You've probably watched, listened to, or at
the very least heard about Joe Rogan's interview
with tech giant Elon Musk from last week.
Joe and Elon had a wide ranging discussion
for two and a half hours about technology,
evolution, markets, simulation theory and
much more.
Immediately after though, the headlines were
all about the blunt they smoked in the last
20 minutes, along with the very meme-able
image of Elon with smoke surrounding his head.
Shortly after Elon's Rogan interview aired,
two top Tesla executives resigned and Tesla's
stock dropped significantly.
The usual suspects wrote think pieces questioning
whether Musk was mentally stable or fit to
be an executive at the very companies he created.
I think the majority of people found the whole
ordeal to be a kind of funny, quirky, and
surprising moment...you know, the kind of
moments that make life interesting...but apparently
these days, if you do anything that doesn't
conform to groupthink, there's a media click
machine that will see blood, and are ready
to strike.
Now first off, weed is totally legal here
in California.
I'm guessing that you, person watching this
right now, have probably tried it once or
twice.
Maybe you even inhaled.
But perhaps more importantly than the legal
issue, or whether marijuana has health benefits,
impairs your judgement, or all of the above,
lies a more important question.
Elon musk may be a little nutty, but is unquestionably
one of the most important visionaries we have
today.
Beyond Tesla, his electric car company which
has revolutionized the automobile industry,
he's the founder and CEO of SpaceX, which
is sending rockets beyond Earth's orbit and
will most likely make life on Mars a reality
within our lifetime.
If that's not enough, his ironically named
Boring Company is building tunnels under Los
Angeles in an attempt to relieve LA's infamously
insane traffic.
In short, Elon isn't just changing the world
for the better -- he's creating the reality
of a future which most people can only dream
of.
While the Elon marijuana memes were great,
they overshadowed the conversation of one
of our few modern visionaries.
As Tesla employees step down, or traders worry
about Musk's behavior, perhaps it's just his
adventurous attitude which allows Musk to
solve problems while most people just complain.
Think the automobile industry is moving on
electric cars too slowly?
Create Tesla.
Think NASA isn't exploring space fast enough?
Start SpaceX.
We all talk, while a few people actually do.
And for those who do, maybe being different
isn't a flaw in the system, it's part of the
design.
Since when we do we live in a time when our
geniuses can't have idiosyncratic quirks,
or act out in ways that make them stand apart
from the rest of us?
Our inventors need the room to be different,
because that different way of thinking is
where they find the spark that ignites their
genius.
With all this in mind, let's shift to the
very company which put Elon on the map: he
co-created PayPal alongside another misunderstood
tech giant, Peter Thiel.
Thiel, the guy on the left in this picture,
is an entrepreneur, venture capitalist, philanthropist,
author, and my guest on The Rubin Report this
week.
Perhaps even more than Musk, Thiel seems to
be misunderstood by the media, which seems
more interested in him as a caricature than
as person.
Over the last two years I've become friends
with Peter through his friend and confidant
Eric Weinstein.
I know Peter to be an open, decent, thoughtful,
curious person...someone who privately is
all of the things the media says he is not,
and that's the person I hope to introduce
you to today.
Beyond founding PayPal, Thiel also was the
first investor in Facebook, who turned $500,000
into considerably more than that.
He also funded Hulk Hogan's lawsuit which
ultimately toppled Gawker, a move may many
think was an attack against the media, but
I believe to be a seminal moment in defending
the 4th amendment, defending our right to
privacy.
Peter has become the ultimate contrarian in
the tech world of Silicon valley, which has
become stagnant and dull.
When's the last time you were really excited
about a new app for your phone?
Remember when there was a new app everyday
that you just had to have?
Those days seem to be long gone, and Peter
sees a reason for it.
He has long talked about the dangers of groupthink
and faux diversity, two of the idea destroying
forces which have taken over the tech world.
That's exactly why he recently moved his company
from Silicon Valley to to Los Angeles.
Yeah, that's right: LA is suddenly becoming
a home of free thought, thanks to the creatively
crushing progressive orthodoxy that has taken
over Silicon Valley.
We live in strange times, indeed.
Peter was also the person with the highest
profile in the tech world to support Donald
Trump, and even spoke at the Republican convention.
When he told a room of Republicans, "I am
a proud gay man" and received a round of thunderous
applause, I remember thinking how that moment
was a seminal shift in the Democratic lock
on gay Americans and the beginning of a new,
more tolerant Republican party.
Thiel had no idea if he was going to be booed
or cheered at that moment, but I believe that
the new libertarian view the Republican party
has taken on marriage equality is in large
part because Peter dared to stand up for what
he believed in, even if it was against conservative
orthodoxy.
With so much in flux in the world right now,
people like Elon and Peter have more of a
chance to shape the future than ever before.
As old institutions continue to crumble, we
need new visionaries to build us the institutions
of the future.
If they're quirky or misunderstood, then they're
probably exactly the people we need to get
the job done.
