As part of my research for Wanting, I compiled a list of anything Peter Thiel, Girard’s most famous student, had said publicly about his Stanford professor’s ideas. Now I’m sharing a partial list with you.
The list is not exhaustive. Thiels’ book, Zero to One, is shot through with mimetic theory from start to finish. This list also doesn’t include the many things (like Thiel’s The Straussian Moment speech and resulting essay) for which public, copyright-free links do not exist.
The worst monopolies are monopolies on ideas. No one thinker should have a monopoly on the interpretation of Girard. In my view, it’s problematic that the weighted value that many ascribe to Thiel’s opinions is greater than the value ascribed to the thousands of scholars and thoughtful people around the world (who are assimilating mimetic theory into their lives) combined—if people are even aware of them.
This is a consequence of something I refer to in Wanting as the “Cult of Experts.” A billionaire is able to affect people at a metaphysical level, even from afar, in a way that an English professor at a small college in the Midwest cannot. It can lead to distortions in the way that we process and evaluate the importance of knowledge. The mediator of the knowledge matters.
Some of the most fascinating insights into mimetic theory come from places where people are not looking (there’s a reason why the great writers have put important truths into the mouths of court jesters, clowns, and town drunks…), which Thiel himself would agree with (see his quote below). I plan to share some of the ones I have found with you in due time.
But I thought this would be a good place to start.
“Thinking about how disturbingly herdlike people become in so many different contexts—mimetic theory forces you to think about that, which is knowledge that’s generally suppressed and hidden. As an investor-entrepreneur, I’ve always tried to be contrarian, to go against the crowd, to identify opportunities in places where people are not looking.” —Peter Thiel
Business Insider - How an esoteric philosophy book shapes his worldview
Perell.com Blog - Peter Thiel’s Religion
The Week - Secret to Innovation
The Society Pages - Mimesis, Violence, and Facebook
Founders Fund - What happened to the future
Hoover Institution - The World According to Thiel
Knowledge at Wharton - Want to Build a One-of-a-Kind Company? Ask Peter Thiel
Masters of Scale - Masters of Scale Episode: Peter Thiel
Conversations with Bill Kristol - Peter Thiel Transcript (story of paypal)
Conversations with Bill Kristol - Peter Thiel Transcript (innovation)
National Review - The End of the Future
Cato Unbound - The Education of a Libertarian
Yale School of Management - Peter Thiel at Yale: We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters
Hoover Institution - Peter Thiel On “The Straussian Moment”
Hoover Institution - WHAT, U.S. WORRY? Is the United States Losing Its Competitive Edge?
Medium - Peter Thiel on Stagnation, Innovation, and What Not to Call your Company
Fox Business - Peter Thiel on Leaving Silicon Valley for Los Angeles
Youtube (Every PT Video) - Eric Schmidt and Peter Thiel Debate
Zero to One - Book
Lesswrong - Growth, Violence, Stories
Tim Ferris Show - Episode 28 Peter Thiel
WBUR News - Peter Thiel Wants Us All To Go From Zero To One
TIME - Republican National Committee Speech
Manhattan Institute - 2019 Wriston Lecture: Peter Thiel
Vox - Inside Peter Thiel’s Mind
Independent Institute - Developing the Developed World
New York Times - Peter Thiel, Trump’s Tech Pal, Explains Himself
Youtube (SXSW) - You Are Not a Lottery Ticket
Youtube (Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence) - Peter Thiel on the Failures and “Self-Hatred" of Big-Tech
Youtube (The Rubin Report) - Trump, Gawker, and Leaving Silicon Valley
Quartz at Work - Peter Thiel’s Favorite Interview Question (Think Independently)
City Journal - The Gospel According to Peter Thiel
Yahoo Finance - Peter Thiel is Trying to Save the World: The Apocalyptic Theory Behind his Actions
Inc.com - What You Can Learn From Peter Thiel's Brilliant Philosophy on Setting Personal Goals
FS Blog - Peter Thiel Recommends 7 Reads
Asian Review - Google is Too Big to Innovate
Unherd - Facebook, Jesus, and the Serpent of Social Media
Youtube (Big Think) - Keynesian Economics Will Be Dead
Youtube (Y Combinator) - Competition is for Losers
Youtube (The Aspen Institute) - Higher Education Bubble
Youtube (Imitatio Videos) - Optimistic Thought Experiment
Youtube (Imitatio Video) - Peter Thiel On Rene Girard
The Conversation - WhatsApp? Even private chatter now exploited by billionaires
The Portal - Peter Thiel: The Portal with Eric Weinstein
Youtube (Harvard University) - A Conversation with Peter Thiel and Niall Ferguson - Institute of Politics
Entrepreneurship in the Mirror of Biographical Analysis - Political Ideology And Economic Activity
COV & R - The Bulletin of the Colloquium on Violence & Religion
WeDevs - How the Idea of a French Philosopher can save Your E-commerce Business
I will continue to update this list. If there is a good recent that is not on it, please leave it in the comments or drop it in our community Discord server.
Talk soon,
Luke
Very handy resource Luke, thanks.
Excellent compilation!