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Peter Thiel

Published podcast speaker

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49
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2
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1
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1

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book / built

The Diversity Myth

“I wrote a book after my undergraduate years entitled The Diversity Myth. It was focusing on a lot of the craziness, the campus wars, culture wars that were taking place at Stanford in the late ’80s, early ’90s.”

Conversations with Tyler · 17 Apr 2024

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What Peter said.

49 transcript-backed records

02 / belief

There are probably all these things that are problematic about Luther; there are things that were good about him. But I think the one part of it that — if we judge him by the standards of the 16th century, I think the Reformation had to come from the outside.

“There are probably all these things that are problematic about Luther; there are things that were good about him. But I think the one part of it that — if we judge him by the standards of the 16th century, I think the Reformation had to come from the outside.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

07 / belief

I think the tech — again, somehow, we’re in a very different place from what people were focused on even two, two-and-a-half years ago, but two-and-a-half years ago, there was much more of a crypto story.

“I think the tech — again, somehow, we’re in a very different place from what people were focused on even two, two-and-a-half years ago, but two-and-a-half years ago, there was much more of a crypto story.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

08 / belief

Of course, if we think about the globalization project of the post–Cold War period where, in some sense, globalization just happens, there’s going to be more movement of goods and people and ideas and money, and we’re going to become this more peaceful, better-integrated world.

“Of course, if we think about the globalization project of the post–Cold War period where, in some sense, globalization just happens, there’s going to be more movement of goods and people and ideas and money, and we’re going to become this more peaceful, better-integrated world.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

09 / belief

I think in some sense, it’s all the great books. They’re not quite at the scale of these holy books, but there was a way that we treated Shakespeare or Cervantes or Goethe as these almost semi-divine writers, and I think that’s the attitude one has to have to read any of these books appropriately and seriously.

“I think in some sense, it’s all the great books. They’re not quite at the scale of these holy books, but there was a way that we treated Shakespeare or Cervantes or Goethe as these almost semi-divine writers, and I think that’s the attitude one has to have to read any of these books appropriately and seriously.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

10 / belief

I think there’s an intuition that the effective altruists are not just fifth columnists on the part of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] where they’re trying to sabotage us, but where they actually, simply are doing what the CCP wants, which is actually to stop the LLMs and that’s very disruptive.

“I think there’s an intuition that the effective altruists are not just fifth columnists on the part of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] where they’re trying to sabotage us, but where they actually, simply are doing what the CCP wants, which is actually to stop the LLMs and that’s very disruptive.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

14 / preference

I would probably not pay the person who asked me that anything because I would think they were just ripping me off since I hope to live for more than just one more year, and by the time I needed to collect on that extra year, I think that person will be long gone.

“I would probably not pay the person who asked me that anything because I would think they were just ripping me off since I hope to live for more than just one more year, and by the time I needed to collect on that extra year, I think that person will be long gone.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

15 / preference

Well, that’s a big question, but I think that you can stress the aspects that are timeless and eternal. I prefer to stress the aspects that are one-time and world-historical.

“Well, that’s a big question, but I think that you can stress the aspects that are timeless and eternal. I prefer to stress the aspects that are one-time and world-historical.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

16 / evaluation

I think Christianity — probably, it is much worse than Islam or Judaism on this because Islam and Judaism — it would be inconceivable that you could murder God in the form of a person.

“I think Christianity — probably, it is much worse than Islam or Judaism on this because Islam and Judaism — it would be inconceivable that you could murder God in the form of a person.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

17 / evaluation

In Girard’s telling, the Church stopped those sermons after 1945 because people needed to be reassured that the nuclear weapons had nothing to do with Armageddon or fire and brimstone or anything like this, even though, of course, there were all these slight mythic elements.

“In Girard’s telling, the Church stopped those sermons after 1945 because people needed to be reassured that the nuclear weapons had nothing to do with Armageddon or fire and brimstone or anything like this, even though, of course, there were all these slight mythic elements.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

18 / evaluation

Rosa Luxemburg, who’s this crazed communist from the early 20th century — I think one of the things she said was that there can be nobody more revolutionary than a factory worker, that nobody can be more revolutionary than a proletarian.

