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What Do You Believe That No One Else Here Does?
Peter Thiel is well-known for asking this question in interviews:
PETER THIEL: The intellectual question that I ask at the start of my book is, “Tell me something that’s true that very few people agree with you on.” This is a terrific interview question. Even when people can read on the Internet that you’re going to ask this question to everybody you interview, they still find it really hard to answer. And it’s hard to answer not because people don’t have any ideas. Everyone has ideas. Everyone has things they believe to be true that other people won’t agree with you on. But they’re not things you want to say.
He himself was unforthcoming when asked the question, though:
TYLER COWEN: Peter, tell me something that’s true that everyone agrees with you on.
PETER THIEL: Well there are lots of things that are true that everyone agrees with me on. I think for example even this idea that the university system is somewhat screwed up and somewhat broken at this point. This is not even a heterodox or a very controversial idea anymore. There was an article in TechCrunch where the writer starts with “this is going to be super controversial” and then you look through the comments — there were about 350 comments — they were about 70 percent in my favor. So the idea that the education system is badly broken is not even controversial. You know, the ideas that are really controversial are the ones I don’t even want to tell you. I want to be more careful than that.
So what do you believe that puts you at odds with everyone else? What do you believe that puts you at odds with Ricochet, in particular?
Published in General
It is far more important for each of us to convince one or more middle/left friends to vote for our side in 2016, than it is to convince a fellow Ricochetti to vote for our favorite candidate.
“Charismatic megafauna” isn’t awesome enough for you?
Agree completely, but is that controversial?
I’m probably in the minority here in opposing the death penalty for Tsarnaev, thinking that deep frying food is revolting, and believing that the biggest problem with schools is neither the teachers nor the students but the parents.
Deep frying food is revolting but, unfortunately, yummy. Otherwise, I’m with ya.
Obama is not an evil maniac bent on the destruction of America, and history (even if written by conservatives) will not even be able to judge him the worst president we’ve ever had.
It’s hard to find a unique belief – there are too many people in the world for this to be likely. For Ricochet, however, I believe:
Does that have practical implications for you in your daily life?
1. There is intelligent life out in the universe somewhere (besides us).
2. Not everyone should be allowed to vote.
3. Women are better at raising young children, and so should stay at home until the kids are school age.
4. The Pacific Northwest + British Columbia should secede from the US and Canada and form their own nation.
You could call it a dinch.
I get the feeling from reading over the past few months that many believe the question is about picking the right candidate who will do the hard work, rather than us who have to do the grubby work of knocking on doors and convincing friends at barbecues. But maybe everyone does agree and I’m confusing “yes, and” with “either, or”.
Hope I am.
The Jeb Bush/Clint Bollich immigration reform plan is the best solution.
At the same time as enforcing the border, provide a pathway to legalization but not citizenship for most illegal aliens living in the U.S. and change the immigration priorities while expanding the guest worker program.
I’m with you on two out of three.
Tsarnev should rot in prison and not be martyred for the crazies.
Good schools have good parents.
Deep-frying food? Well… Agree to disagree.
The adoption of decimeters would go a long way towards that. I don’t know why they don’t use them.
Jethro Tull (the band) sucks, has always sucked, and always will suck.
Thanks Claire! We’ll take a look.
I was afraid for a moment you were going to say WW II. I was looking forward to the defense of that view. :)
Sounds like that “brain in a vat” stuff we had to talk about in college philosophy class.
Anyway, if you talk to the programmer, ask him to throw a little more money my way and if he could reprogram my body back to the one I had 20 years ago that would be nice as well.
I would go with “clueless naive buffoon” before “evil maniac.” As far as “worst president” goes though — I think he’s in in the running. Granted, there’s competition. But he’s definitely in the running.
1. An excessive enthusiasm for organized sports is the mark of a culture in decline;
2. Factory farming is an obvious moral abomination;
3. Our alliance with the Saudis is every bit as antithetical to our values and interests as an alliance with Iran.
If you see one you especially like the looks of, I’d be happy to check it out for you and report …
You only say that because you didn’t watch the Seahawks beat the Packers last year.
The territory that consists of the United States will cease to exist as a single nation within the lifetime of my children. I just don’t know if it will be peaceful or not.
Sign me up for that as well if you would John. :)
Well you are right on the last one….GO VOLS!
Obama’s handling of the ebola outbreak was a masterwork of Coolidgean minimalism.
“Immigrants (legal and illegal) do work that Americans don’t want to do” is a true statement, not an excuse to pay lower wages.
Here’s two new ones:
I believe the decision to label members avatars with “Thatcher” and “Reagan” is an effort to shame the rest of the regulars into ponying up.
I believe the re-imposition of the word limit might succeed in doing just that.
It is absolutely an excuse to pay lower wages. A company will only pay you the least amount it would cost to replace you. If someone will do what you do for less, the company is well within their rights to pay that someone instead of you.
)-
<breaths on finger nails, polishes on front of shirt, leans back on his heals, like a smug son of a biscuit eater>
On metric, for practical purposes, having a unit divisible by twelve is much handier than by ten. You can compute many more fractions evenly because it’s got more prime factors. I actually think the hybrid U.S. system—metric for science (where huge and tiny numbers come up a lot and convertability is key) and customary for daily life—is superior than either one alone (as long as everyone knows what size bolts they’re supposed to be using).
Unusual belief? I dunno. That The Empire Strikes Back is inferior to Star Wars and where Lucas’s probably cannaboid-addled thought processes start messing things up?