October 11, 2016 at 14:28Peter Thiel: Of the six co-founders of PayPal, four collected bombs when they were schoolchildren
“Your brain is software. Program it. your body is a shell. Change it. Death is a disease. Be healed. Extinction is approaching. Fight him. ”
Today is the birthday of Peter Thiel, Don PayPal Mafia . He turned 49 years old.
His achievements:
Journalist: - Wikipedia says that you are a member of the managing committee of the Bilderberg Club. Is this true, and if so, what are you doing there? Organize secret world domination?
Peter Thiel: - It’s true, although everything is not so secret or secret that I couldn’t tell you. The bottom line is that there is a good dialogue between the different political, financial, media and business leaders of America and Western Europe. There is no conspiracy. And this is the problem of our society. There is no secret plan. Our leaders do not have a secret plan on how to solve all our problems. Perhaps secret plans are bad, but much more outrageous, in my opinion, is the lack of a plan in principle.
Under the cut - a few quotes on the key areas of Thiel. Let's try to track the thoughts of the great IT strategist.
“The first team I created was nicknamed“ PayPal Mafia ”in Silicon Valley due to the fact that many of my former colleagues subsequently helped each other, jointly launching successful technology firms and investing in them. In 2002, we sold PayPal to eBay for $ 1.5 billion. Since then, Elon Musk managed to found SpaceX and become the co-founder of Tesla Motors, Reed Hoffman became the co-founder of LinkedIn, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jod Karim jointly founded YouTube, Jeremy Stoppelman and Russell Simmons launched Yelp, David Sachs became the co-founder of Yammer, and I became the co-founder of Yammer Palantir. Today, the seven companies mentioned are valued at approximately $ 1 billion each. The small pleasures that PayPal office employees provided never attracted much attention from the press, but our team still works perfectly - both together and separately. Our corporate culture has been strong enough to take root far beyond the PayPal office. "We did not collect our mafia by organizing a resume contest or recruiting the most talented employees.”
“Time is your most valuable resource, and it’s stupid to spend it working with people who don’t see for themselves at least any long-term common future. If the result of time spent at work did not become stable friendships with colleagues, then you have invested your time in an illiterate way, even from a purely financial point of view.
From the very beginning, I tried to ensure that the relations between employees in PayPal were not formal, so that we became a tightly knit team. I believed that companionship would not only bring us satisfaction and contribute to effective work, but would also help us subsequently build more successful careers outside PayPal. Therefore, we tried to hire people who will sincerely enjoy working together. Of course, we expected that they would be talented, but it was even more important that they sincerely strive to work with us. This is how the PayPal “mafia” was formed. ”
“ Space is an endless space that provides endless opportunities for escape from the world of politics. ”
“Each business event occurs only once. New Bill Gates will not create an operating system. New Larry Page and Sergey Brin will not come up with a search engine. And the new Mark Zuckerberg will not build a social network. If you copy these guys, then you haven’t learned anything from them. ”
“ People tend to concentrate too much on horizontal development, while the step from 0 to 1 is really important. All great companies (Facebook, Palantir, SpaceX ) were able to complete it, the rest
did n’t. ” “ It is impossible to build a successful company if everyone a priori believes that it will be successful. The key question is formulated as follows: do you know something about the world, which is the absolute truth, but with which everyone else does not agree? ”
“Palantir - our second most profitable investment after Facebook - in turn, allowed us to earn more than the rest of the companies in total (minus Facebook, of course). This bias in the brought profits is quite natural: in our other funds the same picture is observed. The main secret of venture capital is that, if successful, the most successful of the fund's investments brings it not less, but often more, than all other investments combined. Two very strange rules for venture capitalists follow from this. Rule number one: invest only in companies that have enough potential to return you an amount comparable to the capital of your fund. This rule is scary for many, because it excludes the vast majority of possible candidates for investment, including quite successful companies, which, however, can only rely on more modest profits. Hence, rule number two follows: since the first rule puts you in a rather tight framework, no other rules should be followed. ”
“With perfect competition, no one makes money: all the profits go to continue the competition.”
“What makes a company that is able to attract cash flows not only today, but many years later? Each monopoly is unique, but, as a rule, has a set of characteristics from the following list: its own technology, network effect, economies of scale, brand. ”
“ Capitalism is based on the accumulation of capital, but perfect competition deprives capitalists of any profit, thereby presenting entrepreneurs with a simple and clear lesson: if you want to create and save income, do not build a business based on the production of goods that are no different from competitors' products. ”
“A creative monopoly is new goods and services that are profitable for everyone, without exception, and a steady stream of profit for their creator. “Competition is the lack of profit, the absence of any noticeable differences between market participants and the constant struggle for survival.”
