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Comment by ramraj07 | Hacker News Reader

Thiel is not too smart. He’s smart. As smart as Steve Bannon? In fact I cannot differentiate who’s talking if you play their podcast interviews.

Thiel has a sputtering of good ideas, and he was in the right place to invest in some successful ventures, but he’s not some once in a life time visionary.

As of now, it looks like he’s nothing but a hypocritical selfish vindictive rich asshole with a blood boy (every adjective here being something you can substantiate with actual facts).

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From what I read elsewhere, he was judged as very very smart at uni, and his motivations in part stem from what I would call bullying: he was not only unloved at school, he was really put down. He decided to show people the inner steel. By now you think he'd have decided "goal achieved" but apparently, he's still on track.

"His inner steel", hah, that's so poetic.

What’s… what’s a “blood boy”? Almost afraid to ask here…

Referenced in Silicon Valley(the show), a blood boy would be someone that was young, whose blood would be transfused to one of these older tech billionaires in an effort to help them stay younger.

Perfect summary - https://www.thewrap.com/silicon-valley-fact-check-are-blood-...

The science is, for better or worse, fairly legitimate though. The ramifications are dystopian of course.

What's the externally visible difference between being in the right place at the right time and being a visionary? He's about the 500th richest person in the world, so he's certainly not insignificant.

I think you're confusing your personal dislike of him (asshole) with his abilities (not a visionary). There's no reason those qualities should be aligned.

I think the discrete conclusion to draw from this story is that it’s completely unsurprising that someone of his moral caliber was invested heavily in what turned out to be a complete veneer (and that’s putting in nicely)

Didn’t he score first in a California-wide math contest?

How many people on this board can claim the same?

Scoring first in an annual state wide math contest is not genius level, certainly not once in a lifetime visionary. There are literally thousands of people who would satisfy that condition, including me.

When you’ve been an investor in multiple billion dollar businesses, you can call him out for not being smart.

Until then, you basically look like a couch philosopher criticizing public figures on an anonymous forum. Well done.

Snarky, ooh! Let me try!

You basically look like a anon pundit, criticizing couch philosophers on an anonymous forum. Well done.

I'd rather troll couch philosophers on an anonymous forum than be one.

I am rubber, you are glue!

Touché!

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