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My big mistake? Not being buddies with Peter Thiel in 2003. Don't make my mistake, go back in time and be buddies with Peter Thiel in 2003. Just the fact that

My big mistake? Not being buddies with Peter Thiel in 2003. Don't make my mistake, go back in time and be buddies with Peter Thiel in 2003. Just the fact that he had a buddy who could cut him a check for $70,000 before his startup succeeded says a whole lot about the situation he was in. If you have a buddy who tosses around this kind of cash, your options are different from the options available to the overwhelming majority of us.

dpcan 7y ago
Life is a lottery. I had the opportunity to take a job as lead programmer at a dot com that ended up becoming one of the biggest entertainment companies of the early 2000's and I passed for a job at a company that went bust in 6 months. The only lesson I got from this post is one I already know - don't regret your decisions because you can't see the damn future.
- Apocryphon 7y ago
  The butterfly effect is also worth considering. There’s no telling that the current outcome is inevitable if you had chosen to participate.
  - cryptica 7y ago
    >> There’s no telling that the current outcome is inevitable if you had chosen to participate. True. Judging from the author's terrible decision-making abilities, the company would probably have gone belly up before it got to series A if the author had joined sooner as a director.
- friendlybus 7y ago
  Going into the unknown can be guided by things other than luck and randomness. Did you figure out why you chose what you did?
dang 7y ago
This is a shallow dismissal, which the HN guidelines ask you not to do, and especially not out of indignation. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html It's obvious from early in the article that Garry wasn't "buddies" with Thiel. He had just graduated, and a college friend was the connection. That means your point reduces to: people who go to elite colleges encounter opportunities as a result. No one disagrees with that, certainly not Garry, but it's a tangential, generic and therefore a weak response to the point of this article, which is about taking the opportunities that do come your way.
- geofft 7y ago
  I disagree with this. Why was Thiel willing to cut him a check - would he have done so for any software engineer straight out of college? Did he technically interview Tan? If the original comment is revised from "Be buddies with Peter Thiel" to "Be in the set of <1000 people who has connections with Peter Thiel sufficient to get him to write you a check," the point still stands - this article is not generically applicable advice, and your point (which I agree with) that you should take the opportunities that come your way generally implies you should take the Microsoft job and hold out for promo - and I think you're shallowly dismissing this comment.
  - dang 7y ago
    Having finished the article, I was just coming back here to edit my comment, because I described it inaccurately. The article isn't only about taking the opportunities that come your way; it's more specific. It's about owning more of the value that you create and having more creative autonomy in your work. Some people are going to respond positively to that message, others not, for various reasons, but it obviously has nothing in principle to do with Peter Thiel or "Be in the set of <1000 people who has connections with Peter Thiel sufficient to get him to write you a check".
    - Apocryphon 7y ago
      Then the author did a disservice to us all by the clickbait framing of his decision.
eitau 7y ago
I have a friend exactly like that and it’s been basically worthless for me. I don’t really engage with him any more. His car is worth more than my house. He seems to think that gives him the right to allocate my labor to his pet projects. Had I quit my job when he urged, years ago, I would have had a boss with untreated ADHD and unlimited money waste a half-decade of my life.

dpcan 7y ago

Life is a lottery. I had the opportunity to take a job as lead programmer at a dot com that ended up becoming one of the biggest entertainment companies of the early 2000's and I passed for a job at a company that went bust in 6 months. The only lesson I got from this post is one I already know - don't regret your decisions because you can't see the damn future.

Apocryphon 7y ago
The butterfly effect is also worth considering. There’s no telling that the current outcome is inevitable if you had chosen to participate.
- cryptica 7y ago
  >> There’s no telling that the current outcome is inevitable if you had chosen to participate. True. Judging from the author's terrible decision-making abilities, the company would probably have gone belly up before it got to series A if the author had joined sooner as a director.
friendlybus 7y ago
Going into the unknown can be guided by things other than luck and randomness. Did you figure out why you chose what you did?

dang 7y ago

This is a shallow dismissal, which the HN guidelines ask you not to do, and especially not out of indignation. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html It's obvious from early in the article that Garry wasn't "buddies" with Thiel. He had just graduated, and a college friend was the connection. That means your point reduces to: people who go to elite colleges encounter opportunities as a result. No one disagrees with that, certainly not Garry, but it's a tangential, generic and therefore a weak response to the point of this article, which is about taking the opportunities that do come your way.

geofft 7y ago
I disagree with this. Why was Thiel willing to cut him a check - would he have done so for any software engineer straight out of college? Did he technically interview Tan? If the original comment is revised from "Be buddies with Peter Thiel" to "Be in the set of <1000 people who has connections with Peter Thiel sufficient to get him to write you a check," the point still stands - this article is not generically applicable advice, and your point (which I agree with) that you should take the opportunities that come your way generally implies you should take the Microsoft job and hold out for promo - and I think you're shallowly dismissing this comment.
- dang 7y ago
  Having finished the article, I was just coming back here to edit my comment, because I described it inaccurately. The article isn't only about taking the opportunities that come your way; it's more specific. It's about owning more of the value that you create and having more creative autonomy in your work. Some people are going to respond positively to that message, others not, for various reasons, but it obviously has nothing in principle to do with Peter Thiel or "Be in the set of <1000 people who has connections with Peter Thiel sufficient to get him to write you a check".
  - Apocryphon 7y ago
    Then the author did a disservice to us all by the clickbait framing of his decision.

eitau 7y ago

I have a friend exactly like that and it’s been basically worthless for me. I don’t really engage with him any more. His car is worth more than my house. He seems to think that gives him the right to allocate my labor to his pet projects. Had I quit my job when he urged, years ago, I would have had a boss with untreated ADHD and unlimited money waste a half-decade of my life.