“Maybe the leading universities in the world are only engaged in simply selecting talented people who would succeed in any case?” Or do they still provide them with a useful education? Unfortunately, this issue has never been studied thoroughly enough, so there are a lot of oddities in higher education. ”
“University teachers prefer to downplay the degree of fierce competition among students, but managers are another matter. They do not tire of reminding everyone and everyone that business is war. Students studying for MBA programs do not part with the works of Clausewitz and Sun Tzu. Belligerent metaphors permeate the everyday language of business: we use “bounty hunters” to “strengthen” and “strengthen” the staff of sales specialists who will help the company “conquer” a market “protected from competitors” and ultimately “achieve victory ". In fact, it is not business itself that reminds the war, but competition. "Its necessity is doubtful, the courage of the participants in the battles is not obvious, and the influence is undoubtedly crushing."
“I consider higher education a soap bubble, and a classic bubble. <...> The importance of higher education today is overestimated. If you try to objectively calculate its value, it becomes clear: people overpay for it. At the same time, everyone very sincerely believes in him. <...> I do not want to give advice. But I would say that it would be extremely useful for people who have already graduated from school and are now going to university, or just about to do it, to think about exactly what the teleology of education consists of, what its purpose is and where it leads. ”
“Everyone in the world needs money - to pay salaries, to trade, to live. Paper money is an ancient technology that today is not very suitable for these purposes. Paper money may run out. They can be lost. They can be stolen. In the 21st century, people need something more convenient and safe. Something you can always use if you have internet nearby. <...> In the future, PayPal will provide people around the world with direct control over the currency. And then corrupt governments can never rob them of their personal wealth. ”
“I no longer believe that democracy and freedom are compatible. <...> But if you think that the world is limited by politics, then it is easy to fall into despair. But I do not despair. I do not think that all the keys to our future are in the hands of politicians. The main task for the libertarians of our time is to find ways to flee from politics in all its forms - to flee from totalitarianism and fundamentalism, as well as from the power of thoughtless people and the so-called social democracy. ”
“At the beginning of the century, companies like Facebook created a space where people can form new communities that are not constrained by the historical boundaries of nations and states. The Internet gives hope that over time, a new reality will change the existing social and political order. But the Internet is limited in means - it is a virtual world and it offers only an illusory salvation. Which of these two forces will ultimately prevail is the main issue that will not be resolved for a very long time. ”
" Cosmos- This is an endless space that provides endless opportunities for escape from the world of politics. But there is one problem: since the 1960s, space technology has evolved extremely slowly, so the universe remains an inaccessible place for us. We must redouble our efforts to commercialize space, but we must remain realistic. "The Libertarian future described in the science fiction books of Robert Heinlein will not come before the second half of the 21st century."
“These technologies, of course, carry some threats. However, if you completely abandon them, everything will only get worse. If they are not developed by good people, evil people will do it. In my opinion, this is the perfect recipe for disaster. The only chance to crank something like this is to create a gigantic totalitarian state on the territory of the entire planet that will control all technological development. But it seems to me that Bill Joy was afraid of such a world. ”
“I do not think that death and life are inseparably connected in a certain eastern mystical sense. Every myth on this planet tells us that the purpose of life is death. I do not think this is true. I think the meaning of life is life. ”
“Striving to minimize risk is often the wrong way. To become great, you need to think about great plans. Always plan for the future. ”
“Modern science fiction is a symbol of the crisis of our ideas. Now she talks about technologies that either do not work at all, or are used with malicious intent. A brief summary of the fiction of the 1970s was as follows: "My robot friend and I walk on the surface of the moon." And today, everything looks something like this: "The galaxy is ruled by the confederation of fundamental Islamists, and some people destroy entire planets for pleasure."
Til recommends reading:
Publishing support - Edison , a company that develops corporate portals and video transfer applications .
PS And Peter Thiel in his youth played chess rather well.
Today is the birthday of Peter Thiel, Don PayPal Mafia . He turned 49 years old.
His achievements:
- Founded PayPal in 1998 with Max Levchin
- The first external investor Facebook ($ 500 thousand)
- In 2003, he founded the company Palantir
- Managing Partner at the Founders Fund
- Co-founder and chairman of the investment committee of Mithril Capital Management (late-stage investment fund)
- Since 2010, 30 students have been provided with $ 100,000 each to drop out of the university and go about their project (in 2014, invested in Ethereum)
- In 2015, became a partner of the Y Combinator startup incubator
Journalist: - Wikipedia says that you are a member of the managing committee of the Bilderberg Club. Is this true, and if so, what are you doing there? Organize secret world domination?
