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Peter Thiel to step down from Meta’s board

nytimes.com

191–200 of 276 posts

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

#191
post #82
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's okay to call another human a rat. It's pure hate without reason.

I spent some time at university doing psychological research on rats. In my experience they’re the sweetest things and actually quite affectionate, as long as they’re given somewhere safe to live, aren’t too hungry, and you handle them with kindness and care. (they have quite sharp claws which can accidentally pierce your skin if they’re startled or scared of you. Also, their vision isn’t great; you can wind up getti…

>as long as they’re given somewhere safe to live, aren’t too hungry, and you handle them with kindness and care.

What I wouldn't give so that the preconditions for human being sweet are this weak !

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

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"When you've helped 100 little old ladies cross the road, why bother with number 101?" "When you've done so much useful work, why would you ever want to do any more?" "If you have so many friends, why would you ever be nice to somebody new?" "You love your family so much, why not stop now?" "Michael Phelps already has a gold medal, why does he keep swimming?"

Helping a little old lady cross the road is improving the world in some manner. Acquiring bigger numbers in a bank account... not so much.

If you subscribe to the pre-modern idea that there is a limited overall amount of wealth, right.

But if you fast forward to the modern age, you’ll find that almost all work creates new wealth.

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

#193
post #160

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…

You sound pretty brilliant yourself . Mind sharing your achievements that would illustrate how much more talented and smart you are than Thiel?

thanks random internet person! in my infinite modesty however, i'll decline to boast about my many amazing and wonderful achievements. but y'know, just between you and me, i did once receive a canned award from my state senator AND my state congresscritter! with fake-signed certificate and everything! *puffed-chest*

notice that i'd made no reflexive or comparative claims. but comparatively speaking, thiel on a daily basis most assuredly looks at musk with full-on green-faced envy.

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

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Helping a little old lady cross the road is improving the world in some manner. Acquiring bigger numbers in a bank account... not so much.

If you subscribe to the pre-modern idea that there is a limited overall amount of wealth, right. But if you fast forward to the modern age, you’ll find that almost all work creates new wealth.

Even if building your wealth didn't take it from somebody else, it still hadn't improved society.

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

#195

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…

Jeez. I hate to burst your bubble, but Peter is more talented and intelligent than most of the readers/writers on this website. It's easy to make your claim when your perception of the guy is based solely on news articles and hit pieces. I don't agree with him on everything, but there is no denying that he's gotten where he is through maneuvering and foresight.

[deleted]

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

#196

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…

Jeez. I hate to burst your bubble, but Peter is more talented and intelligent than most of the readers/writers on this website. It's easy to make your claim when your perception of the guy is based solely on news articles and hit pieces. I don't agree with him on everything, but there is no denying that he's gotten where he is through maneuvering and foresight.

I agree with both of you

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

#197

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,” 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 via a second-tier reality show that saved him just as he was floundering in real estate, another stroke of luck. along the way, he was bailed out time and again for billions of dollars, something almost no american has the luck to have access to. trump is decidedly not smart, just extremely lucky. sheer statistics say we're bound to have a few trumps; people with extraordinarily dumb luck but little talent otherwise.

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

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't think he's merely wrong, people think he's outright evil.

Oh come on, he only drank a little blood, just a tiny amount. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/08/peter-thiel-wants-to...

Hiring a Blood Boy[1] on the free market for a fair price is pro-capitalist,and can't be evil, unlike vampires who take without paying the service provider, so to speak.

1. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6267506/

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

#199
post #20

Whatever happened to facebook in the span of 1 month that is so different than what was happening the past ~10 years? devaluation in multiple dimensions

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.

I think the cause and effect here is backwards, the writing was already on the wall. The pivot to Meta was a response to that.

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

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now I'm curious: do the scriptures say when Jesus became self-aware, that he was (the son of) God?

from what (little) i remember, he was pretty self-aware in all of the bible that i read growing up. i'd guess a supreme being who wasn't really "born" would always have had self-awareness.

He's also human, and most of us do have to develop self-identity as children. That part of his life is mostly omitted from scripture though, as I recall.

edit: Googled and remembered there's the episode where he goes wandering off from his parents, they find him in the temple, and he asks why they'd think he would be anywhere else but in his Father's (God's) house. So, well aware at least as a twelve year old. Luke 2:41-59

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