#233 Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin (PayPal)
2022-02-23 · 114 min · 30 entities
Asserted relationships
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0.78 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
hts in order with somebody else is a very useful thing. —Charlie Munger [31:14] The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams [32:25] "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a
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0.76 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
ave so much good advice that I could be sure they would do little work. [11:11] Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy (Founders #89) Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Is
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0.73 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
e, let me ask what would Shimada do in this situation? That is genius. [23:47] The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz (Founders #
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0.73 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
5] "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character and "What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Characte by Richard Feynman [35:32] He walke
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0.71 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
e Munger [31:14] The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams [32:25] "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character and "What Do You Care What Other People Th
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0.67 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz (Founders #41) [25:19] Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel (Founders #31) [2
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0.67 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
m, and they will either fix it or come up with something better. —Ed Catmull in Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (Found
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0.66 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
work. [11:11] Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy (Founders #89) Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson (Founders #115) Overnight Success: Federal
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0.65 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
d limit by Derek Sivers [1:03:51] Make your product as easy as email. [1:05:08] Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success by Ken Segall (Bonus episode in betw
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0.61 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
his hallmark intensity. He wanted to be the best at everything he did. [21:08] Tribe Of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World by Tim Ferriss [21:50] Knowledge
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0.55 · ×4
evidence rules-v4
Feed author/publisher: David Senra
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0.40 · ×4
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Feed category: Business
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0.40 · ×4
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Feed category: Technology
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0.40 · ×4
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Feed category: Entrepreneurship
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0.40 · ×4
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Feed category: History
Entities found in this episode
books 20
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0.91 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
hts in order with somebody else is a very useful thing. —Charlie Munger [31:14] The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams [32:25] "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a
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0.90 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
ave so much good advice that I could be sure they would do little work. [11:11] Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy (Founders #89) Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Is
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0.86 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
e, let me ask what would Shimada do in this situation? That is genius. [23:47] The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz (Founders #
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0.85 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
5] "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character and "What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Characte by Richard Feynman [35:32] He walke
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0.83 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
e Munger [31:14] The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams [32:25] "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character and "What Do You Care What Other People Th
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0.79 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz (Founders #41) [25:19] Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel (Founders #31) [2
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0.79 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
m, and they will either fix it or come up with something better. —Ed Catmull in Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (Found
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0.78 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
work. [11:11] Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy (Founders #89) Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson (Founders #115) Overnight Success: Federal
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0.78 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
hts in order with somebody else is a very useful thing. —Charlie Munger [31:14] The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams [32:25] "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a
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0.77 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
d limit by Derek Sivers [1:03:51] Make your product as easy as email. [1:05:08] Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success by Ken Segall (Bonus episode in betw
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0.76 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
ave so much good advice that I could be sure they would do little work. [11:11] Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy (Founders #89) Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Is
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0.73 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
e, let me ask what would Shimada do in this situation? That is genius. [23:47] The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz (Founders #
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0.73 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
5] "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character and "What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Characte by Richard Feynman [35:32] He walke
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0.71 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
his hallmark intensity. He wanted to be the best at everything he did. [21:08] Tribe Of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World by Tim Ferriss [21:50] Knowledge
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0.71 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
e Munger [31:14] The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams [32:25] "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character and "What Do You Care What Other People Th
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0.67 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz (Founders #41) [25:19] Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel (Founders #31) [2
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0.67 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
m, and they will either fix it or come up with something better. —Ed Catmull in Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (Found
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0.66 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
work. [11:11] Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy (Founders #89) Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson (Founders #115) Overnight Success: Federal
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0.65 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
d limit by Derek Sivers [1:03:51] Make your product as easy as email. [1:05:08] Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success by Ken Segall (Bonus episode in betw
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0.61 · ×2
evidence rules-v5
his hallmark intensity. He wanted to be the best at everything he did. [21:08] Tribe Of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World by Tim Ferriss [21:50] Knowledge
companys 4
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0.50 · ×4
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Feed category: Business
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Feed category: Technology
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Feed category: Business
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0.40 · ×4
evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Technology
websites 4
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0.50 · ×4
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Feed category: Entrepreneurship
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0.50 · ×4
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Feed category: History
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0.40 · ×4
evidence rules-v4
Feed category: Entrepreneurship
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0.40 · ×4
evidence rules-v4
Feed category: History
persons 2
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0.70 · ×4
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Feed author/publisher: David Senra
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0.55 · ×4
evidence rules-v4
Feed author/publisher: David Senra
Episode description as stored
What I learned from reading The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley by Jimmy Soni.
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Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com
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[0:50] Your life will be shaped by the things that you create and the people you make them with.
[2:45] A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age (Founders #95)
[3:17] Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (Founders #1 and #30)
[4:48] It is hard to find a lukewarm opinion about PayPal's founders.
[5:29] To skip PayPal's creation is to neglect the most interesting stuff about its founders. It is to miss the defining experiences of their early professional lives —one that defined so much of what came later.
[6:39] There's just so many times I put down the book and I'm like, “That is really, really smart, what they just did there.”
[6:59] It perfectly captures when they [Musk, Thiel, Sacks, Hoffman, Levchin, Rabois] were just hustlers trying to figure it out.
[8:31] For the next several years, the company’s survival was an open question. They were sued, defrauded, copied, mocked— from the outset. PayPal was a startup under siege. Its founders took on multi-billion dollar financial firms, a critical press and skeptical public, hostile regulators, and even foreign fraudsters.
[10:14] From Henry Ford’s autobiography: That is why I never employ an expert in full bloom. If ever I wanted to kill opposition by unfair means I would endow the opposition with experts. They would have so much good advice that I could be sure they would do little work.
[11:11] Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy (Founders #89)
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson (Founders #115)
Overnight Success: Federal Express and Frederick Smith, Its Renegade Creator by Vance Trimble (Founders #151)
[12:03] A wall in the engineering office had two banners. One was titled The World Domination Index. The World Domination Index was a total count of PayPal's users that day. The other was a banner bearing the words Memento Mori —Latin for remember that you will die. PayPal's oddball team was out to dominate the world, or die trying.
[15:37] At PayPal disharmony produced discovery.
[16:22] Steve Jobs The Lost Interview Notes
[17:36] Properly understood PayPal story is a four year odyssey of near failure followed by near failure.
[20:22] He showed early signs of his hallmark intensity. He wanted to be the best at everything he did.
[21:08] Tribe Of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World by Tim Ferriss
[21:50] Knowledge Project: Marc Andreessen
[23:01] What would Shimada do? I understand how this guy thinks. I've studied how he thinks. Now I'm presented with a difficult decision. I'm running it through my own calculus—but to enhance that is like, let me ask what would Shimada do in this situation? That is genius.
[23:47] The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz (Founders #41)
[25:19] Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel (Founders #31)
[29:25] Everybody engaged in complicated work needs colleagues. Just the discipline of having to put your thoughts in order with somebody else is a very useful thing. —Charlie Munger
[31:14] The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
[32:25] "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character and "What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Characte by Richard Feynman
[35:32] He walked into Musk's his bedroom. The room was literally filled with biographies about business luminaries and how they succeeded. Elon was prepping himself and studying to be a famous entrepreneur.
[38:32] Musk had learned that startup success wasn't just about dreaming up the right ideas as much as discovering and then rapidly discarding the wrong ones.
[39:04] Keep iterating on a loop that says, Am I do