“Rosa Luxemburg, who’s this crazed communist from the early 20th century — I think one of the things she said was that there can be nobody more revolutionary than a factory worker, that nobody can be more revolutionary than a proletarian.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

19 / evaluation

Well, it’s a bit of a fuzzy, broad concept. But maybe to motivate it as a contrast, I think that in late modernity, we’re often living in this world of hyper-specialization where you can’t think about the big picture, and I don’t know, it’s like Adam Smith’s pin factory on steroids.

“Well, it’s a bit of a fuzzy, broad concept. But maybe to motivate it as a contrast, I think that in late modernity, we’re often living in this world of hyper-specialization where you can’t think about the big picture, and I don’t know, it’s like Adam Smith’s pin factory on steroids.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

21 / evaluation

He distanced himself a few years later, but it was some very bad judgment in certain ways. But the thing that I think is interesting, dangerous about looking at the Weimar thinkers, somehow, it was in the aftermath of World War I.

“He distanced himself a few years later, but it was some very bad judgment in certain ways. But the thing that I think is interesting, dangerous about looking at the Weimar thinkers, somehow, it was in the aftermath of World War I.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

22 / evaluation

I think there are probably redeeming things I can find in Calvinism. It’s so anti-utopian that it’s probably helpful in the battle against communism, but I don’t know if that’s the only way to be anti-communist.

“I think there are probably redeeming things I can find in Calvinism. It’s so anti-utopian that it’s probably helpful in the battle against communism, but I don’t know if that’s the only way to be anti-communist.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

23 / belief

I suspect we’re not innovating as much in those dimensions, either, but I think that one, you’d just end up projecting your own biases onto society.

“I suspect we’re not innovating as much in those dimensions, either, but I think that one, you’d just end up projecting your own biases onto society.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

25 / belief

I think most nonprofits fail at this, where they end up supporting things that are super conventional, they can get funding for them, but if they didn’t do it, there’d be 100 other people doing it.

“I think most nonprofits fail at this, where they end up supporting things that are super conventional, they can get funding for them, but if they didn’t do it, there’d be 100 other people doing it.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

26 / belief

I think we’ve had this sort of Gresham’s law, where the bad scientists have driven out the good, or people who are nimble in the art of writing government grant applications have replaced the eccentric scientists who’ve really pushed the research.

“I think we’ve had this sort of Gresham’s law, where the bad scientists have driven out the good, or people who are nimble in the art of writing government grant applications have replaced the eccentric scientists who’ve really pushed the research.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

27 / belief

We accept that we’re all going to die, and so we don’t do anything, and we think we’re not going to die anytime soon, so we don’t really need to worry about it.

“We accept that we’re all going to die, and so we don’t do anything, and we think we’re not going to die anytime soon, so we don’t really need to worry about it.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

29 / belief

I think the nonlibertarian perspective that I think we always should think about a little bit harder is that there’s also also been a tremendous decline.

“I think the nonlibertarian perspective that I think we always should think about a little bit harder is that there’s also also been a tremendous decline.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

30 / belief

In Silicon Valley, San Francisco, where I live, I would say the single biggest variable that makes people feel the stagnation is the sense in which housing costs, rental costs, are through the roof.

“In Silicon Valley, San Francisco, where I live, I would say the single biggest variable that makes people feel the stagnation is the sense in which housing costs, rental costs, are through the roof.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

33 / belief

Then I think there is another modality where you just become aware of how conventional our conventions really are, and then that becomes sort of an indirect route of trying to start thinking for yourself.

“Then I think there is another modality where you just become aware of how conventional our conventions really are, and then that becomes sort of an indirect route of trying to start thinking for yourself.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

35 / belief

I’d much prefer to focus on the level of atoms, the real economy, than on the virtual level of bits, which I think of money as being linked to.

