Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 14 Notes EssayHere is an essay version of my class notes from Class 14 of CS183: Startup. Errors and omissions are mine. Credit for good stuff is Peter’s. Class 14 Notes Essay—Seeing Green I. Thinking About Energy Alternative energy and cleantech have attracted an enormous amount of investment capital and attention over the last decade. Almost nothing has worked as well as people expected. The cleantech experience can thus be quite instructive. Asking impo...

Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 14 Notes EssayHere is an essay version of my class notes from Class 14 of CS183: Startup. Errors and omissions are mine. Credit for good stuff is Peter’s. Class 14 Notes Essay—Seeing Green I. Thinking About Energy Alternative energy and cleantech have attracted an enormous amount of investment capital and attention over the last decade. Almost nothing has worked as well as people expected. The cleantech experience can thus be quite instructive. Asking impo...

Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 13 Notes EssayHere is an essay version of my class notes from Class 13 of CS183: Startup. Errors and omissions are mine. Credit for good stuff is Peter’s entirely. Class 13 Notes Essay—* You Are Not A Lottery Ticket* I. The Question of Luck A. Nature of the Problem The biggest philosophical question underlying startups is how much luck is involved when they succeed. As important as the luck vs. skill question is, however, it’s very hard to get a good handl...

Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 13 Notes EssayHere is an essay version of my class notes from Class 13 of CS183: Startup. Errors and omissions are mine. Credit for good stuff is Peter’s entirely. Class 13 Notes Essay—* You Are Not A Lottery Ticket* I. The Question of Luck A. Nature of the Problem The biggest philosophical question underlying startups is how much luck is involved when they succeed. As important as the luck vs. skill question is, however, it’s very hard to get a good handl...

Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 19 Notes EssayHere is an essay version of my class notes from the last class of CS183: Startup, class 19. Errors and omissions are mine. The following three guests joined the class for a discussion:Sonia Arrison, tech analyst, author of 100 Plus: How the Coming Age of Longevity will Change Everything, and Associate Founder of Singularity UniversityMichael Vassar, futurist and past President of the Singularity Institute for the study of Artificial Intellige...

Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 19 Notes EssayHere is an essay version of my class notes from the last class of CS183: Startup, class 19. Errors and omissions are mine. The following three guests joined the class for a discussion:Sonia Arrison, tech analyst, author of 100 Plus: How the Coming Age of Longevity will Change Everything, and Associate Founder of Singularity UniversityMichael Vassar, futurist and past President of the Singularity Institute for the study of Artificial Intellige...

Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 17 - Deep ThoughtHe is an essay version of class notes from Class 17 of CS183: Startup. Errors and omissions are mine. Three guests joined the class for a conversation after Peter’s remarks:D. Scott Brown, co-founder of VicariousEric Jonas, CEO of Prior KnowledgeBob McGrew, Director of Engineering at PalantirCredit for good stuff goes to them and Peter. I have tried to be accurate. But note that this is not a transcript of the conversation. Class 17 Notes ...

Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 17 - Deep ThoughtHe is an essay version of class notes from Class 17 of CS183: Startup. Errors and omissions are mine. Three guests joined the class for a conversation after Peter’s remarks:D. Scott Brown, co-founder of VicariousEric Jonas, CEO of Prior KnowledgeBob McGrew, Director of Engineering at PalantirCredit for good stuff goes to them and Peter. I have tried to be accurate. But note that this is not a transcript of the conversation. Class 17 Notes ...

Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 18 Notes EssayHere is an essay version of my class notes. Errors and omissions are mine. Credit for good stuff is Peter’s. Thanks to Joel Cazares for helping proof this. I. Traits of the Founder Founders are important. People recognize this. Founders are often discussed. Many companies end up looking like founder’s cults. Let’s talk a bit about the anthropology and psychology of founders. Who are they, and why do they do what they do? A. The PayPal Origini...

Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 18 Notes EssayHere is an essay version of my class notes. Errors and omissions are mine. Credit for good stuff is Peter’s. Thanks to Joel Cazares for helping proof this. I. Traits of the Founder Founders are important. People recognize this. Founders are often discussed. Many companies end up looking like founder’s cults. Let’s talk a bit about the anthropology and psychology of founders. Who are they, and why do they do what they do? A. The PayPal Origini...

Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 16 - Decoding OurselvesHe is an essay version of my class notes from Class 16 of CS183: Startup. Errors and omissions are mine. Thanks to @1wu for some supplementary notes! Three guests joined the class for a conversation after Peter’s remarks:Brian Slingerland. Co-Founder, President & COO at Stem CentRx;Balaji S. Srinivasan, CTO of Counsyl; andBrian Frezza, Co-founder, Emerald TherapeuticsCredit for good stuff goes to them and Peter. I have tried to be ac...

Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 16 - Decoding OurselvesHe is an essay version of my class notes from Class 16 of CS183: Startup. Errors and omissions are mine. Thanks to @1wu for some supplementary notes! Three guests joined the class for a conversation after Peter’s remarks:Brian Slingerland. Co-Founder, President & COO at Stem CentRx;Balaji S. Srinivasan, CTO of Counsyl; andBrian Frezza, Co-founder, Emerald TherapeuticsCredit for good stuff goes to them and Peter. I have tried to be ac...

Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 15 Notes EssayHere is an essay version of my class notes from Class 15 of CS183: Startup. Errors and omissions are mine. Four guests joined the class for a conversation after the lecture:Danielle Fong, Co-founder and Chief Scientist of LightSail Energy;Jon Hollander, Business Development at RoboteX;Greg Smirin, COO of The Climate Corporation; andScott Nolan, Principal at Founders Fund and former aerospace engineer at SpaceX (Elon Musk was going to come, bu...

Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 15 Notes EssayHere is an essay version of my class notes from Class 15 of CS183: Startup. Errors and omissions are mine. Four guests joined the class for a conversation after the lecture:Danielle Fong, Co-founder and Chief Scientist of LightSail Energy;Jon Hollander, Business Development at RoboteX;Greg Smirin, COO of The Climate Corporation; andScott Nolan, Principal at Founders Fund and former aerospace engineer at SpaceX (Elon Musk was going to come, bu...