Notes from Tim Ferriss Interview with Peter Thiel by Edan Krolewicz Lyrics
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I recently listened to Tim Ferriss’ Interview with Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal and Palantir. Below are a set of quotes from the interview which I paraphrased.
“Technology is more important than globalization. Technology is the main driver for progress in the 21st century”
“Most people believe that capitalism and competition are synonyms, they are antonyms. Capitalist is someone who consumes capital, in a perfectly competitive world all the capital is competed away”
“There is no need to wait. You don’t have to wait to start something, if you have a 10 year plan ask why can’t I do this in 6 months? It’s worth asking if that’s a story you tell yourself or if its real.”
“Failure is overrated. People don’t learn much from failure. Ends up being damaging and demoralizing. The death of every business is a tragedy. It’s neither Darwinian or educational. It’s always a tragedy.”
“Zuck, Musk, Besos, are relentless. They have vision and hard work.”
“Bitcoin struggles with issue of creating a new currency. Bitcoin succeeded in creating a new currency but not a payment system. To succeed it will need to become a payment system.”
“Once you have a trend you have many people doing it. You don’t want to be part of a popular crowd in business. You want to be a first mover. A sense of mission is better, working on a unique problem people aren’t solving elsewhere. Unique missions are much preferred over trends.”
“The real reason people spray and pray (diversify their investments) is because they lack conviction and are too lazy to figure out what companies will work. That sort of approach makes it as treating companies as lottery tickets. It’s a bad thing morally, and bad as an investor. Once we are thinking in lottery ticket terms, you can lose money. Being concentrated allows you much larger conviction.”
“The problem I’m most passionate about is making progress against aging and death. We are doing little to solve this problem. People are either in denial, or acceptance, both of which are passive ways of dealing with it. WE should spend much more time fighting death.”
“There is no one size fits all for unemployment. A reasonable approach involves carefully looking at why they are there. Want to approach it with granularity. Need to find a way for more growth, is the US economy was growing at 4% a year these problems would be solved. We’ve had growth of 1-2%, which will not reduce structural unemployment. Anything we can do to increase technological innovation will increase the economic growth.”
“There is something strange about the most talented people doing the same things, going to the best colleges. I was guilty of this myself, its possible I would do it again, but I would ask questions of why I am doing this. Because its prestigious, or because I’m passionate about practicing law”
“The fundamental philosophical question is important for all of us. What do people agree by consensus, and what is actually true. We never want to let convention be a shortcut to truth. Tell me something true that very few people agree with you on.”
“Trying to think for yourself and break through convention is more important than anything.”
“I’m skeptical of education, or credentialing, is college a 4 year party? An investment? Engineering as a discipline cuts against the banality of education, which is a paradigm for how the future should be. The big track institutions deliver less and less and charge more and more.”
“Getting salvation through getting a college diploma is akin to salvation through investing in the church. IF you don’t get a college diploma you are going to go to hell.”
“One thing i try to do every day is to have a conversation with some of the smartest people I know, try to learn new things, and its often people I’ve had sustained conversations with a group of friends or people you work with”
“When i look back on my younger self, I was very competitive, but it comes at the expense at other things. I’ve been more self-aware about competition and rivalries, everyday it is something to reflect on, how do I become less competitive so that I can become more successful in accomplishing my goals.”
“The question of technology is critical, there is an alarmist and hopeful part of this book. If we do not innovate more, we will have a bleak 21st centuries. There are many great secrets left to be unlocked.”
Check out Peter Thiel’s book Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future published by Crown Business.
I recently listened to Tim Ferriss’ Interview with Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal and Palantir. Below are a set of quotes from the interview which I paraphrased.
“Technology is more important than globalization. Technology is the main driver for progress in the 21st century”
“Most people believe that capitalism and competition are synonyms, they are antonyms. Capitalist is someone who consumes capital, in a perfectly competitive world all the capital is competed away”
“There is no need to wait. You don’t have to wait to start something, if you have a 10 year plan ask why can’t I do this in 6 months? It’s worth asking if that’s a story you tell yourself or if its real.”
“Failure is overrated. People don’t learn much from failure. Ends up being damaging and demoralizing. The death of every business is a tragedy. It’s neither Darwinian or educational. It’s always a tragedy.”
“Zuck, Musk, Besos, are relentless. They have vision and hard work.”
“Bitcoin struggles with issue of creating a new currency. Bitcoin succeeded in creating a new currency but not a payment system. To succeed it will need to become a payment system.”
“Once you have a trend you have many people doing it. You don’t want to be part of a popular crowd in business. You want to be a first mover. A sense of mission is better, working on a unique problem people aren’t solving elsewhere. Unique missions are much preferred over trends.”
“The real reason people spray and pray (diversify their investments) is because they lack conviction and are too lazy to figure out what companies will work. That sort of approach makes it as treating companies as lottery tickets. It’s a bad thing morally, and bad as an investor. Once we are thinking in lottery ticket terms, you can lose money. Being concentrated allows you much larger conviction.”
“The problem I’m most passionate about is making progress against aging and death. We are doing little to solve this problem. People are either in denial, or acceptance, both of which are passive ways of dealing with it. WE should spend much more time fighting death.”
“There is no one size fits all for unemployment. A reasonable approach involves carefully looking at why they are there. Want to approach it with granularity. Need to find a way for more growth, is the US economy was growing at 4% a year these problems would be solved. We’ve had growth of 1-2%, which will not reduce structural unemployment. Anything we can do to increase technological innovation will increase the economic growth.”
“There is something strange about the most talented people doing the same things, going to the best colleges. I was guilty of this myself, its possible I would do it again, but I would ask questions of why I am doing this. Because its prestigious, or because I’m passionate about practicing law”
“The fundamental philosophical question is important for all of us. What do people agree by consensus, and what is actually true. We never want to let convention be a shortcut to truth. Tell me something true that very few people agree with you on.”
“Trying to think for yourself and break through convention is more important than anything.”
“I’m skeptical of education, or credentialing, is college a 4 year party? An investment? Engineering as a discipline cuts against the banality of education, which is a paradigm for how the future should be. The big track institutions deliver less and less and charge more and more.”
“Getting salvation through getting a college diploma is akin to salvation through investing in the church. IF you don’t get a college diploma you are going to go to hell.”
“One thing i try to do every day is to have a conversation with some of the smartest people I know, try to learn new things, and its often people I’ve had sustained conversations with a group of friends or people you work with”
“When i look back on my younger self, I was very competitive, but it comes at the expense at other things. I’ve been more self-aware about competition and rivalries, everyday it is something to reflect on, how do I become less competitive so that I can become more successful in accomplishing my goals.”
“The question of technology is critical, there is an alarmist and hopeful part of this book. If we do not innovate more, we will have a bleak 21st centuries. There are many great secrets left to be unlocked.”
Check out Peter Thiel’s book Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future published by Crown Business.