Zero to One – Peter Thiel
Takeaways from the book:
- What important truth do very few people agree with you on?
- People who have been playing the game a long time gain by things existing in the same way, but you can gain by thinking about a problem differently. They are all just rent collectors.
- Find bubbles by looking for untrue lingering old beliefs.
- Secrets exist. Leaders of sectors don’t say things because they don’t want their company to fail. What are people not allowed to talk about / information restricted / do not know enough about? e.g. nutrition, etc.
- Zero-to-one company is a conspiracy to change the world
- Competition is bad
- Google (monopoly) is worth 3x more than all airline companies combined (competition) because competition reduces profit. The more we compete, the less we gain.
- Fight for career advancement, paying more for academia, etc.
- Zero-to-one business, characteristics that it will be a monopoly
- e.g. Facebook or AirBnB using technology to change how we do things
- Proprietary tech, network effect, economies of scale (scalable without adding much, e.g. software), branding
- Start as a startup targeting a small niche and then dominate, don’t disrupt because it’s not good to directly compete with monopolies. Strong initial team. Good culture and mission.
- The power law
- When investing (choosing companies to invest in), don’t pick a wide basket like most VCs. You are not trying to win the lottery. You want to hedge in winners.
These are just ultra condensed pickings from the book. Some more meat and potatoes here.