Peter Thiel on what works at work (2014)
washingtonpost.com
Peter Thiel on what works at work (2014)
1–10 of 98 posts
Re: Peter Thiel on what works at work (2014)
#2> "There are all these things that you never know whether they’re features or bugs—in a company or organization, or even in a personal trait."
Very true, and one can defend either side of it as per the situation.
Re: Peter Thiel on what works at work (2014)
#3>Peter Thiel is often described in techno-hyphenated words: ... Techno-utopian.
I think the journalist got that characterization wrong.
Based on PT's writings and interviews[1], he's not a techno-utopian. My cursory google searches doesn't show that others call him that either. Techno-utopians would be people like Ray Kurzweil, Kevin Kelly, and Marc Andreessen. And possibly Elon Musk as well.
Re: Peter Thiel on what works at work (2014)
#4>>A lot of business books are these pseudo-scientific books that say, “These are the five steps to follow and you will make a lot of money.” But if you have no formulas, you will be open to some new possibilities, some new ideas.
This is the beauty of capitalism...there is no formula for success, which means no one can monopolize or control that formula, and everyone has a shot :)
Re: Peter Thiel on what works at work (2014)
#5>>A lot of business books are these pseudo-scientific books that say, “These are the five steps to follow and you will make a lot of money.” But if you have no formulas, you will be open to some new possibilities, some new ideas. This is the beauty of capitalism...there is no formula for success, which means no one can monopolize or control that formula, and everyone has a shot :)
This may be the prime reason that the next Google may not be born out of an incubator like Y Combinator which has a certain way of mentoring start-ups? I have watched all of their mostly awesome 'How to Start a Start-up' on YouTube and the string of advices they give come off as a sort of a rough formula. Although, there are multiple instances where PG and Sam are pretty clear that some of the best ideas are so absurd that most will dismiss it without a thought.
Re: Peter Thiel on what works at work (2014)
#6>>A lot of business books are these pseudo-scientific books that say, “These are the five steps to follow and you will make a lot of money.” But if you have no formulas, you will be open to some new possibilities, some new ideas. This is the beauty of capitalism...there is no formula for success, which means no one can monopolize or control that formula, and everyone has a shot :)
Some say "owning the means of production" is such a formula.
There's certainly a lot of opportunity in technology right now, but capitalism doesn't guarantee such a state. The net neutrality debate is very explicitly about keeping the market open to newcomers.
Re: Peter Thiel on what works at work (2014)
#7> They’ve done studies at Harvard Business School where they’ve found that the largest cohort always went into the wrong field. So in 1989, they all went to work for Michael Milken, a year or two before he went to jail. They were never interested in Silicon Valley except for 1999, 2000.
They're interested in Silicon Valley now. Here's an actual conversation I had recently with a business school student (not verbatim obviously, but accurate as far as content):
Me: What are you doing after you graduate from HBS this spring?
MBA: I want to do startups.
Me: Oh cool, do you know which one you're going to work for?
MBA: Oh no, I want to start a startup.
Me: Oh okay, what's it going to do?
MBA: Don't know yet!
Me: Oh...
Re: Peter Thiel on what works at work (2014)
#8>>A lot of business books are these pseudo-scientific books that say, “These are the five steps to follow and you will make a lot of money.” But if you have no formulas, you will be open to some new possibilities, some new ideas. This is the beauty of capitalism...there is no formula for success, which means no one can monopolize or control that formula, and everyone has a shot :)
Some say "owning the means of production" is such a formula. There's certainly a lot of opportunity in technology right now, but capitalism doesn't guarantee such a state. The net neutrality debate is very explicitly about keeping the market open to newcomers.
For software...not so much for ISPs. Aside from that though, I'm also referring to sports, arts and entertainment, healthcare, etc. Industries that are driven by cultural trends, such as fashion or music, what I said above is especially true.
Re: Peter Thiel on what works at work (2014)
#9> They’ve done studies at Harvard Business School where they’ve found that the largest cohort always went into the wrong field. So in 1989, they all went to work for Michael Milken, a year or two before he went to jail. They were never interested in Silicon Valley except for 1999, 2000. They're interested in Silicon Valley now. Here's an actual conversation I had recently with a business school student (not verbatim…
What's wrong with that? IMO wanting to be an entrepreneur is one of the best reasons to start a company :)
Re: Peter Thiel on what works at work (2014)
#10>And I think it’s interesting to explore how unusual that is relative to many other areas of technology, because there are so many innovations that were good for society but the people who came up with them ended up with very little.
Okay, co-founders sometimes end up with a fair amount money. However, early employees that actually built the company are often forgotten and given a relatively small sum of money. Not sure if SV really changed that.