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Re: undefined

#81

Post by HaveCourage »

ryandamm wrote: post #80
HaveCourage wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm happy to talk about substantive issues. We can chat, discord, livestream, move over to reddit, I love speaking about cool ideas.

I don't see much of substance to discuss, as I mentioned in reply to your first, similar post. I think Thiel has bad politics, uninteresting investment theses, and a knack for bad macro- timing. I've devoted too much time to him this evening already. So I don't think you and I have much common ground to discuss, regardless of forum.

I'm a camera/cinematography person as well, so we could always chat about that :)

Re: undefined

#82

Post by ryandamm »

HaveCourage wrote: post #81
ryandamm wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see much of substance to discuss, as I mentioned in reply to your first, similar post. I think Thiel has bad politics, uninteresting investment theses, and a knack for bad macro- timing. I've devoted too much time to him this evening already. So I don't think you and I have much common ground to discuss, regardless of forum.

I'm a camera/cinematography person as well, so we could always chat about that :)

Hey, now that's something more interesting to me! This political nonsense was getting a bit tiresome.

Sadly, I'm heading to bed. I'm a single parent this week and my son's up in ~5 hours. Where are you based?

Re: undefined

#83

Post by HaveCourage »

ryandamm wrote: post #82
HaveCourage wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a camera/cinematography person as well, so we could always chat about that :)

Hey, now that's something more interesting to me! This political nonsense was getting a bit tiresome. Sadly, I'm heading to bed. I'm a single parent this week and my son's up in ~5 hours. Where are you based?

I mailed you

Re: undefined

#84

Post by benjaminjackman »

argonaut wrote: post #25
shaldengeki wrote: post #5

To me, he comes off here as completely uninformed about virtually every subject in which he is interviewed. I'm not sure why he'd agree to an interview if he wasn't going to do _some_ preparation. Just look at this trainwreck: > When I remark that President Obama had eight years without any ethical shadiness, Mr. Thiel flips it, noting: “But there’s a point where no corruption can be a bad thing. It can mean that thi…

I dislike his views, but one thing Thiel is most certainly not is misinformed. His interpretations may be completely wrong, but he is not misinformed. I recall an interview of Marc Andreessen where Marc said he had to do a ton of preparation just to stand toe to toe in a debate with Thiel. If you believe that, then look for other explanations for his oddball statements. The contrarian angle seems like the right one -…

That may just means he's a good debater not that he is well informed.

Re: undefined

#85

Post by tominous »

obstinate wrote: post #75
tominous wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't read Thiel's mind, but his point reminded me of Mancur Olson's description of roving bandits vs stationary bandits [1]. a "roving bandit" only has the incentive to steal and destroy, whilst a "stationary bandit"—a tyrant—has an incentive to encourage some degree of economic success The same point could be made for having no interest vs having a conflict of interest. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mancur_Ol…

This is a stretch. The more likely explanation is that either he misspoke or has very strange priorities. Peter Thiel is someone who has done some pretty impressive stuff. But all his recent moves in politics have been pretty zany. After enough zany behaviors, it might be time to start wondering whether the impressive stuff was the fluke, or whether his skill in that pursuit doesn't translate to other domains.

You're right, it is a stretch. I think Thiel was saying something a bit less strong: that in the pursuit of a boring administration with no conflict-of-interest scandals, you can be too conservative. You risk having no-one who actually knows what they are doing.

By the way, if you think becoming a close advisor to a new president is unimpressive then I'd like to know what would impress you!

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