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Peter Thiel on "Founder as Victim, Founder as God"

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11–20 of 49 posts

Re: Peter Thiel on "Founder as Victim, Founder as God"

#11
post #6

This was the most interesting of this series of notes yet. And the conclusion was the weakest. Thiel seems like a pretty creepy character. When you have enough FU money, you can indulge a really skewed view of the world (former Intel exec comes to mind). And this series of lectures illustrates Theil's. He thinks someone, a young and naive (pre-university) prodigy, is going to make him a wealtier VC by sharing with hi…

Gotta love these ~30 minute old accounts with 7 karma howling at the moon that the neither the first successful online payments company, nor the most successful social network in Internet history, nor a ~$100billion/year big data company are 'innovative'. They may not be nuclear fusion or the perpetual motion machine, but they're more innovative than 99% of what everyone else will ever do. Your point about wealth buy…

"$100billion/year big data company"?

That's like saying a "$100billion/year products company". Incredibly vague. What's the product? Yes, it does make a difference.

I remind you that Thiel himself pulled an iPhone from his pocket and said "This is innovation?"

If we are going to measure innovation by income produced, then we can come up with all sorts of interesting examples of "innovation".

Re: Peter Thiel on "Founder as Victim, Founder as God"

#12
post #7

I've never read as much BS in my entire life...just because someone has made right decisions in the past doesn't give them a platform to spout gibberish in future...

It sort of does though, if they want to, especially if they built and installed the platform.

Re: Peter Thiel on "Founder as Victim, Founder as God"

#13

What a tripe! There are a lot of cultures where scapegoats were never present (India and China come to my mind). Polarizing figures with leadership qualities polarize the people around them. That doesn't make them founders! They are two different sets which intersect sometimes. And Bill Gates is NOT being forced to do charity, especially not by those who criticized him before. Most people in third world countries ido…

India never had scapegoats? Really? What about the caste system then? And if you don't think China did, then go read the Book of Lord Shang.

Re: Peter Thiel on "Founder as Victim, Founder as God"

#15
post #6

This was the most interesting of this series of notes yet. And the conclusion was the weakest. Thiel seems like a pretty creepy character. When you have enough FU money, you can indulge a really skewed view of the world (former Intel exec comes to mind). And this series of lectures illustrates Theil's. He thinks someone, a young and naive (pre-university) prodigy, is going to make him a wealtier VC by sharing with hi…

So, all you have to say about Peter Thiel is that his ideas are screwed up without reason why and that his credential/track record didn't match up what you think is innovative?

If you're going to criticize Thiel, show us reasons why his ideas are wrong.

Re: Peter Thiel on "Founder as Victim, Founder as God"

#17
This is actually pretty interesting, not necessarily because I think it provides any particularly profound insights, but because it gives an indirect account of how Thiel sees himself. Being an extreme insider and yet at the same time an extreme outsider implies a polarizing personality. For someone to think they see this trait in themselves is seemingly a contradiction, it's almost doublethink to consider oneself both repulsive and charismatic at the same time, or both an idiot savant and a polymath.

Re: Peter Thiel on "Founder as Victim, Founder as God"

#19
post #15
post #6

This was the most interesting of this series of notes yet. And the conclusion was the weakest. Thiel seems like a pretty creepy character. When you have enough FU money, you can indulge a really skewed view of the world (former Intel exec comes to mind). And this series of lectures illustrates Theil's. He thinks someone, a young and naive (pre-university) prodigy, is going to make him a wealtier VC by sharing with hi…

So, all you have to say about Peter Thiel is that his ideas are screwed up without reason why and that his credential/track record didn't match up what you think is innovative? If you're going to criticize Thiel, show us reasons why his ideas are wrong.

What ideas do you have in mind?

(It's not what I think is innovative. Who cares what I think? I'm just some commenter on Hacker News with a green account. Thiel himself criticized the iPhone and by extension similar Silicon Valley products as not being the type of "innovation" he thinks America is capable of. I'm suggesting he's hardly in a position to make that criticism given that he himself benefits from this meaningless stuff SV churns out.)

Re: Peter Thiel on "Founder as Victim, Founder as God"

#20
post #4

The victim/god identity, along with the scapegoat theory of culture described in the lecture, derives from the interesting French thinker (and Stanford prof) René Girard.

it actually comes from batman

vengeful, vigilante, uses fear and intimidation, but fights crime and never kills people

paranoid, schizoid, extremely brilliant

orphan billionaire philanthropist

extreme insider+outsider

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