Episode 028 Peter Thiel

Summary

• Peter Thiel is a serial tech founder, billionaire investor, and author of the book Zero to One.
• He believes that technology is more important than globalization and that capitalism and competition are antonyms.
• He wishes he had known that there was no need to wait to start something.
• Failure is massively overrated and is always a tragedy.
• He admires Mark Zuckerburg, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos for their relentlessness.
• He believes that for Bit Coin to succeed, it must be both a currency and a payment system.
• He advises against following popular trends as there is little differentiation and lots of competition.
• Peter Thiel believes that unique missions are preferable to trends when starting a company.
• He advises investors to focus on a few companies with high levels of conviction rather than treating companies as lottery tickets.
• He is passionate about making progress in the fight against aging and death.
• He believes that technology is the key driver for economic growth.
• He advises people to look at their individual circumstances when considering their career paths.
• He believes that it is important to question conventions and to always ask if something is true.
• Peter Thiel believes that people should think for themselves and break through convention, especially in Silicon Valley.
• He is skeptical of the abstraction of education and believes that people should focus on learning rather than credentialing.
• He believes that engineering is the opposite of education and is a paradigm for the future.
• Peter Thiel's daily habits involve having conversations with smart people to continue to develop his thinking.
• He would like to change his younger self's tendency to be overly competitive and focus on beating others rather than doing something important or valuable.
• The goal of his book, Zero to One, is to share the lessons he has learned in the technology industry and to encourage innovation in order to build a better future.