Peter Thiel: - It’s true, although everything is not so secret or secret that I couldn’t tell you. The bottom line is that there is a good dialogue between the different political, financial, media and business leaders of America and Western Europe. There is no conspiracy. And this is the problem of our society. There is no secret plan. Our leaders do not have a secret plan on how to solve all our problems. Perhaps secret plans are bad, but much more outrageous, in my opinion, is the lack of a plan in principle.
Under the cut - a few quotes on the key areas of Thiel. Let's try to track the thoughts of the great IT strategist.
Mafia
“The first team I created was nicknamed“ PayPal Mafia ”in Silicon Valley due to the fact that many of my former colleagues subsequently helped each other, jointly launching successful technology firms and investing in them. In 2002, we sold PayPal to eBay for $ 1.5 billion. Since then, Elon Musk managed to found SpaceX and become the co-founder of Tesla Motors, Reed Hoffman became the co-founder of LinkedIn, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jod Karim jointly founded YouTube, Jeremy Stoppelman and Russell Simmons launched Yelp, David Sachs became the co-founder of Yammer, and I became the co-founder of Yammer Palantir. Today, the seven companies mentioned are valued at approximately $ 1 billion each. The small pleasures that PayPal office employees provided never attracted much attention from the press, but our team still works perfectly - both together and separately. Our corporate culture has been strong enough to take root far beyond the PayPal office. "We did not collect our mafia by organizing a resume contest or recruiting the most talented employees.”
“Time is your most valuable resource, and it’s stupid to spend it working with people who don’t see for themselves at least any long-term common future. If the result of time spent at work did not become stable friendships with colleagues, then you have invested your time in an illiterate way, even from a purely financial point of view.
From the very beginning, I tried to ensure that the relations between employees in PayPal were not formal, so that we became a tightly knit team. I believed that companionship would not only bring us satisfaction and contribute to effective work, but would also help us subsequently build more successful careers outside PayPal. Therefore, we tried to hire people who will sincerely enjoy working together. Of course, we expected that they would be talented, but it was even more important that they sincerely strive to work with us. This is how the PayPal “mafia” was formed. ”
“ Space is an endless space that provides endless opportunities for escape from the world of politics. ”
Startups
“Each business event occurs only once. New Bill Gates will not create an operating system. New Larry Page and Sergey Brin will not come up with a search engine. And the new Mark Zuckerberg will not build a social network. If you copy these guys, then you haven’t learned anything from them. ”
“ People tend to concentrate too much on horizontal development, while the step from 0 to 1 is really important. All great companies (Facebook, Palantir, SpaceX ) were able to complete it, the rest
did n’t. ” “ It is impossible to build a successful company if everyone a priori believes that it will be successful. The key question is formulated as follows: do you know something about the world, which is the absolute truth, but with which everyone else does not agree? ”
“Palantir - our second most profitable investment after Facebook - in turn, allowed us to earn more than the rest of the companies in total (minus Facebook, of course). This bias in the brought profits is quite natural: in our other funds the same picture is observed. The main secret of venture capital is that, if successful, the most successful of the fund's investments brings it not less, but often more, than all other investments combined. Two very strange rules for venture capitalists follow from this. Rule number one: invest only in companies that have enough potential to return you an amount comparable to the capital of your fund. This rule is scary for many, because it excludes the vast majority of possible candidates for investment, including quite successful companies, which, however, can only rely on more modest profits. Hence, rule number two follows: since the first rule puts you in a rather tight framework, no other rules should be followed. ”
Monopoly
“With perfect competition, no one makes money: all the profits go to continue the competition.”
“What makes a company that is able to attract cash flows not only today, but many years later? Each monopoly is unique, but, as a rule, has a set of characteristics from the following list: its own technology, network effect, economies of scale, brand. ”
“ Capitalism is based on the accumulation of capital, but perfect competition deprives capitalists of any profit, thereby presenting entrepreneurs with a simple and clear lesson: if you want to create and save income, do not build a business based on the production of goods that are no different from competitors' products. ”
“A creative monopoly is new goods and services that are profitable for everyone, without exception, and a steady stream of profit for their creator. “Competition is the lack of profit, the absence of any noticeable differences between market participants and the constant struggle for survival.”
