11 Big Takeaways From Peter Thiel’s Book Zero To One
When you unpack Peter Thiel’s ideas about innovation and business, you see that the mainstream education system is discordant with what we need to cultivate in society. His book Zero to One came out in 2014 and operates as a how-to manual for business that is not formulaic (for reasons you’ll learn about below). I know what you’re thinking
Peter Thiel’s Thoughts On The Education Bubble
Peter Thiel is one of the Co-Founders of PayPal and a key member of the ‘PayPal Mafia’ who went to go on and dominate the startup world, creating companies like Youtube, Tesla, SpaceX, LinkedIN and many others. He’s also the Co-Founder of Palantir, the first outside investor in Facebook and the author of Zero to One (2014). As we’ll discuss today and on the With Joe Wehbe Podcast, he’s also the creator of The Thiel Fellowship, which gives young people $100,000 to quit college for a year and go work on their ideas. There are entrepreneurs and their are entrepreneurs
Applying Antifragile and Nassim Taleb’s Ideas to Education, Learning and Career
Okay this blog post is not like the usual stuff you get from me — it will probably require patience and note-taking. It corresponds with a mini-series on the With Joe Wehbe Podcast to do with Nassim Nicholas Taleb, whose books are pretty hard to read especially for young people! Check out the podcast here — the Taleb series starts from episode 181. I want to spend time on the podcast unpacking great thinkers about education, learning and careers and I wanted to start with Taleb. Taleb is a very entertaining, intellectually sassy figure known in particular for his epic books and ideas
Pod Crew 17/12/21… Top Four Takeaways
Want to improve education? Make peer-based interactions, projects and real experiences the centre, not the shepherding of information. One of my favourite initiatives to come out of the Constant Student Community is a Thursday call where a very small group from the community gathers together to unpack our podcast projects and level up. Alongside me, it’s Liam Hounsell and James Fricker. Below are my top four takeaways from the recent week’s installment. 1/ A new rule: 10%-20% friction limit. 2/ Another key takeaway — story > niche. All the conventional wisdom says to find a niche, but James, Liam and I all realised something on
What is it that I’m trying to do?
A simple life for all In 18 & Lost? So Were We, I wrote about my life after leaving high school, and the feeling of being lost, the feeling of going through the motions. I’m 27 years old at time of writing. Those years feel like a lifetime ago, and that boy who lived them feels like a stranger to me. We are, each of us, the culmination of our stories — those stories crystallise how we’ve interpreted and encoded the events of our lives. Though it’s never too late to re-write your story, those earlier pages will always be part of it. When
How to Win the Game
They raced ahead and made it further up the mountain. But when they looked back, all they saw was the trail of destruction they left in their wake to get there. The path was lined with the skeletons of all those they climbed over. At that moment they longed to go back and try again, but it was too late. Their time had been spent. I didn't reach the peak of the mountain they climbed. I found a detour, and followed it. Suddenly I came to a quiet opening that looked out over a peaceful valley. Creatures surrounded me and chirped away, and the wind whistled
The 16 Benefits of Private vs. Open Communities
For 2017 I invested more than $10K to participate in private online communities (more than $15K if you include the associated travel and related expenses). For 2018 my investment has already exceeded $30K, and I’m looking to bump it to $40-50K within the next several months. — Steve Pavlina Today I dissect a long-form, incredibly high quality blog post by Steve Pavlina from 2018 called 'The Rise of Private Communities' — for Pavlina, the investment he'd made into private communities was better than Bitcoin. Earlier this year Scott McKeon and I established a private community called The Constant Student, and I've
What will you tell the world, that it’s not ready to hear?
Galileo Galilei spent the end of his life under house arrest, after violating the belief system of his time. The Roman Catholic Church imprisoned him as retribution for his scientific findings of heliocentrism — that the earth revolved around the sun. It defied what people at the time believed. I write of The Eiffel Tower Principle — the historic landmark also faced kickback and criticism from the French community who couldn't forsee what a wonderful gift it would be. I use this example to break down how and why people resist innovation at first. It took Einstein years to have his ideas adopted. In
The Owen Wilson Test
How do you know when your work is good enough? Keeping your personal standards high is a pretty good start. Beyond that, I use a cheat called The Owen Wilson Test. As in the famous Hollywood actor who often says 'WOWWWW' in films. (See here). An emotive, heartfelt 'WOWWWW'. When I send a writing piece or advertising idea to a friend I wait to see if it garners a WOWWWW reaction from them. People will not ask you 'is this the very best you can do?' and they won't always be conscious of what your very best is. So when something is just okay, they'll say 'that's good!' But
Stacking the Upside — have you made the most of your opportunity?
Stacking the upside is a principle that has been central to my life for the last four to five years. The 'upside' is what you stand to gain in a situation — stacking it means piling up what you will gain. I'll give you examples below from my own personal business, learning, education and career journeys. The next examples are just to ensure that the basics are clear. If you were going to choose between two properties to buy as an investment, one which is expected to grow in value at 5% per year, and another at 10%, the one with 10%