Emily Nabnian

Thiel asks: “Is this a business that I have enough confidence in that I would consider joining it myself?” If yes, he’ll consider an investment. If the answer is no, he won’t.

What does it mean for something to be real or unreal when so much of digital life operates at the level of symbols?

Virgil Abloh: "Physical = digital"

Thiel defines the four quadrants as such:1) Definite Optimism: The future will be better and we know how. 2) Indefinite Optimism: The future will be better and we don’t know how. 3) Definite Pessimism: The future will be worse and we know how. 4) Indefinite Pessimism: The future will be worse and we don’t know how. 

In an essay for Dirt, Alioto likens virtual garments to bootlegs. “The fake (sign) may not subsume the real (reference), but it exerts power over the way the original is perceived,” she writes. “Eventually, they almost need each other to stay culturally relevant.” In this way, she argues, “What happens in the metaverse doesn’t stay in the metaverse... See more

At first, we should think about an internet country in the same way, as a means for nomads to interface with nation-state systems.

Strauss did not believe in transparency. He believed that even in the most open-minded societies, many truths were too problematic to be shouted. His contemporary disciples, like Thiel, conceal their words. They hide controversial ideas in esoteric language.

Thiel’s companies are governed by Girard’s wisdom. Girard observed that all desires come from other people. When two people want the same scarce object, they fight.