Just read this about 3 years later. I found Thiel to be mostly spot on. Especially:
Peter Thiel: Right. Look, I don’t know how you solve the social problem if everybody has to be a mathematician or a concert pianist. I want a society in which we have great mathematicians and great concert pianists. That seems that that would be a very healthy society. It’s very unhealthy if every parent thinks their child has to be a mathematician or a concert pianist, and that’s the kind of society we unfortunately have.
Which seems to point to the fact that the root cause of many societal ills is that the average human psyche simply can’t accept the fact that in Thiel’s language, the vast majority of children, including most likely theirs, will never be a great mathematician or concert pianist. (or attain an equally prestigious position)
Since human prestige by definition is defined relative to other humans and thus only a tiny minority could ever be near the top.
Yet there seems to be some instinctual demand for an individual to be special in some way and furthermore that this must be recognized by some sufficiently large group. i.e. for a child to grow into an adult, mediocre in every way, is seen as a tragedy.
Thus necessitating a huge amount of distortions everywhere, across all institutions and policies causing damage in innumerable ways, to compensate.
Just read this about 3 years later. I found Thiel to be mostly spot on. Especially:
Which seems to point to the fact that the root cause of many societal ills is that the average human psyche simply can’t accept the fact that in Thiel’s language, the vast majority of children, including most likely theirs, will never be a great mathematician or concert pianist. (or attain an equally prestigious position)
Since human prestige by definition is defined relative to other humans and thus only a tiny minority could ever be near the top.
Yet there seems to be some instinctual demand for an individual to be special in some way and furthermore that this must be recognized by some sufficiently large group. i.e. for a child to grow into an adult, mediocre in every way, is seen as a tragedy.
Thus necessitating a huge amount of distortions everywhere, across all institutions and policies causing damage in innumerable ways, to compensate.