Why I don’t necessarily agree with Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel lies out his business fundamentals in a book called going from zero to one. This is regarded as a set of principles that thousands of entrepreneurs follow. He is the founder of Paypal and Palantir technologies, two very highly valued companies. After listening to many of his interviews, I have to admit that I don’t agree with the principles he has.

#1- Every Moment in the History of Technology Happens Once

Peter Thiel states that every moment in the history of technology only happens once. On some level, this may be true as there will not be another Facebook or Google. However, each titan of a certain industry lays out the woodwork for future innovators. For example, do you think that Tesla and Toyota would exist if Henry Ford had not started his company? Or would Snapchat and Instagram exist if Andrew Weinreich, a pioneer of social media had not laid out the groundwork?

Every single innovative company that has been founded recently has been due to the work of other pioneers of the industry. Even though one could argue that there will never be another Page or Musk, within the next century others will start companies based on the exact innovations that they created.

#2- There is No Science to Business

Thiel also stated that there is no science to business. Although it seems like this cannot be wrong, multiple practices such as Game Theory and Economics might prove this wrong. Although one might think that Thiel might have not meant it literally, he said “science is experimentally verifiable” and that business is not. However, economics highlights certain trends in company growth and game theory has different concepts such as Nash Equilibrium that may lead you to a preferred outcome. These have been proved thousands of times and show exact results. Even mixed strategy equilibrium (another game theory concept) can show you your competitors’ percentage chances of choosing an outcome. These are scientific concepts that are statistically proven.

#3- Progress Comes from Monopoly, not Competition

Peter Thiel famously said that progress comes from monopoly, not competition. However, I cannot agree with this. If a company was a monopoly, it would have no desire to innovate or improve their products. For example, if Apple did not have any competitors, they would create a new suite of devices every single year.

All in all, Peter Thiel is a genius investor. However, some of his principles are not applicable to all businesses.