 5, How to Start a Startup: Peter Thiel

#53

Post by james1071 »

jlukanta wrote: post #3

Interesting point about market size. If it's true that companies often lie to themselves about their market, what can they do to identify their real market? Is there an objective measure or is it purely subjective?

The market is what you are selling and close substitutes to it.

A close substitute is something that someone would buy instead of your product.

Re: Lecture 5, How to Start a Startup: Peter Thiel

#54

Post by james1071 »

graycat wrote: post #22
betadreamer wrote: post #8

I enjoyed the lecture, but I somewhat disagree with the scientist statement about how Y is close to 0. I think X is the one that is 0 because when the scientist makes an invention the market is so new that there is no market yet. Within this low market the Y value will be high because that is the only thing that exist in it. Am I the only one who thinks this way? or am i misunderstanding his statement. It could just…

Maybe Thiel was trying to keep the arguments simple. Basically you are correct. Thiel's example of Uncle Albert is not so good: Einstein long had all the money he wanted and, then, what he really wanted, free time to pursue research in physics. Yes, Einstein seemed not interested in making $1 billion. But, let's see: What about Steinmetz, electrical engineering, and GE? What about A. Viterbi and Qualcomm? What about…

Those guys did not invent RSA.

Re: Lecture 5, How to Start a Startup: Peter Thiel

#57

Post by [deleted] »

tomasien wrote: post #28

"Monopolies are good for the businesses that have them" is so ridiculously axiomatic I wish he would just stop making it the focus of his talk. We know this, and we know VC's get drastically bigger returns on those. The reasons we don't like Monopolies (if you're a person who doesn't like them) isn't because they're bad for those businesses or the market cap of those markets, but because they're bad for consumers and…

[deleted]

Re: Lecture 5, How to Start a Startup: Peter Thiel

#58

Post by aytekin »

tomasien wrote: post #28

"Monopolies are good for the businesses that have them" is so ridiculously axiomatic I wish he would just stop making it the focus of his talk. We know this, and we know VC's get drastically bigger returns on those. The reasons we don't like Monopolies (if you're a person who doesn't like them) isn't because they're bad for those businesses or the market cap of those markets, but because they're bad for consumers and…

"they're bad for consumers and the economy as a whole."

I read the book. He argues monopolies are good for consumers and economy as well. When companies have so much returns that they don't know what to do with it, the good ones will invest the money in R&D which in return is good for everyone.

Re: Lecture 5, How to Start a Startup: Peter Thiel

#60

Post by Diamons »

jdimov wrote: post #48
Iftheshoefits wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost nobody in this industry has "mild forms of Asperger's." That canard is used far too often, and far too often as an excuse for something much more simple: these people are socially indifferent, to be polite. Some of them are merely socially inept, but others (many? most?) are, to be quite vulgar about it, simply assholes.

What's wrong with being an asshole? The fact that you can't handle it is your problem, not the asshole's. An asshole is simply someone who won't allow themselves to be swayed by anyone else's ignorant opinions.

Exactly. That's also one of my biggest gripes with yc - Dont be an asshole. If I want to be an asshole, that's my god given right. I say things how I see them and am under no obligation to sugar coat my words. Sorry the chemicals in your brain are signaling discomfort, but that's your job to suit up not mine.
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