I don't imagine this is a serious question, but… Speaking for myself, I read this article and have "listened to Thiel" on other occasions because he says interesting things.
"Something that’s true that very few people agree with you on." I read this and my mind immediately tried to come up with such truths so.. interesting.
"The goal of every successful business is to have a monopoly." What's interesting about this idea?
Monopolies are profitable. Companies like that. They're big, they like that too.
A 'Differentiation' strategy is a way of creating monopoly-like microeconomics for your business. Differentiation is usually the dominant strategy in technologically new industries while its opposite (penetration strategy: high volume, low cost) is usually the dominant strategy in mature industries like supermarkets, auto components and canned beans. That's interesting.
Full-blown monopolies often arise at the centre of disruptive new industries. Rails, energy, computing. Patents were originally created give monopolies as a reward for innovation. That's interesting.
So far, this monopolies thing seems to be an interesting idea.
Other than that, he does interesting things and says interesting things about them: Philanthropy, Seasteading, dropping out of college, anti-aging, book writing...
"Patents were originally created give monopolies as a reward for innovation."
That's a common misconception. The original reasoning for patents was to provide a limited (in time) monopoly to inventors in exchange for sharing (and describing in detail) their invention with the whole of society.
Interesting anecdote, afaik Gore & Associates, Inc.'s Goretex patent expired before it was universally used for outdoor clothing, thus any brand coukd release their own unlicensed goretex-like material. They have since stopped patenting many of their inventions afaik.
> The original reasoning for patents was to provide a limited (in time) monopoly to inventors in exchange for sharing (and describing in detail) their invention with the whole of society.
Some of the apparent ancient predecessors of patents may have been on this basis, and clearly that's the theory of the modern patent system in some parts of the world. But the origin of letters patent was really the whim of the monarch, and they may have been granted for sharing information, or just for sharing the proceeds of the monopoly with the crown.
"Something that’s true that very few people agree with you on." I read this and my mind immediately tried to come up with such truths so.. interesting.
"The goal of every successful business is to have a monopoly." What's interesting about this idea?
Monopolies are profitable. Companies like that. They're big, they like that too.
A 'Differentiation' strategy is a way of creating monopoly-like microeconomics for your business. Differentiation is usually the dominant strategy in technologically new industries while its opposite (penetration strategy: high volume, low cost) is usually the dominant strategy in mature industries like supermarkets, auto components and canned beans. That's interesting.
Full-blown monopolies often arise at the centre of disruptive new industries. Rails, energy, computing. Patents were originally created give monopolies as a reward for innovation. That's interesting.
So far, this monopolies thing seems to be an interesting idea.
Other than that, he does interesting things and says interesting things about them: Philanthropy, Seasteading, dropping out of college, anti-aging, book writing...