All Summer in a Day
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Peter Thiel- erutuF ehT oT kcaB
An interesting interview with libertarian, tech entrepreneur and new venture investor Peter Thiel. And also a curious article on what Thiel's up to in New Zealand. Here's the intro/ bio from the National Review, with links for the National Review interview and NZ Herald article following:
Peter Thiel may be most famous for his role (portrayed by Wallace Langham in The Social Network) as the venture capitalist who gave “The Facebook” the angel investment it needed to really launch. Before that, Thiel was known in Silicon Valley circles as the “Don of the PayPal mafia,” (his official role at the e-commerce site was founder and CEO), and more generally for his centrality as an investor in tech startups. Now, Thiel serves as the president of Clarium Capital, a hedge fund that (though it has suffered recently) made extravagant gains by betting against the housing market in 2007.
Though he’s primarily a businessman, Thiel has dabbled in libertarian activism. Most recently, he caused a stir by establishing the Thiel Fellowship, which will select 20 college students under the age of 20 and pay them $100,000 each to drop out of college and embark on entrepreneurial careers. Thiel is also an intellectual of astonishing breadth and depth who finds time, while running a major hedge fund, to produce thought pieces that survey the Western Canon, the geopolitical landscape, and financial economics at a gallop (such as this one for the Hoover Digest).
NRO’s Matthew Shaffer spoke with the philosopher-CEO in a wide-ranging conversation about net neutrality, the higher-education bubble, the future of seasteading, income inequality, why the wealthy have gone blue, Leo Strauss, and more. Thiel wants to take us back to the future, to once again, like in the 1950s, imagine how innovation — technological and otherwise — can radically improve our lives.
National Review Peter Thiel interview.
NZ Herald article.
Peter Thiel may be most famous for his role (portrayed by Wallace Langham in The Social Network) as the venture capitalist who gave “The Facebook” the angel investment it needed to really launch. Before that, Thiel was known in Silicon Valley circles as the “Don of the PayPal mafia,” (his official role at the e-commerce site was founder and CEO), and more generally for his centrality as an investor in tech startups. Now, Thiel serves as the president of Clarium Capital, a hedge fund that (though it has suffered recently) made extravagant gains by betting against the housing market in 2007.
Though he’s primarily a businessman, Thiel has dabbled in libertarian activism. Most recently, he caused a stir by establishing the Thiel Fellowship, which will select 20 college students under the age of 20 and pay them $100,000 each to drop out of college and embark on entrepreneurial careers. Thiel is also an intellectual of astonishing breadth and depth who finds time, while running a major hedge fund, to produce thought pieces that survey the Western Canon, the geopolitical landscape, and financial economics at a gallop (such as this one for the Hoover Digest).
NRO’s Matthew Shaffer spoke with the philosopher-CEO in a wide-ranging conversation about net neutrality, the higher-education bubble, the future of seasteading, income inequality, why the wealthy have gone blue, Leo Strauss, and more. Thiel wants to take us back to the future, to once again, like in the 1950s, imagine how innovation — technological and otherwise — can radically improve our lives.
National Review Peter Thiel interview.
NZ Herald article.
Friday, January 21, 2011
So You Thought It Was Cold ?
Geoff Mackley throws a cup of boiling water into the air at Oymyakon, Siberia, the coldest permanently inhabited place on earth, on February 1, 2004 while the temperature stood at -53°F (-47°C). The water converted to ice crystals before reaching the ground. . . . . Where can I buy one of those suits ?? Ripped from WeatherUnderground:
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Wrongolgy
Back in August last year, I posted on Kathryn Schultz's Infectious Talks interview. Here she is with a recent presentation at PopTech, talking about faulty recollections, fallibility of memory, how people work out if their wrong, how they react to knowing their wrong, being wrong and not yet realising it, and flash-bulb memory:
Bigger picture on Vimeo here.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
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