“I’d much prefer to focus on the level of atoms, the real economy, than on the virtual level of bits, which I think of money as being linked to.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

37 / belief

I think a lot of these smaller countries are somewhat underrated generally because you have an adaptability, an ability to change things that can move a lot faster.

“I think a lot of these smaller countries are somewhat underrated generally because you have an adaptability, an ability to change things that can move a lot faster.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

38 / evaluation

The optimism about Brazil, was always from all the potential that will happen, when it became linked to globalization, and then the disappointment happens when it turns out it doesn’t work.

“The optimism about Brazil, was always from all the potential that will happen, when it became linked to globalization, and then the disappointment happens when it turns out it doesn’t work.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

39 / belief

I think often the smarter people are more prone to trendy, fashionable thinking because they can pick up on things, they can pick up on cues more easily, and so they’re even more trapped by it than people of average ability.

“I think often the smarter people are more prone to trendy, fashionable thinking because they can pick up on things, they can pick up on cues more easily, and so they’re even more trapped by it than people of average ability.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

41 / prediction

I worry that the conformity problem is actually more acute than it was in the ’50s or ’60s, so that the category of the eccentric scientist, or even the eccentric professor, is a species that is steadily going extinct because there is less space for that in our research universities than there used to be.

“I worry that the conformity problem is actually more acute than it was in the ’50s or ’60s, so that the category of the eccentric scientist, or even the eccentric professor, is a species that is steadily going extinct because there is less space for that in our research universities than there used to be.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

42 / prediction

I think with the benefit of hindsight, we will realize that 2007 was not just the peak year of the finance boom, but also the peak year of globalization, like maybe 1913.

“I think with the benefit of hindsight, we will realize that 2007 was not just the peak year of the finance boom, but also the peak year of globalization, like maybe 1913.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

43 / prediction

I gave you these halfway, in-between ideas that are a little bit edgier. But I will also go a little bit out on a limb: I think the monopoly idea, that the goal of every successful business is to have a monopoly, that’s on the border of what I want to say.

“I gave you these halfway, in-between ideas that are a little bit edgier. But I will also go a little bit out on a limb: I think the monopoly idea, that the goal of every successful business is to have a monopoly, that’s on the border of what I want to say.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

44 / evaluation

” I am actually quite skeptical of that as a term, so yes, I think I did say the Straussian reading of Zero to One, was that perhaps — I had the adverb in — but perhaps you should not be an entrepreneur. It was because on one level, the book is advice about how you would go about building a business, but then on some level, you could also read every single chapter as discouraging people from going into business potentially as well.

“” I am actually quite skeptical of that as a term, so yes, I think I did say the Straussian reading of Zero to One, was that perhaps — I had the adverb in — but perhaps you should not be an entrepreneur. It was because on one level, the book is advice about how you would go about building a business, but then on some level, you could also read every single chapter as discouraging people from going into business potentially as well.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

45 / preference

I like to get things where you get these combinations of unusual traits, so if you have people with some really interesting, very different ideas, that suggests we’re in the idiosyncratic category.

“I like to get things where you get these combinations of unusual traits, so if you have people with some really interesting, very different ideas, that suggests we’re in the idiosyncratic category.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

47 / evaluation

My updated version on it would be that — I made the case that I thought democracy and capitalism weren’t quite compatible — the updated version I would give is it’s not at all clear that we’re living in anything resembling a democracy.

“My updated version on it would be that — I made the case that I thought democracy and capitalism weren’t quite compatible — the updated version I would give is it’s not at all clear that we’re living in anything resembling a democracy.”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler

48 / evaluation

We need to ask, what is it about our society where those of us who do not suffer from Asperger’s are at some massive disadvantage because we will be talked out of our interesting, original, creative ideas before they are even fully formed?

“We need to ask, what is it about our society where those of us who do not suffer from Asperger’s are at some massive disadvantage because we will be talked out of our interesting, original, creative ideas before they are even fully formed?”
Speaker
Peter Thiel
Publisher
Conversations with Tyler
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