Why Peter Thiel Searches for Reality-Bending ‘Secrets’

Post by jrm4 » Sat, Feb 12, 2022, 3:59 PM UTC

zozbot234 wrote: post #5

jrm4 wrote: post #3

Perfect example of a brilliant thinker who needs to be contained. It's great to begin with ways of thinking like he does; but his love for secrets make him dangerous; people like him do more harm than good to the world because they're very bad at the whole "don't tear a fence down until you know why it was put up" thing.

> people like him do more harm than good to the world because they're very bad at the whole "don't tear a fence down until you know why it was put up" thing. Quite wrong. The article mentions that Thiel is anti-consensus - to him, 100% agreement with no real space for debate (on an issue with any amount of inherent complexity) is inherently fishy. This means that trying to figure out why the fence might be there is a…

Post by zozbot234 » Sat, Feb 12, 2022, 4:02 PM UTC

jrm4 wrote: post #11

zozbot234 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people like him do more harm than good to the world because they're very bad at the whole "don't tear a fence down until you know why it was put up" thing. Quite wrong. The article mentions that Thiel is anti-consensus - to him, 100% agreement with no real space for debate (on an issue with any amount of inherent complexity) is inherently fishy. This means that trying to figure out why the fence might be there is a…

And you (probably like him) are going to miss the difference between theory and practice on this. His idea here is a good one. Explore and chip away at that 100% agreement thing when you see it. Problem is he strongly appears to be the type with the dumb ego that can't distinguish between genuine "dangerous 100%-ism" and merely "being disagreed with by a lot of people."

Post by KerrAvon » Sat, Feb 12, 2022, 4:09 PM UTC

zozbot234 wrote: post #13

jrm4 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you (probably like him) are going to miss the difference between theory and practice on this. His idea here is a good one. Explore and chip away at that 100% agreement thing when you see it. Problem is he strongly appears to be the type with the dumb ego that can't distinguish between genuine "dangerous 100%-ism" and merely "being disagreed with by a lot of people."

So you're just saying that he might be dangerous because of his ego, not necessarily his ideas. Y'know, I'm not going to disagree there. But taking that big ego for granted, a "search for hidden secrets" is still one of the most socially productive ways you might use it for. Jumping on the bandwagon of a dubious social consensus can be a lot worse.

Post by s1artibartfast » Sat, Feb 12, 2022, 4:14 PM UTC

JaimeThompson wrote: post #8

It is interesting to me that Peter Thiel doesn't want to live / follow the same rules / laws he would have everyone else live under. Is it that he thinks himself better than the vast majority of us?

Post by bitcharmer » Sat, Feb 12, 2022, 4:19 PM UTC

bambax wrote: post #4

> Sometimes, our sense-making machinery has a glitch too. Many years ago, a McKinsey study concluded that nobody in the developing world would buy smartphones because they were too expensive. Based on that study, they held off on launching a smartphone for another three years. Around that time, an anthropologist who had recently returned from Chinese refugee camps saw how people would sacrifice half their disposable…