Specialisation leads to extinction. We are learning more and more but about less and less, and one day we will know everything about nothing. There is nothing wrong with being a populist. It does not have to mean dumbing down, as people think.
Originally asked
Peter Thiel, to job candidates, Zero to One, chapter 1, 2014
Peter Thiel, Zero to One, chapter 1, where it is introduced as his job-interview question. Thiel supplies his own standard: a good answer takes the form "most people believe x, but the truth is the opposite of x."
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
personal website, Derek Sivers source ↗
Others on this question
View all 42 →Well, I'd say that I'm actually optimistic about the future of our country. That's not a sentiment most people share today. Especially on the Right, it's increasingly common to feel pessimistic about America. You know, to be 'blackpilled', as they say online. And it's understandable – I too see all the chaos and destruction this Regime is inflicting on our country and the American people. But I really do believe that we can get the pendulum to swing back our way, that we can win this fight and rebuild America. That's why I'm running for office.
Everything man does creates more harm than good. We have to accept that fact and not delude ourselves into thinking something is sustainable.
Science for me is a language of peace and the only one I know which is absolutely international. I can talk to a UK scientist or any scientist worldwide about my research and they understand exactly what I am talking about. We may even find an area of mutual interest to collaborate on and together we can make an even greater impact on the world around us.
More from Derek Sivers
View profile →How do you know when it’s done? I think the real key is just asking yourself, would I be proud of this? Am I ready to release it? And I love the double meaning of that word. Release. I release an album, I release a book. You let go of it. It belongs to the world. Now it’s out of your hands.
So for years I kept calling myself an entrepreneur until one day I realized like, wait a second, this is expired! Like somebody who is an athlete in high school can’t keep calling himself an athlete forever.
When I was 19, my boss in the circus – I worked in the circus for 10 years. I was, like, a ringleader, MC of a circus – and my boss at the circus really cared about me and she said, "I read this book called 'Awaken the Giant Within' by Tony Robbins.
I love days where I just work uninterrupted from 6am to 10pm, stopping just for a little exercise. These are my favorite days, and always have been.
The proudest achievement of my life at that time was that software. Wonderfully organized, extensible, and efficient: the culmination of everything I’d learned about programming in ten years. After a successful relaunch and Christmas rush, I was looking at my plan for 2008 and beyond. All my plans needed a huge effort for little reward, but were required for future growth. I had broken it into about 20 projects, each taking 2 to 12 weeks. But I wasn’t excited about any of them.
In the end, I had to pay $3.3 million dollars to buy back that 90%.
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