Conversations with tyler peter thiel11/20/2023 ![]() " The goal of every successful business is to have a monopoly." What's interesting about this idea? " Something that’s true that very few people agree with you on." I read this and my mind immediately tried to come up with such truths so. I don't imagine this is a serious question, but… Speaking for myself, I read this article and have "listened to Thiel" on other occasions because he says interesting things. We want to preserve the ability of new entrants to come into the market with superior products and overtake monopolies. It is a bad thing if a company has monopoly power through something other than being a superior company, is capable of preventing new entrants, and is uncreative. A competitive market in the sense of having low profit margins is very different from a competitive market in the sense of whether or not new entrants can come in and compete. If a company becomes a monopoly, we want them to be a creative monopoly. We don't want to discourage companies from attempting to obtain monopolies in their markets, since this gives them to opportunity to capture monopoly profits. We want competition because it allows nefarious monopolies (and other companies) to be overtaken by better companies. A more nuanced position should entail something like the following: There are nefarious monopolies like Comcast that are insulated from competition because of an unfair advantage. I think he should have been clearer about distinguishing creative monopolies and what we commonly consider monopolies, in the negative sense. His point about monopolies is widely misquoted and causing a lot of confusion. I mean, the life of a wealthy person nowadays is, I suppose, absolutely awesome, and it does not require very advanced tech to be so. ![]() If the goal is to improve life, there are other ways to do that rather than waiting for technological miracles. So, staying young and healthy until you reach say 100? Meh. A healthy human body is not something new. ![]() Maybe it's because I'm relatively healthy, but I believe it's also because most people are healthy, so if suddenly everybody was, it would only be a quantitative change, not a qualitative one. And it seems that the slow pace of progress in this area, when compared to progress in IT, frustrates him. I mean, for instance he's very much into medicine, including anti-ageing medicine. But isn't it possible to be interested in technology for the sake of it, for the "wow" factor only? Thiel seems to hope and expect technological progress to improve people's lives, and this seems to be the main drive for his interest in technology. ![]()
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