What are "the really good ideas" that Peter Thiel says are too dangerous to mention?
Per Peter Thiel on the Future of Innovation:
You know, the ideas that are really controversial are the ones I don’t even want to tell you. I want to be more careful than that. 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. But the really good ideas are way more dangerous than that.
4 Answers
Palantir CEO Alex Karp has people who want to kill him and is forced to take radical precautions for safety.
This is probably the type of danger Thiel is talking about.
Taking the example further: Palantir is trying to make our surveillance future more palatable by being the company that defines it. If Thiel talked about that stuff in fine detail, he would probably be stalked by even more crazies than Karp.
He probably has business theses around other hot button issues like euthenasia, abortion, and recreational drugs. But the public (even Silicon Valley) is too conservative to have a serious conversation about these things.
This is probably the type of danger Thiel is talking about.
Taking the example further: Palantir is trying to make our surveillance future more palatable by being the company that defines it. If Thiel talked about that stuff in fine detail, he would probably be stalked by even more crazies than Karp.
He probably has business theses around other hot button issues like euthenasia, abortion, and recreational drugs. But the public (even Silicon Valley) is too conservative to have a serious conversation about these things.
This is pure speculation, but I believe he files the ideas as "dangerous" because they are at loggerheads with big business, government, banking, big pharma, the current landscape of higher education, etc.
To clarify, I don't mean that he wants to overthrow these institutions; I think he acknowledges (perhaps rightfully so) that the this-is-the-way-we've-alw
Look at Elon Musk: he's giving NASA—NASA!—a run for their money at SpaceX. Most people who had an idea or a hypothesis in that field would've written it off as unfeasible because of NASA's numerous advantages.
"Disruption" (I believe Thiel hates that word, ironically) is discouraged by large stodgy organizations. Some of which, like banking, have been around so long that the rules governing them have been bent in their favor.
This is my best guess as to what Thiel is referring to.
To clarify, I don't mean that he wants to overthrow these institutions; I think he acknowledges (perhaps rightfully so) that the this-is-the-way-we've-alw
Look at Elon Musk: he's giving NASA—NASA!—a run for their money at SpaceX. Most people who had an idea or a hypothesis in that field would've written it off as unfeasible because of NASA's numerous advantages.
"Disruption" (I believe Thiel hates that word, ironically) is discouraged by large stodgy organizations. Some of which, like banking, have been around so long that the rules governing them have been bent in their favor.
This is my best guess as to what Thiel is referring to.
Haven't read his book (through the talk has made me put it on my reading list), but:
The bit about "the monopoly idea" being a hint is straightforward enough -- if you made a list of what you'd have to do to successfully sustain a monopoly business over the long term, I'd bet some of the things he's (not) talking about would be pretty high on the list. I think that largely fits with what Jeff Meyerson notes about Palantir in specific (though I'd be less sure about those particular conclusions).
Didn't watch the vid, but a quick burn through the transcript is pretty interesting, as I'd have expected a poker face but he doesn't seem to have much of one -- when he doesn't know the answer, he pretty much says so, when he does know but doesn't want to say, he goes broad.
The bit about "the monopoly idea" being a hint is straightforward enough -- if you made a list of what you'd have to do to successfully sustain a monopoly business over the long term, I'd bet some of the things he's (not) talking about would be pretty high on the list. I think that largely fits with what Jeff Meyerson notes about Palantir in specific (though I'd be less sure about those particular conclusions).
Didn't watch the vid, but a quick burn through the transcript is pretty interesting, as I'd have expected a poker face but he doesn't seem to have much of one -- when he doesn't know the answer, he pretty much says so, when he does know but doesn't want to say, he goes broad.
