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Comment by ktamura | Hacker News Reader

This is a stroke of genius by Peter Thiel. In hindsight, he was hedged. If Clinton won, his Trump endorsement would have been chalked up to his contrarian, eccentric bent. If Trump won -and he did- Thiel's bet would have a huge return.

His self-interest aside, this is a huge deal for Palantir, the company that he helped found and has many federal governments as their client. Also, in a sense, Thiel ensured that Silicon Valley didn't completely lose touch with the White House and will have some leverage in influencing them. For starters, immigration is a key issue for Silicon Valley for which Thiel can be a voice of reason to influence the new administration.

I don't agree with many things Thiel says or does. That said, this was a brilliant execution.

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> For starters, immigration is a key issue for Silicon Valley for which Thiel can be a voice of reason to influence the new administration.

I don't know if immigration is as much of an issue for Palantir, given many of its clients are clandestine and won't permit non-citizens to work on their projects.

> > For starters, immigration is a key issue for Silicon Valley for which Thiel can be a voice of reason to influence the new administration.

> I don't know if immigration is as much of an issue for Palantir, given many of its clients are clandestine and won't permit non-citizens to work on their projects.

So, Palantir is actually in trouble for not hiring certain immigrants / races. See http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/27/technology/us-accuses-tech...

And my worthless personal single data point: I personally know a Pakistani guy who was rejected from Palantir. Sure, every other person gets rejected from every other place. The thing is, this guy is one of the best programmers I know of, has great charisma, has great communication skills, and has a star-studded pedigree. Yeah I know I'm going off on a single data, but I was just stunned to see anyone reject this guy because I happen to personally know of his genius.

Wait, so everyone is supposed to hire this dude, or else they're racist? Not really arguing with you considering that you acknowledge it's just one data point, but this standard is unfalsifiable. By your logic, there's no way to decline hiring him without being a racist...

I expect there to be a prohibition against foreign nationals at a lot of defense contractors. Consider his country of origin: it's one of the last places our government wants technology transfer or espionage to occur with.

And I mean no offense to your friend, but that's how those folks think.

So, I should not have said "Pakistani". He's actually an American-born, his parents came here in early 80s. Is that still a problem you think? Would a defense contractor be hesitant in hiring native-born citizens with parents from a different country of origin?

> Would a defense contractor be hesitant in hiring native-born citizens with parents from a different country of origin?

Foreign contacts (including family) may be a complication in security clearance background investigations, IIRC, but AFAIK discriminating directly on that basis (rather than simply requiring the clearance if necessary for the specific job) would be a bright-line violation of the law.

From what I understand, even a "white person" whose family has been here for generations can get denied clearance due to their ties or relationships to foreign nationals. This is at least true for the CIA and NSA.

I wasn't talking about Palantir specifically but the valley in general =)

It's huge for FB, and he's on the board.

walk me through that one.

Simple: majority of FB employees are immigrants. And they want more, much more. Why do you think Zuck formed Fwd.us?

I think you've got the wrong politically-active Silicon Valley wunderkind.

Don't you think it's possible he takes a government post? He was certainly one of the very few true supporters.

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