Peter Thiel and the Singularity
I was at the DreamIt funding day demos today (which was great) and I was talking with some of the guys about the Singularity. Most of them didn’t know what it is, but a few of them did. Still, the ones that knew about it didn’t totally buy into it - they said it hadn’t really made an impact on their day-to-day decisions. I told them that it has totally changed my thinking.
And so now I am reading this article about Peter Thiel, and “the Paypal Mafia”, and I read this quote from Elon Musk:
“Peter, Max, and I are not directly aligned philosophically,” he says. “Peter’s philosophy is pretty odd. It’s not normal. He’s a contrarian from an investing standpoint and thinks a lot about the singularity. I’m much less excited about that. I’m pro-human.”
That made me laugh.
Peter also has a hedge fund, Clarium Capital, which is doing really well. He’s also a tournament chess master (currently rated 2287 USCF and 2199 FIDE). He hasn’t really played recently - his last big match was the 104th US Open in LA 5 years ago - but it looks like he only played two games and then dropped out (he won both of the games).
The oldest tournament record that USCF has for Thiel is the Mc Ilrath Memorial in Burlingame, CA way back in 1992. He went 5-0 to take clear 1st place.
By the way, I totally agree with his view of chess:
“Taken too far, chess can become an alternate reality in which one loses sight of the real world,” he says. “My chess ability was roughly at the limit. Had I become any stronger, there would have been some massive tradeoffs with success in other domains in life.”
I think it is a great tool for analytical thinking and strategy training. But it takes a lot of time and thought and eventually you need to be productive and put away the pieces and apply that training. Plus, there’s no money in it. And computers are way better. But it is great for children and young adults and it is a very beautiful game.
