CS183B-5 Strategy And Competition By Peter Thiel

1. capturing value

2. lies people tell

I do think this, the extreme binary view of the world I always articulate is that there are exactly two kinds id businesses in this world. There are businesses that are perfectly competitive and there are business that are monopolies.

世界上就只有两种市场：一种是完全竞争，还有一种是垄断的。很多人并不能完全理解这个商业概念，That世界上就这两种生意，而介于两者之间的出乎想象的少。大家对这种二分法并不太理解，因为人们对自己在什么性质的行业总不说实话。垄断的人假装不垄断，在很难赚钱的行业的人，又会换一套说法。

3. how to build a monopoly

That's always a big mistake is going after a giant market on day one. Because that's typically evidence that you somehow haven't defined the categories correctly. And it normally means that there is going to be too much competition. 

4. last mover advantage

I always think that in technology there is always a sense that you know: Every moment happens only once, so you know the next Mark Zuckerberg won't build a social network, the next Larry Page won't be building a search engine, the next Bill Gates won't be building an operating system. 

5. history of innovation

This is the central idea in my mind for business on the whole history of innovation, technology and science. We 've lived through 300 years of incredible technology progress in many domains, steam engine to railways to telephones, refrigeration, household appliances, computer revolution, aviation.

In this 250 year sweep, "Y" is almost always zero percent. It's always zero in science, technology and it's very rare where people made money.

6. psychology of competition

So much of people identities got wrapped in winning these competitions, that they somehow lost sight of what was important. What was valuable. 

Competition does make you better at whatever it is you're competing on. Because when you're competing, you're comparing yourself with the people around you. And you will get better at that thing. I'm not questioning that. I'm not denying that. But, it often comes at this tremendous price that you stop asking some bigger questions about what's truly important and truly valuable. And so I would say, don't always go through the tiny little door that everyone's trying to rush through. Maybe go around the corner, and go through the vast gate that no one's taking.

Thank you very much.