8 Blog Posts by
Peter Thiel
eriktorenberg.substack.com
https://eriktorenberg.substack.com/p/the-world-according-to-peter-thiel
  • "We’ve spent 40 years wandering in the desert, and we think that it’s an enchanted forest. If we’re to find a way out of this desert and into the future, the first step is to see that we’ve been in a desert."
  • We've had this narrow cone of progress around the world of bits—around software & IT — but not atoms.
  • Economic growth is the only thing sustaining the planet. Without it, we go into a malthusian war.
  • Since the 1970s, the rate of economic growth has declined. Thiel's arguement: too much horizontal progress, at the expense of true innovation, or vertical progress
  • Horizontal progress: Taking the typewriter and copying it all over the world. Vertical progress: turning the typewriter into a word processor (Zero to One).
  • Thiel thinks 1. Over Regulation in the world of atoms, and 2. Culture are to blame.
  • 3 Possible frontiers to innovate: Cyberspace, Outerspace, Seasteading.
  • Asides/Other Signals
    • Tech portrayed as dystopian in pretty much all movies.
    • People are making money betting against progress. For example, Warren Buffet’s single best investment is in the railroad industry
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Saved to Progress Atoms & Bits Malthusian War Innovation Seasteading Peter Thiel Erik Torenberg
over 3 years ago