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Comment by prawn | Hacker News Reader

A few of his answers seem brief when I wished he had time to answer in full. Selling something aside, I've always wondered why people commit to an AMA and then don't dedicate the time to over-delivering with comprehensive answers? Is it just a matter of something being better than nothing?

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When the sole reason you're doing an AMA is because you're promoting something - in this case Thiel's book that's about to out - you can do a brief appearance and get enough exposure. He doesn't care about doing an AMA otherwise, I bet.

Respectfully, I think you slightly misunderstand the relative economics of being an author and being Peter Thiel.

Respectfully, I think you underestimate Peter Thiel's ability to leverage the prestige and airport bookstore placement that come from good sales numbers.

Little fish may not matter matter on their own, but if the big fish follow the little fish (even unconsciously) then feeding the little fish is a good strategy for subtly influencing the big fish.

This is cute and true. Years ago I managed authors for Barnes and Noble. The best ones, the richest ones, would stay hours talking to their fans. They would sign books, but talk for a long time to each reader, and sometimes these conversations would extend to drinks then dinner with a group of readers. Of course, the authors that put in the time with their fans were the most successful. I don't think it was an accident.

interesting - makes you think perhaps online book sellers should be hosting AMAs.

You are right in one respect - even if the book became a number one bestseller, Peter Thiel is unlikely to feel the impact financially. But since he wrote a book in the first place, he wants something out of it. Whether he did it for money, increased fame, admiration, or respect, the book must do well for any of those things to come.

So while his motivation may be different than most authors, the path he must follow to make the book do well is largely the same. We'll likely see more things you wouldn't expect to see him do. A billionaire's ego is on the line.

And the most likely one (at least imo) would be to spread his ideas as far as possible. A book is a great medium to reach people who wouldn't otherwise actively seek out information outside of their current scope, by making a stack of physical objects appear in their field of vision and inviting them to take notice.

His one and only AMA seems peculiarly timed with the book launch then.

If you measure it solely on royalties, you are correct. But such a situation could never exist; otherwise, Thiel would never write a book. So it must be for other non-monetary reasons, and your point is not quite accurate.

It could very well be for monetary reasons. Many non-fiction books are written so as to give the author a possibility to go on a lecture tour, get hired as a consultant or what not.

Not everything is motivated by the movement of green pieces of paper.

As someone who struggles to distill his answers, I thought there was an eloquence and wisdom in his brevity.

Yeah, some seemed overly brief. But I think overall he got his points across pretty well and I suspect it might not be his preferred medium for such topics. Even his book was largely based on his Stanford lectures.

Just met him once or twice, but my impression is this is how he talks in real life as well.

Are you really not sure whether you met him once or twice? I would have thought he would be more memorable than that...

I've spent a few hours talking with Peter, and he talks in well-formed thoughts in well-structured sentences. A lot of other people, probably me included, wander a bit verbally. Peter doesn't.

You can see a transcript of a conversation I had with him here: http://www.cnet.com/news/talking-tech-with-peter-thiel-inves...

Agreed. No one is doubting his ability to form sentences. Rather, he packs so much into each sentence that I question my ability to keep up.

Every sentence he said (as well as his responses in the AMA) was a a complete idea, full of insight and depth. Mere mortals, like yours truly, need to take a couple minutes to process examples and counterexamples, to define the assumptions made, to wonder at the implications. You want him to speak more on the subject.

Instead, it's so obvious to him that he continues speaking and you've just missed 3 more profound statements. Makes him fascinating to listen to.

Setting aside 3 whole hours can produce a surprisingly small amount of answers on an AMA.

I don't think most famous people need the karma bad enough to even set aside that much time.

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