Wow, I’ve really been flying through books recently. Just thought I should mention that I’m looking for recommendations for audio books; bonus points for books that are short. Anyway....
Book Review: Zero to One
Peter Thiel is the most famous contrarian in Silicon Valley. I really enjoyed hearing someone argue against the common wisdom of the valley. Most people think in terms of beating the competition; Thiel thinks in terms of establishing a monopoly so that there is no competition. Agile methodology and the lean startup are all the rage, but Thiel argues that this only leads to incremental improvements and that truly changing the world requires you to commit to a vision. Most companies was to disrupt your competitors, but for Thiel this means that you’ve fallen into competition, instead of forging your own unique path. Most venture funds aim to diversify, but Thiel is more selective, only investing in companies that have billion dollar potential. Many startups spurn marketing, but Thiel argues that this is dishonest and that PR is also a form of marketing, even if that isn’t anyone’s job title. Everyone is betting on AI replacing humans, while Thiel is more optimistic about human/ai teams.
Some elaboration is in order, I’ll just mention that might prefer to read the review on Slatestarcodex instead of mine (https://slatestarcodex.com/20…/…/31/book-review-zero-to-one/) • Aren’t monopolies bad? Thiel argues that monopoly power is what allows a corporation to survive the brutal world of competing to survive. This means that it can pay employees well, have social values other than making profit and invest in the future. Read Scott’s review for a discussion on how to build a company that truly is one of a kind. • Thiel argues that monopolies try to hide that fact by presenting themselves as just one player in a larger industry (ie. Google presents itself as a tech company, instead of an internet advertising company, even that this aspect brings in essentially all the money), while those firms competing try to present themselves as having cornered an overly specific market (ie. isn’t clear that British food in Palo Alto is its own market as opposed to competing against all the other food chains) • In addition to splitting people into optimists and pessimists, Thiel splits people into define and indefinite. You might think that a “definite optimist” would be someone who is an optimist and 100% certain the future will go well, but what he actually means is that they are an optimist and they have an idea of what the future will look like or could like like. In contrast, an indefinite optimist would be an optimist who has no idea how exactly the world might improve or could change. • Thiel argues that startup returns are distributed according to a power law such that half of the return from a portfolio might be just one company. He applies it to life too; arguing that it’s better to set yourself up so that they’ll be one career that you’ll be amazing at, rather than studying generally so that there’ll be a dozen that you’d be only okay at. • While many in the valley believe in just building a product and figuring out how to sell it later, Thiel argues that you don’t have a product if you don’t have a way of reaching customers
I’m not involved in startups, so I can’t vouch for how good his advice is, but given that caveat, I’d strongly recommend it for anyone thinking of going into that space since it’s always good to have your views challenged. But, I’d also recommend it as a general read, I think that there’s a lot that’d be interesting for a general audience, especially the argument against acquired a broad undifferentiated experience. I do think that in order to get the most out of this, you’d need to already be familiar with startup culture; ie. minimum viable products, the lean startup, ect. as he kind of assumes that you know this stuff.
So should you read the book or just Scott’s review? The main aspect Scott misses is the discussion of power law distributions. This discussion is basically the Pareto Principle on steroids; when a single billion-dollar company could make your more profit than the rest of your investments combined all that matters is whether a company could be a unicorn or not (the essay Prospecting for Gold makes a similar point for EA https://www.effectivealtruism.org/…/prospecting-for-gold-o…/) But besides from that, Scott’s review covers most of the main ideas well. So maybe you could skip the book, but if you’re like me you might find that you need to read the book in order to actually remember these ideas. Besides, it’s concise and well-written.
Wow, I’ve really been flying through books recently. Just thought I should mention that I’m looking for recommendations for audio books; bonus points for books that are short. Anyway....
Book Review: Zero to One
Peter Thiel is the most famous contrarian in Silicon Valley. I really enjoyed hearing someone argue against the common wisdom of the valley. Most people think in terms of beating the competition; Thiel thinks in terms of establishing a monopoly so that there is no competition. Agile methodology and the lean startup are all the rage, but Thiel argues that this only leads to incremental improvements and that truly changing the world requires you to commit to a vision. Most companies was to disrupt your competitors, but for Thiel this means that you’ve fallen into competition, instead of forging your own unique path. Most venture funds aim to diversify, but Thiel is more selective, only investing in companies that have billion dollar potential. Many startups spurn marketing, but Thiel argues that this is dishonest and that PR is also a form of marketing, even if that isn’t anyone’s job title. Everyone is betting on AI replacing humans, while Thiel is more optimistic about human/ai teams.
Some elaboration is in order, I’ll just mention that might prefer to read the review on Slatestarcodex instead of mine (https://slatestarcodex.com/20…/…/31/book-review-zero-to-one/)
• Aren’t monopolies bad? Thiel argues that monopoly power is what allows a corporation to survive the brutal world of competing to survive. This means that it can pay employees well, have social values other than making profit and invest in the future. Read Scott’s review for a discussion on how to build a company that truly is one of a kind.
• Thiel argues that monopolies try to hide that fact by presenting themselves as just one player in a larger industry (ie. Google presents itself as a tech company, instead of an internet advertising company, even that this aspect brings in essentially all the money), while those firms competing try to present themselves as having cornered an overly specific market (ie. isn’t clear that British food in Palo Alto is its own market as opposed to competing against all the other food chains)
• In addition to splitting people into optimists and pessimists, Thiel splits people into define and indefinite. You might think that a “definite optimist” would be someone who is an optimist and 100% certain the future will go well, but what he actually means is that they are an optimist and they have an idea of what the future will look like or could like like. In contrast, an indefinite optimist would be an optimist who has no idea how exactly the world might improve or could change.
• Thiel argues that startup returns are distributed according to a power law such that half of the return from a portfolio might be just one company. He applies it to life too; arguing that it’s better to set yourself up so that they’ll be one career that you’ll be amazing at, rather than studying generally so that there’ll be a dozen that you’d be only okay at.
• While many in the valley believe in just building a product and figuring out how to sell it later, Thiel argues that you don’t have a product if you don’t have a way of reaching customers
I’m not involved in startups, so I can’t vouch for how good his advice is, but given that caveat, I’d strongly recommend it for anyone thinking of going into that space since it’s always good to have your views challenged. But, I’d also recommend it as a general read, I think that there’s a lot that’d be interesting for a general audience, especially the argument against acquired a broad undifferentiated experience. I do think that in order to get the most out of this, you’d need to already be familiar with startup culture; ie. minimum viable products, the lean startup, ect. as he kind of assumes that you know this stuff.
So should you read the book or just Scott’s review? The main aspect Scott misses is the discussion of power law distributions. This discussion is basically the Pareto Principle on steroids; when a single billion-dollar company could make your more profit than the rest of your investments combined all that matters is whether a company could be a unicorn or not (the essay Prospecting for Gold makes a similar point for EA https://www.effectivealtruism.org/…/prospecting-for-gold-o…/) But besides from that, Scott’s review covers most of the main ideas well. So maybe you could skip the book, but if you’re like me you might find that you need to read the book in order to actually remember these ideas. Besides, it’s concise and well-written.