I’m surprised that Thiel doesn’t engage more directly the hypothesis that for the last century (or perhaps century and a half), the living standards in the Western world have been determined by the race between rapid technological progress and somewhat less rapid degradation in the quality of government.
I think this is intentional.
Your speech in Aspen last month argued that technological change was stagnating, especially in energy. What’s the solution? Is it that progress in energy is more difficult than progress in, say, chip design, so we have to be more patient?
Thiel: It goes back to the why-things-have-slowed-down question, which is the one that I’ve tried to avoid.
Unfairly tried to avoid?
Thiel: I’m not sure it’s unfair. Because as soon as you get to the “why” question, it gets much more controversial. It makes people lose sight of the what, which is the thing I want people to pay attention to. I think that if we could get people to agree that there’s a really big problem in innovation, then we can have a constructive conversation on what to do about it. As soon as we fixate people on why there’s been an innovation slowdown, if you’re on the right you can blame environmentalism, if you’re on the left you can blame Reagan and financial engineering. And we don’t even get to the question of whether a slowdown has happened. That’s why I’m somewhat resistant to going straight to the ideological or political question.
I hadn’t seen that interview before (link), thanks for the pointer. Yes, this does explain why Thiel’s article reads like it’s uncomfortably skirting around the issue.
I think this is intentional.
I hadn’t seen that interview before (link), thanks for the pointer. Yes, this does explain why Thiel’s article reads like it’s uncomfortably skirting around the issue.