

Peter Thiel: 21st Century Free Radical - prs
http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/11_07/b4215072350752.htm

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shadowsun7
_Marmer, who's launching a business consulting startup with two friends,
decided to apply for the fellowship as soon as he heard about it on Facebook.
(...) Marmer has informed his parents that, whether he wins a Thiel Fellowship
or not, he is dropping out of Stanford._

and

 _A month after meeting Thiel at the Palace of Fine Arts, Marmer has quit
school and moved out of his parents' home in San Francisco. He's living in the
pool house behind a friend's place in Atherton, near Palo Alto, where he and
his partners are working on a startup devoted to developing a "management
science" for boosting the success rate of other startups. "Have you seen The
Social Network? The house looks a little like that," Marmer says over the
phone in early January. "A few people who have come by have actually said,
'Oh, it's just like Facebook.' "_

Doesn't it strike anyone as weird that Marmer is an undergraduate, and is
dropping out of school to do a 'business consulting startup' as well as
developing a 'management science' to 'help other startups succeed'?

That coupled with the fact that he's moved into a 'pool house', and is
enamored with the similarity of his situation with the early Facebook, worries
me.

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zachallaun
I'm under 20, and given the opportunity (had I known about the Thiel
Fellowship before the application date, for instance), I likely would have
applied. $100k to drop out of school and create the Next Big Thing? Hell yeah.

But there's more to it than that. 20 Under 20, it seems, is meant to address a
fundamental flaw apparent in higher education, extricating from the "system"
bright young minds before they've become too institutionalized. I can't help
but wonder, though, if that's the best way to go about it.

My opinion is hardly as strong as Weisburg's, but if your goal is to address a
problem within a system, I'm not confident that the best method is to tear it
down and start from scratch. Thiel, however, seems to be doing this by
proposing that students should address this issue by simply not attending.

Personally, I'm working on a project while going to school. Over the summer, I
very well may decide not to come back. But I'm simply acting for my own
benefit. I'm not trying to change a system.

Then again, maybe the whole thing just needs to be torn down.

~~~
icandoitbetter
I don't understand the point you're trying to make.

>but if your goal is to address a problem within a system, I'm not confident
that the best method is to tear it down and start from scratch

What's a better method? Trying to work within the system in the hopes of
improving it? You seriously think there's any hope of changing the ancient
culture bubble of academia overnight?

He's not even attacking the system: he's offering motivated and talented
people a very attractive alternative option.

~~~
zachallaun
Of course there is no hope of changing it overnight. There is no hope of
rebuilding overnight either. I'm simply suggesting that you don't just rewrite
the code before trying to make changes within.

Of course, it's not difficult to argue that many have tried, and failed, to
make changes in the past, which is why I included that final sentence.

However, I do believe that he is implicitly attacking the system. This it's
where I trend to agree with Weinberg; A man of Thiel's influence may just set
a precedent.

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hoag
Having finally had the chance to attend last night's talk with Peter and Max
Levchin, I can say I was thoroughly impressed (by both of them). I believe he
(well, both of them, honestly) has a genuine desire to help improve the world
on multiple levels so frankly, even if any of his tactics seem a bit
unorthodox, so what.

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dsplittgerber
Wondering about the timing, since Forbes just did a cover story on Thiel:
[http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0214/features-peter-
thiel-...](http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0214/features-peter-thiel-social-
media-life-after-facebook_print.html)

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Charuru
Think YC offers as good if not better value than Thiel. It's sort of the same
thing, just less ideological.

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chrismealy
No women allowed:

[http://gawker.com/5231390/facebook-backer-wishes-women-
could...](http://gawker.com/5231390/facebook-backer-wishes-women-couldnt-vote)

~~~
dsplittgerber
Please keep these idiotic allegations off Hacker News, especially if you
apparently haven't read the original Cato post, where it's obvious what Thiel
meant and what he didn't mean. Gawker has been hating Thiel for some time.

I have seen this said about Thiel hundreds of times, and it's just not true.
He said that from a strictly Libertarian perspective - from the perspective of
political freedom - things 'went downhill' when women got the vote because
women tend to more consistently vote in favour of social programs and thereby
in favor of expanding the state and decreasing personal liberties, once those
programs get introduced via legislation. Therefore, he doesn't suggest to not
let women vote, as Gawkers "suggests", he just states his conviction that
times are difficult for libertarians.

Also, having written a book precisely about the difference between statements
being offensive and just being perceived as offensive by PC culture, all this
must make Thiel shake his head about the reading comprehension of the general
public.

~~~
fooandbarify
Thanks for the clarification. I still disagree with his view but it is
rationally presented in the Cato article (I should have followed the link
before writing an angry comment) and not bigoted as Gawker makes it seem.

~~~
ebaysucks
You don't agree women are more likely to vote for statist social programs?

Please provide some evidence for your disagreement.

