 Reflecting on his first encounter with Mr. Thiel in 2011, J.D. Vance wrote, Thiel articulated a feeling that I was obsessed with achievement in itself, not as an end to something meaningful, but to win a social competition. My worry that I had prioritized striving over character took on a heightened significance. Striving for what? He was born, J.D. Vance, James Donald Bowman, on August 2, 1984.