Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

Thiel spends much of the book’s later chapters writing about technology; its strengths, its weaknesses, and advocating against fear. Technology can create products that replace human skills in areas once thought uniquely human, and some people worry that machines might eventually replace all workers. Thiel argues that smart startups will focus on technology that enhances human strengths rather than advancements that remove people from the workplace.

It’s not computers that compete for jobs, but workers from all over the world. As the planet globalizes, more people become available to do repetitive tasks, and they want to earn not just subsistence wages, but bigger and better things. Computers, meanwhile, are good at data processing but poor at judgment, and they don’t demand flashy cars or fancy dinners: “computers are tools, not rivals” (140).

In 2000, one of PayPal’s biggest costs was credit-card fraud. Every program they wrote to catch that fraud would eventually be outwitted by criminals. PayPal designed a hybrid system in which computers flag suspicious trades and a human uses rapid judgment to rule on them. The system cleaned up so much of the fraud that the company finally turned a profit. Using this system, Thiel started Palantir, a company that analyzes data for suspicious activities.