Co-founder of Perch. Creator of the Startup Archive and Founders' Tribune.
Throughout the 20th century, people were getting smarter. This trend became known as the “Flynn Effect” after the political scientist James Flynn who observed that IQ scores rose about three points per decade. However, this observation no longer holds. In many Western countries, IQ scores have begun to fall, and functional literacy is reversing a trend of growth that dates back to the Industrial…
From the inception of PayPal, Peter Thiel focused on viral distribution for both practical and philosophical reasons. Practically, he knew his small startup could never acquire millions of users through conventional marketing channels. Philosophically, he drew on René Girard’s theory of mimetic desire and believed that people mostly borrow their desires from others. Girard developed the theory to…
In the early 1900s, Americans didn’t eat seed oils. Soybean, corn, canola, and sunflower oil were agricultural waste products, not food. But today, they make up more than 20% of the average American’s daily calories. What happened? The story begins, strangely enough, with soap. In the 1830s, two brothers-in-law, William Procter and James Gamble, founded a soap and candle company in Cincinnati.…
When a new technology appears, it rarely replaces what came before it overnight.
The more accessible knowledge is, the faster society advances.
"If you do not work on an important problem, it's unlikely you'll do important work. It's perfectly obvious." - Richard Hamming
For years, I viewed Bitcoin as the most asymmetric risk-reward of our lifetimes. It had unique properties that made it the best store of value the world has ever seen. And difficult-to-replicate network effects made it unlikely that another cryptocurrency would displace it. Through September 2020, Bitcoin was the only cryptocurrency I owned. The store of value TAM was so huge, it made little sense…
Over past few years, quite a few people have reached out to me asking if they should buy Bitcoin. I usually respond with links to several of the best resources I know but have found that this can be a bit overwhelming. So I made an attempt at writing one definitive guide that I can send to people instead. In the essay below, I do my best to explain the following topics: The problem Bitcoin solves…