"You're the smartest physicist of the 20th century
-- you come up with special relativity, you come up
with general relativity -- you don't get to be a
billionnaire; you don't even get to be a millionaire."
If we only pursued endeavors that produce money, our civilization's development would be centuries behind and our life would be (more) miserable. Fortunately, not everyone is motivated (just) by money and power.
Comments
Thiel's Einstein example was wrong:
Actually, Einstein WAS a millionaire. His net worth was around $1 million. http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-businessmen/richest...1) That's a terrible source for data.
2) Being worth $1m is still terrible for having done everything he did.
If we only pursued endeavors that produce money, our civilization's development would be centuries behind and our life would be (more) miserable. Fortunately, not everyone is motivated (just) by money and power.
Worth noting that $1mm in the 40s and 50s is much more in 2014 dollars.
True, I looked up the adjusted amount and it's $16m.
But it semantics, as Thiel's point was to contrast the value he created with the value he captured.
There is a contrast only if you consider that the only way to capture value is through money.
Also you may think that "Capture value" is not a priority for everybody (Not only money, but also public attention, or power).
In fact capturing value as a priority may absorb too much of your time to be useful.
EDIT: corrected a word