Even if you take the analogy literally, the distinction between peacetime and wartime has itself blurred as a result of nonlinear warfare and "forever" wars. I

Even if you take the analogy literally, the distinction between peacetime and wartime has itself blurred as a result of nonlinear warfare and "forever" wars. I think it's clear that Ben Horowitz has not been an operator in far too long and anyone who takes this advice seriously deserves the failure that's coming to them. If we're going to match thinkpiece VCs against other thinkpiece VCs, Peter Thiel is probably much more sanguine and closer to reality than he is. Thiel argues that the opposite of the competition emerges (which is a monopoly), and that these monopolies tend to operate much more ruthlessly and efficiently in the present day and are much harder, if not impossible, to dismantle. I disagree with him on whether that's a good thing or not, but I think his understanding of corporate mechanisms is much closer to reality than Ben Horowitz. The truth is that war theater is expensive -- too expensive these days for anyone to afford. Those characteristics of the "wartime CEO" he demonstrates (as well as some of the "Peacetime CEO") -- besides more focus on the present than the future, how many of them truly are proactively solving the crisis rather than reactively panicking?