Zero to One
“A great company is a conspiracy to change the world.”
Zero to One is a guide on how to make a dent in the universe. It’s written by someone who has. Peter Thiel was co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, and an early investor in Facebook.
“What important truth do very few people agree with you on?” Thiel poses this question at the start of his book. He challenges us to reconsider conventional wisdom. Societies are prone to mass delusions. Think of the internet bubble and the housing bubble. Great companies realize a secret truth that no one else does. This truth may be hiding in plain sight, like the truth discovered by Uber. There is a huge group of people who have cars who are willing to give rides to another huge group of people who want them. All we have to do is connect them.
The title refers to the Promethean act of creating something out of nothing. Thiel contrasts Zero to One with One to N. Zero to One means inventing a new category of idea. One to N means taking an existing idea and cloning it in different market segments or geographies. Zero to One is technology; One to N is globalization. Both are forms of progress.
Thiel argues that since the 70s, outside the narrow field of IT, the world has largely abandoned technology in favor of globalization. We are replicating the progress of the developed world to developing nations. We stopped developing the developed world. In the realm of atoms, versus bits, progress has been incremental. The physical world around us looks much the same as the one from our parents’ generation. Our parents believed that progress was their birthright. They assumed the future would include flying cars, underwater cities and colonies on Mars. That future never came.
There is a corollary to the question posed at the start of this book: “What important company does not already exist?” This book is a call to action. Thiel asks us to once again assert a definite optimism. Dream big, plan boldly and create the future of our species.
Originally published September 2016. Reposted to Medium.