What You'll Learn:
According to Silicon Valley all-star Peter Thiel, there are two ways that the world can develop: by copying products and following norms that already exist, or by creating entirely new things. Doing what’s already familiar and comfortable moves the world from 1 to n; where n is the number of improvements to an old model. In other words, it builds on what’s already been discovered. By contrast, new creations take us from 0 to 1, opening new worlds of possibility. It is the entrepreneurs with the 0 to 1 mentality, those unwilling to rest on their predecessors’ laurels, who will move the world forward.
Key Insights:
- Globalization is an unsustainable model for improving the world; what we need are technological advancements.
- Competition and capitalism are actually opposites.
- Competition is an ideology—not a necessity.
- Hipsters hold the same mistaken assumptions about the future that the Unabomber did.
- Numerous factors have wrongly convinced us that there’s nothing left to be discovered, but nature and human nature remain full of secrets.