Peter Thiel on Stagnation, Innovation, and What Not To Name Your Company | Conversations with Tyler

Peter Thiel is among the most impressive innovators of the past two decades. As co-founder of Paypal and seed-funder for Facebook, Thiel has been instrumental in the conception and growth of some of today’s most entrepreneurial and innovative companies. In his latest best-selling book, Zero to One, Thiel explains how to build a better future by capitalizing on innovation. A staunch optimist, he maintains that progress can be achieved anywhere the human mind is able to think creatively. Thiel describes how entrepreneurial thinking leads to innovation, which builds something new and moves the mark from zero to one.

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[Optimatis]

This is easily the best Thiel interview. Other interviewers are less familiar with Thiel's ideas, so Thiel usually has to take over the interview and deliver his standard talking points about the world of bits vs. the world of atoms, zero to 1 vs. 1 to n, monopoly is good, etc. Cowen already knows all that stuff so instead they they were able to go into a lot of unexplored territory

[chaithanya]

2:40 Intro
3:40 Stagnation
6:00 How to get out of stagnation?
8:00 Have we become defeatist?
9:52 Are you optimistic about peak oil?
12:46 How do you interpret the original sin?
17:34 Is the contemporary world being shaped by eccentrics?
19:33 If you are judging talent, what undervalued trait do you look for?
21:22 What is the straussian reading of your book 0 to 1?
23:30 Advice for a 30 year old.
24:55 Does intellectual stagnation affect art?
26:13 How do you access japan?
28:00 Is x overrated? x \in {Keynes, New york, Japan, China, Brazil}
34:40 How to name a company?
37:00 Is the United States overrated?
37:28 e4 or d4?
38:05 How has being German influenced his worldview?
39:50 Extreme pessimism vs Extreme optimism
40:45 When do you think you'll die?
42:55 favorite novel?
43:16 New or old testament?
45:25 what are you planning to do next year?
46:10 Any advice?

48:50 QnA

[moritzschroder]

regardless of his opinions, thiel is one of the clearest thinkers i have ever heard. i get so inspired by him! i will try to let people like him reach even more people through my channel....

[anubhavashok]

Most insightful Thiel interview, Tyler Cowen did a great job

[peterc]

I'm glad this guy has the ear of the President.

That said, his point about company names is crazy. Once you hear a company name a few times, you lose the original meaning & start to think of it as its own thing. I never think of the Amazon jungle when I hear the company name Amazon, for example.

[gtboard]

Great one! Havent heard any Thiel interview lately!

[ultraverydeepfield]

15:15 social people belong to a group and they stay within that group. Deviation from the consensus can mean stress and establishing and discovering new concept takes time and effort. Basically, many people are happy when they flow with the flow.
Coming up with that new concept, investing time and effort, seldom can be shared with people that share the same idea or are persuaded to follow into a new but uncertain direction. It takes the ability to trust or the able or want to understand a vision.

40:00 in short. you have to believe that it is possible but it is going to be really difficult to achieve. This pessimism on the details actually makes you double check these details and decisions and the optimistic stance on the vision makes you execute these double checked details and decisions.

[LetondAtreides]

His views on Japan at least, seem to have changed significantly. The primitive copiers are no longer primitive copiers. Its not all just the "developed west" anymore.

[dddz]

What happened from 11:24 to 13:30? Technical malfunction so you resorted to a backup cell recording?

[nanothailand]

They are ones of the smartest people on earth.

[AM-hlgc]

Its amazing what time does to even such incredible minds in terms of understanding innovation.. when dividing innovation into the bit world and the atom world, even as a contrarian Petar views the institutional pillars of society as STATIC entities.We agree, they have been causing latency in overall innovation in the last 40 years, however by entirely separating it at the elementary level from any “bit world” influence he fails to see the subtle aggregating effect one “world” has on the other when it comes to governments - for example. Its taking longer then in the “bit world” (daa), but g2b and g2c models are bound to the same fate in terms of innovative opportunity and interest from entrepreneurs as any industry branch that might seems “hip” today such as transportation, services, finance etc. Even governments are limited in their wrong-doing by the (general lets say) awareness of the governed over time, so the question is what happens when such institutions stop being the problem and start being a catalyst again?

[harrison]

47:17 Substance over status
52:18 Non profit, social entrepreneurship, doing good, charity
53:00
1:00:32

[LetondAtreides]

Full body scans for improved health are doable now... Its a decent start.

[scottre]

Is there a better video available of this?  There appears to be some missing time especially towards the beginning when Peter is making some interesting initial points.

[MrSvenovitch]

I'd like to see these guys spend some time as 'worker bees', you know flipping burgers, working in an Amazon warehouse or dismantling IED's by the roadside in Iraq. What would a conversation sound like after that...especially considering that the best two of these jobs soon are up for automation...progress and all you know...getting out of the 'stagnation'

[shatzoren]

thiel investment => facebook => most massive intelectual stagnation since institutional religion arose => thiel is interviewed on stagnation

[jamesleonard]

53:56 Thiel claims the average plumber makes about as much as the average medical doctor. I'm confused as to how this example is viable in his argument there are plenty of alternative vocations that are often overlooked in favor of more trendy or prestigious ones.

[dantean]

If this is how their personal conversations go I'm avoiding Cowen in future if I'm him.

[matchbox]

Peter Thiel should push for the universal basic income.

[raylopez]

These men are geniuses.  They play chess.