In his new book, Zero to One, he writes,
Whenever I interview someone for a job, I like to ask this question: “What important truth do very few people agree with you on?”
My answer would be that I believe that the Fed has very little influence on inflation and interest rates. I think it is fair to say that very few people agree with me on that.
His rationale for asking the question is that if you cannot be truly contrarian, then you cannot be an innovator.
You should read Thiel along with my own Under the Radar. We are similar in our characterization of the business environment, and yet we are polar opposites in terms of where we favor positioning oneself within it. Also, perhaps read Joel Kotkin on The New Class Conflict (which I have not read) and decide to what extent Thiel exemplifies what Joel Kotkin calls the Tech Oligarchy.
Under the Radar looks interesting. Have you ever read Amar Bhide’s Origin and Evolution of New Businesses? It focuses specifically on those businesses that fall in that zone under venture capital level but bigger than the typical sole proprietor business.
I used Bhide’s book in writing Under the Radar. I also have a review of Bhide’s book up on Amazon.
What I’d like to see everyone have to answer, in order to get admission to the internet, is:
“What important truth would cause your colleagues to disown you if you said it publicly?”
Wow. You don’t live very far out there on the edge, do you?
Important truths, to me: immigration is hurting the low-skilled people in this country (https://educationrealist.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/just-a-job/) , we ignore the realities of cognitive ability in our education policy (http://educationrealist.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/what-causes-the-achievement-gap-the-voldemort-view/), unassimilated first and second generation Chinese, Koreans, and Indians might be smarter, but they sure cheat a lot (https://educationrealist.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/asian-immigrants-and-what-no-one-mentions-aloud/). Oh, and the reason we don’t have many black high school teachers is because the tests are too hard and they have better, higher paying options that aren’t really available to whites. (http://educationrealist.wordpress.com/2014/09/21/the-available-pool/#comments)
Of course, Peter Thiel would boot me out of the room with those answers. “Those ideas aren’t contrarian, they’re racist!”