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Rich people can't create monopolies and rent seek as easily if government does the basic infrastructure well. Peter Thiel gives the example of not wanting to o
by andy_ppp 9y ago
Rich people can't create monopolies and rent seek as easily if government does the basic infrastructure well.
Peter Thiel gives the example of not wanting to open a restaurant in San Francisco because there is too much competition for it to be successful and you constantly have to work at it for little reward.
Of course the reality is that a successful San Francisco restaurant makes millions of dollars per year. Too little for Peter Thiel to be interested in but for most of us that would be considered extremely successful. The same can be true of websites and the Internet, ala Indie hackers.
- charlesdm 9y agoI think his line of thinking is more like, why spend so much time trying to get X to work, when I can just do Y and make the same amount of money? Unless you really really want to run a successful restaurant, he's not wrong. If it takes 1/10th the effort to run a cleaning business and make $1m a year, vs a tech business, would you do it? Some people would, others won't. Operating in a space with (not just normal but) extreme cut throat competition can get tiring after a while as well.
- rhino369 9y agoAnd even if you really want to run a successful restaurant, capital doesn't give a fuck. Banks won't lend you more money because you have a passion. Investors won't either.
- pixl97 9y ago>Of course the reality is that a successful San Francisco restaurant makes millions of dollars per year. Selection bias anyone? Of course a 'successful' $X makes money, it wouldn't be successful otherwise. That tells us nothing on how many restaurants had to fail in relation to the ones that did well. From a hypothetical investor's point of view if 1 out of 10 restaurants does well enough to earn a payback and you would have to put $1 million in each one to get it started, then the one that succeeds has to profit at least $10 million for the investor alone. Yea, seems like a pretty high risk environment.
- wavefunction 9y agoBoth your analysis and Peter Thiel's are coming from that weird place where becoming filthy rich is the only marker of success, rather than opening a business, building its loyal clientele by offering a valuable service they appreciate, employing people which helps their own lives grow and being able to support your own self from all that. What the f would Peter Thiel know about the joy derived from feeding someone good food?
- chii 9y ago> filthy rich is the only marker of success it's the only marker that others judge you by.
- buttcoinslol 9y agoSaid the king, before the guillotine fell and decapitated him
- enraged_camel 9y agoThere are many other things one can derive joy from that don't require putting in 90-hour workweeks, won't cause crazy levels of stress and aren't likely to result in boatloads of debt.
- RHSeeger 9y ago> Both your analysis and Peter Thiel's are coming from that weird place where becoming filthy rich is the only marker of success Actually, it looked like his analysis was for what was required to break even, on the average. Invest 10 million (across 10 companies), get back 10 million in profit from the 1 (of 10) that succeeds.
- wavefunction 9y agoI am trying to point out the ludicrous attempt to apply tech venture capital strategy to starting restaurants. There is no way anyone is going to open ten restaurants simultaneously, fail at 9 of them and earn 9 million in first-year net profit from the 10th. That's not how opening or operating restaurants works.
- dredmorbius 9y agoDrugs cartels seem to emerge without government assistance.