4 ms·

Peter Thiel’s Origin Story

15 points by panarky 5y ago

1cvmask 5y ago
The original title is: "Peter Thiel’s Origin Story His ideology dominates Silicon Valley. It began to form when he was an angry young man." The state of journalism today is a travesty. Whether you like or dislike Peter Thiel it is obvious that his "ideology" does not dominate Silicon Valley or the Bay area at all. Ro Khanna, London Breed and Nancy Pelosi et al win votes in the Bay area. None of them are cut from the same cloth as Peter Thiel.
- Barrin92 5y ago
  Among Silicon Valley workers maybe not but at least parts of his politics have significant sway on highly influential individuals in the valley itself. Here is, as one example, an interview with Noah Smith and Andreessen a few months ago with the latter pretty much ad verbatim taking Thiel's stanceo AI/crypto[1]. Thiel is highly influential among the the guys who have all the money, which matters quite a lot. It also is quite curious with how much stuff Thiel gets away with, like funding Republicans that basically have sworn to dismantle big tech while sitting on the board of Facebook advising Zuckerberg. [1]https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/interview-marc-andreessen-vc-and https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/interview-marc-andreessen-...
  - panarky 5y ago
    > like funding Republicans that basically have sworn to dismantle big tech This isn't the contradiction it appears. The WSJ found Thiel brokered a secret agreement with Trump to stop Facebook moderation of Repub disinfo in exchange for a tacit agreement not to take regulatory action against Facebook. Source: https://archive.is/WYV6m https://archive.is/WYV6m
    - Barrin92 5y ago
      That is literally my point though, if that does not qualify him as a significant power broker in DC and the valley I'm not sure what does.
stdlib2 5y ago
"He later collected his thinking in a book, Zero to One. It became a best seller, partly because it promised a path to Thiel-scale wealth and partly because it developed the idiosyncrasies that had been present in the college-age Thiel into a full-blown ideology. The book argues, among other things, that founders are godlike, that monarchies are more efficient than democracies, and that cults are a better organizational model than management consultancies. More than anything, it celebrates rule-breaking. Thiel bragged that of PayPal’s six founders, four had built bombs in high school" Did they actually read Zero to One?
- ksec 5y ago
  >Did they actually read Zero to One? I guess it doesnt matter anymore? It is now abundantly clear that Thiel doesn't have an ideology that align with mainstream media and Silicon Valley's view. Like the comment below have said, The state of journalism today is a travesty. I sometimes wonder if it has always been like this, we just took 10 - 20 years to figure it out.

15 points by panarky 5y ago

The original title is: "Peter Thiel’s Origin Story His ideology dominates Silicon Valley. It began to form when he was an angry young man." The state of journalism today is a travesty. Whether you like or dislike Peter Thiel it is obvious that his "ideology" does not dominate Silicon Valley or the Bay area at all. Ro Khanna, London Breed and Nancy Pelosi et al win votes in the Bay area. None of them are cut from the same cloth as Peter Thiel.

Barrin92 5y ago
Among Silicon Valley workers maybe not but at least parts of his politics have significant sway on highly influential individuals in the valley itself. Here is, as one example, an interview with Noah Smith and Andreessen a few months ago with the latter pretty much ad verbatim taking Thiel's stanceo AI/crypto[1]. Thiel is highly influential among the the guys who have all the money, which matters quite a lot. It also is quite curious with how much stuff Thiel gets away with, like funding Republicans that basically have sworn to dismantle big tech while sitting on the board of Facebook advising Zuckerberg. [1]https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/interview-marc-andreessen-vc-and https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/interview-marc-andreessen-...
- panarky 5y ago
  > like funding Republicans that basically have sworn to dismantle big tech This isn't the contradiction it appears. The WSJ found Thiel brokered a secret agreement with Trump to stop Facebook moderation of Repub disinfo in exchange for a tacit agreement not to take regulatory action against Facebook. Source: https://archive.is/WYV6m https://archive.is/WYV6m
  - Barrin92 5y ago
    That is literally my point though, if that does not qualify him as a significant power broker in DC and the valley I'm not sure what does.

stdlib2 5y ago

"He later collected his thinking in a book, Zero to One. It became a best seller, partly because it promised a path to Thiel-scale wealth and partly because it developed the idiosyncrasies that had been present in the college-age Thiel into a full-blown ideology. The book argues, among other things, that founders are godlike, that monarchies are more efficient than democracies, and that cults are a better organizational model than management consultancies. More than anything, it celebrates rule-breaking. Thiel bragged that of PayPal’s six founders, four had built bombs in high school" Did they actually read Zero to One?

ksec 5y ago
>Did they actually read Zero to One? I guess it doesnt matter anymore? It is now abundantly clear that Thiel doesn't have an ideology that align with mainstream media and Silicon Valley's view. Like the comment below have said, The state of journalism today is a travesty. I sometimes wonder if it has always been like this, we just took 10 - 20 years to figure it out.