while it's true Thiel is quite obsessed with tech, I think it's a mistake to take his views too literally. On one hand he (occasionally) speaks of a need for more privacy; on the other, he has quite a long record in investing in literally privacy-destroying organizations like Clearview AI.
Thiel's intellectual pronouncements, however substantive, need to be contrasted with his role as a venture capitalist. And in that ex cathedra, if you will, it's more about buzz and hype than hard intellectual work. For a less politically fraught example, note his old boasts that he was going to completely upend drug discovery, that drug companies were weak and inefficient, etc. etc. His efforts failed -- no shame in that, necessarily, it's kind of in the job description.
But readers should accordingly realize that the tech stuff is less a straightforward piece of argumentation, imagination, advocacy -- good honest intellectual yeomanry -- and more part of advancing an image that works well in other fields. (There's an anonymous quote in Ross Douthat's book from an unnamed VC -- chiding Douthat that he doesn't really think what Silicon Valley is doing is "for real" -- that I've long thought is Thiel's.)
This is really fantastic stuff John, thanks.
while it's true Thiel is quite obsessed with tech, I think it's a mistake to take his views too literally. On one hand he (occasionally) speaks of a need for more privacy; on the other, he has quite a long record in investing in literally privacy-destroying organizations like Clearview AI.
Thiel's intellectual pronouncements, however substantive, need to be contrasted with his role as a venture capitalist. And in that ex cathedra, if you will, it's more about buzz and hype than hard intellectual work. For a less politically fraught example, note his old boasts that he was going to completely upend drug discovery, that drug companies were weak and inefficient, etc. etc. His efforts failed -- no shame in that, necessarily, it's kind of in the job description.
But readers should accordingly realize that the tech stuff is less a straightforward piece of argumentation, imagination, advocacy -- good honest intellectual yeomanry -- and more part of advancing an image that works well in other fields. (There's an anonymous quote in Ross Douthat's book from an unnamed VC -- chiding Douthat that he doesn't really think what Silicon Valley is doing is "for real" -- that I've long thought is Thiel's.)