There’s always a sense that people will do things quite differently if they think they have privacy. – Peter Thiel
People are spending way too much time thinking about climate change, way too little thinking about AI. – Peter Thiel
My hope is that we’re going to end up with a far more tolerant society, where the erosion of privacy, to the extent it erodes, will be offset by increased tolerance. – Peter Thiel
Monopolies are bad and deserve their reputation when things are static and the monopolies function as toll collectors… But I think they’re quite positive when they’re dynamic and do something new. – Peter Thiel
The millennial generation in the US is the first that has reduced expectations from those of their parents. And I think there is something decadent and declinist about that. – Peter Thiel
Ideally, I want us to be working on things where if we’re not working on them, they won’t happen; companies where if we don’t fund them they will not receive funding. – Peter Thiel
People don’t want to believe that technology is broken. Pharmaceuticals, robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology – all these areas where the progress has been a lot more limited than people think. And the question is why. – Peter Thiel
Every one of today’s smartphones has thousands of times more processing power than the computers that guided astronauts to the moon. – Peter Thiel
If you’re trying to develop a new drug, that costs you a billion dollars to get through the FDA. If you want to start a software company, you can get started with maybe $100,000. – Peter Thiel
I think people in Europe are generally pessimistic about the future. They have low expectations; they’re not working hard to change things. When you’re a slacker with a pessimistic view of the future, you’re likely to meet those expectations. – Peter Thiel
People are worried about privacy, and its one of the reasons people are using a service like SnapChat. – Peter Thiel
Don’t bother starting the 10,000th restaurant in Manhattan. Find something to do that if you don’t do it, it won’t get done. – Peter Thiel
Unsolved problems are where you’ll find opportunity. Energy is one sector with extremely urgent unsolved problems. – Peter Thiel
Credentials are critical if you want to do something professional. If you want to become a doctor or lawyer or teacher or professor, there is a credentialing process. But there are a lot of other things where it’s not clear they’re that important. – Peter Thiel
College gives people learning and also takes away future opportunities by loading the next generation down with debt. – Peter Thiel
From my perspective, I think the question of how we build a better future is an extremely important overarching question, and I think it’s become obscured from us because we no longer think it’s possible to have a meaningful conversation about the future. – Peter Thiel
People always say you should live your life as if it were your last day. I think you should live your life as though it will go on for ever; that every day is so good that you don’t want it to end. – Peter Thiel
One of my first investments was $100,000 in a Web-based calendar startup – and I lost every dollar. – Peter Thiel
Facebook succeeded because it was about real people having a presence on the Internet. There were all these other social networking sites people had, but they were all about fictional people. – Peter Thiel
I suspect if people live a lot longer they would be retired for a somewhat longer period of time. Just the financial planning takes on a very different character. – Peter Thiel
