Richard Waters reviews the Peter Thiel biography, in The Financial Times.
Political Observer comments.
Just why would the West Coast Editor of The Financial Time ever utter a bad word about a very successful Capitalist ? And a vindictive and querulous Capitalist, whose animus to those who dare to subject his genius, to any variety of critiques, could signal the end to a career?
Henry Luce used his Media Empire: Time, Life etc. in another time, to make war against his many political enemies, real and imagined. Mr. Thiel is just a more contemporary version of that Media Tycoon of another time.
Just a speculation, but perhaps Mr. Chafkin began to loath his subject, as much as the anonymous sources, who reported on this paranoid egoist?
Some selection from Mr. Richard Waters’ review are telling:
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His libertarian leanings have involved backing movements such as seasteading, which holds that living on a platform moored at sea offers one of the only routes to true freedom from government. That and other seemingly barmy ideas such as his interest in medical inventions to defeat death made Thiel the inspiration for a memorably messianic but naive character, an investor called Peter Gregory, in the HBO comedy show Silicon Valley. The libertarianism stands in notable contrast to business interests that have relied on activist government, including Palantir’s profiting from government surveillance.…
The readiness to attribute selfish, cynical or callous motives to Thiel robs his character of its complexity. Yes, his actions often seem Machiavellian — not least his secret funding of an invasion of privacy lawsuit that bankrupted the blogging empire Gawker — and Chafkin does a good job of highlighting the things that have contributed to this sinister persona. But many people cheered the demise of Gawker, which was frequently the target of litigation, and it seems harsh to undercut so much of what Thiel has stood for.Chafkin says he spoke to more than 150 people and most chose to remain anonymous out of fear, given Thiel’s “record for trying to hurt those who’ve attempted to uncover his secrets”. The result is an abundant use of unattributed quotes, which certainly help to spice up the story yet also generate a sense that scores are being settled behind the cloak of anonymity. This is one unnamed source summing up Thiel’s relationship with Tesla founder Elon Musk, which had been fraught since he was involved in a mutiny to force Musk out as CEO of PayPal: “Musk thinks Peter is a sociopath, and Peter thinks Musk is a fraud and a braggart.”
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https://www.ft.com/content/e2a46b3e-0c19-4a93-9cab-3d420882cd1a
The ‘Friends of Peter Thiel’ seems to be a very select group, if such even exists, given his ability to innovate and make money. Yet those talents are unattached to inspiring loyalty, producing long lasting relationships, both personal and professional. How can the most talented and innovative of ‘leaders’ ,still continue to flourish without a talent for team building, that inspires the indispensable ingredient of loyalty?
Political Observer