Competition is for Losers with Peter Thiel (How to Start a Startup 2014: 5)

Whenever I hear someone saying the market is huge I think of this classic Thiel talk. Sounds like its definitely something you should watch. [VIDEO]

For context, this article is about a new book, 'The Contrarian' about Thiel (I haven't read the book). I've long been a fan of Peter Thiel's thinking. If you're unfamiliar, this talk from YC's Startup School 2014 covering the ideas from Zero to One is excellent: [VIDEO] But back the book this article is based on, I found this review of the book on Amazon quite insightful: [LINK] I've never met Peter Thiel, don't know much about him personally, and don't agree with everything he says and does, but he's a complex and interesting character that I've learned a lot from over the years. I think we all can.

Peter Thiel discusses this same doom loop and some of your points in this lecture that I highly recommend: [VIDEO]

Watch this talk, "Competition is for losers" (by Peter Thiel) [VIDEO] It's a clickbaity title but it's a serious talk.

One phenomenon I've recently clued into is that of the "market-hostile business". Not only old businesses, watch Peter Thiel's "competition is for losers": [VIDEO]

I'm a little iffy on this idea that there is any monopoly on air travel in the US in any general sense. Maybe for specific routes, but if you look at the big picture, you have: 4 "major" carriers - American, Delta, United, Southwest 1 "mid major" / borderline major in Alaska Airlines 1 "not a major, but not exactly a regional carrier" in Jet Blue and a bunch of regional outfits like Frontier, Porter, Spirit, etc. That's not to say that more competition wouldn't be nice, but it's hardly the case that there is no competition. Heck, as far as that goes, Peter Thiel uses airlines - and their razor thin profit margins - as the prototypical example of why "competition is for losers"[1] in his talks. [1]: [VIDEO]

This post misses the forest for the trees. The reason for the low margins in the restaurant business is the lack of differentiation. Their products are largely commoditized, so they have no competitive advantage or market power. Peter Thiel discussed this in a lecture for YC, where he said that you can work very hard to make the best restaurant in a city, but it doesn't give you much pricing power, because the second best is still pretty good.[1] [1] [VIDEO]

Interesting, fun also some of the reactions I got to my many ideas. I have realised that one needs some sort of monopoly to make any money. [VIDEO]