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

Mercatus Center1 HN recommenders · 2017–2021
140K views · interview · evergreen · Uploaded 2015-04-02

Tyler Cowen interviews Peter Thiel about technological stagnation, innovation, and lessons from Zero to One. The conversation ranges over business, startups and how Thiel thinks about progress.

HN people point to it as a strong interview and as the source of Thiel's stagnation thesis.

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3 comments from Hacker News

@simonsarris2017 · in “'Tooth repair drug' may replace fillings”

Pessimistically, that name is "Stagnation Hypothesis" (edit, oops the term Peter Thiel/Tyler Cowen like is "Great Stagnation." See: [VIDEO] )

@emsy2020 · in “List of Peter Thiel's Online Writings”

This is the video I was referring to: [VIDEO] As a sibling reply already mentioned, it's an interview with Tyler Cowen who does a terrific job at interviewing Peter. I don't have specific search phrases because I stumbled upon this interview by lucky accident.

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@waterfowl2021 · in “The Rise of the Thielists”

PT says interesting and thoughtful stuff. A thing I dislike about much of his coverage, including in this piece, is how much is surface level ad hom of various people who have talked to him, or supported him, or he has supported, e.g. in this article moldbug "far right blogger" or rubin "mainstay of intellectual dark web" etc, which don't really engage with what these people are saying, or with the fact that a 2 party electoral system tends to put everyone left/right of center on the same side. Even getting outed by a tabloid, which is viewed in the LGBT community as a deeply uncool thing, especially 20 years ago, is framed as unsympathetic for PT - he is a meanie for being motivated to stick up for a revenge porn victim based on this tabloid's later behavior. I liked zero to one and I enjoyed reading this pasted together google doc[1] of things he's said, which I think are largely from his Tyler Cowen mercatus center interview[2]. Given the current GOP, becoming a "thielist" progress oriented thoughtful party would certainly be an upgrade, right? Build the future, be less stagnant, etc? [1] [LINK] [2] [VIDEO]