On Medici and Thiel

This is great, though it still acts primarily as a sort of summer camp for entrepreneurship hopefuls, with a tight deadline in which they need to form teams, crack ideas and go to work. Goal orientedness is kind of the name of the game and the grant itself is de minimis .

If the program was ostensibly longer and/or more diverse in its intake this co... See more

There are oddly few modern examples of individuals funding individuals, despite it being a far more decentralised and human-scale version of patronage that's easily achievable by large groups of people.

The idea to split us all into mini-Medicis through platforms like Patreon, if anything, has only further diluted the actual value. It's not just about the fact that they financially support you (that's called a customer, or a customer who tips generously), but that they actually help grow your potential by using their status and name and resources ... See more

What we need is the YC of talent identification and encouragement. We either need Thiel to step up and 100x his fellowship, or a 100 other billionaires to step up and stop whining about talent.