Education
“Maybe the leading universities in the world are only engaged in simply selecting talented people who would succeed in any case?” Or do they still provide them with a useful education? Unfortunately, this issue has never been studied thoroughly enough, so there are a lot of oddities in higher education. ”
“University teachers prefer to downplay the degree of fierce competition among students, but managers are another matter. They do not tire of reminding everyone and everyone that business is war. Students studying for MBA programs do not part with the works of Clausewitz and Sun Tzu. Belligerent metaphors permeate the everyday language of business: we use “bounty hunters” to “strengthen” and “strengthen” the staff of sales specialists who will help the company “conquer” a market “protected from competitors” and ultimately “achieve victory ". In fact, it is not business itself that reminds the war, but competition. "Its necessity is doubtful, the courage of the participants in the battles is not obvious, and the influence is undoubtedly crushing."
“I consider higher education a soap bubble, and a classic bubble. <...> The importance of higher education today is overestimated. If you try to objectively calculate its value, it becomes clear: people overpay for it. At the same time, everyone very sincerely believes in him. <...> I do not want to give advice. But I would say that it would be extremely useful for people who have already graduated from school and are now going to university, or just about to do it, to think about exactly what the teleology of education consists of, what its purpose is and where it leads. ”
Politics
“Everyone in the world needs money - to pay salaries, to trade, to live. Paper money is an ancient technology that today is not very suitable for these purposes. Paper money may run out. They can be lost. They can be stolen. In the 21st century, people need something more convenient and safe. Something you can always use if you have internet nearby. <...> In the future, PayPal will provide people around the world with direct control over the currency. And then corrupt governments can never rob them of their personal wealth. ”
“I no longer believe that democracy and freedom are compatible. <...> But if you think that the world is limited by politics, then it is easy to fall into despair. But I do not despair. I do not think that all the keys to our future are in the hands of politicians. The main task for the libertarians of our time is to find ways to flee from politics in all its forms - to flee from totalitarianism and fundamentalism, as well as from the power of thoughtless people and the so-called social democracy. ”
“At the beginning of the century, companies like Facebook created a space where people can form new communities that are not constrained by the historical boundaries of nations and states. The Internet gives hope that over time, a new reality will change the existing social and political order. But the Internet is limited in means - it is a virtual world and it offers only an illusory salvation. Which of these two forces will ultimately prevail is the main issue that will not be resolved for a very long time. ”
" Cosmos- This is an endless space that provides endless opportunities for escape from the world of politics. But there is one problem: since the 1960s, space technology has evolved extremely slowly, so the universe remains an inaccessible place for us. We must redouble our efforts to commercialize space, but we must remain realistic. "The Libertarian future described in the science fiction books of Robert Heinlein will not come before the second half of the 21st century."
“These technologies, of course, carry some threats. However, if you completely abandon them, everything will only get worse. If they are not developed by good people, evil people will do it. In my opinion, this is the perfect recipe for disaster. The only chance to crank something like this is to create a gigantic totalitarian state on the territory of the entire planet that will control all technological development. But it seems to me that Bill Joy was afraid of such a world. ”
“I do not think that death and life are inseparably connected in a certain eastern mystical sense. Every myth on this planet tells us that the purpose of life is death. I do not think this is true. I think the meaning of life is life. ”
“Striving to minimize risk is often the wrong way. To become great, you need to think about great plans. Always plan for the future. ”
Books
“Modern science fiction is a symbol of the crisis of our ideas. Now she talks about technologies that either do not work at all, or are used with malicious intent. A brief summary of the fiction of the 1970s was as follows: "My robot friend and I walk on the surface of the moon." And today, everything looks something like this: "The galaxy is ruled by the confederation of fundamental Islamists, and some people destroy entire planets for pleasure."
Til recommends reading:
- The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb.
- The New Atlantis, Francis Bacon.
- “The Right Thing,” Tom Wolfe.
- The Diamond Age, Neil Stevenson.
- “Sovereign Personality,” James Davidson.
Interesting articles
- The course of lectures "Startup". Peter Thiel. Stanford 2012. Lesson 1
- How Peter Thiel is going to live up to 120 years
- Palantir, PayPal mafia, special services, world government
- Peter Thiel on why higher education is overrated
- Peter Thiel: How to Build a Monopoly?
- How Peter Thiel distinguishes an insanely cool startup from an insane
- “No need to be true to yourself”: Peter Thiel’s speech to 2016 graduates
Publishing support - Edison , a company that develops corporate portals and video transfer applications .
PS And Peter Thiel in his youth played chess rather well.
Only registered users can participate in the survey. Please come in.
Is Peter Thiel related to Satoshi Nakamoto?
- 6.4% Yes, this is one face 9
- 22.8% Yes, Satoshi is the pseudonym for the PayPal Mafia special department 32
- 15.7% Connected, but very indirectly 22
- 49.2% No, not related 69
- 5.7% Other 8