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** spoiler alert ** The first book since Antifragile that had me hooked beginning to end. The definite/ indefinite paradigm had me thinking long after the book was finished. Fantastic.

Ch. 1 The challenge of the the future

The first chapter is an introductory piece on the creation of new value (going from nothing to something) thus zero to one as opposed to logarithmic and or incremental changes one to n.

- He argues that spreading old ways to create wealth around the world will only further globalize the world into sameness. This sameness means a universal current state. The downside to this is that everyone will now have a North American live style which requires a lot more energy and competition for the same resources. Thiel calls for a pursuit of new growth not a desire to spread the sameness around.

- He argues that old technologies still pervade our society and that new technologies will and should come from startups because large scale bureaucracies move slowly and entrenched interests in these organizations shy away from risk. In a lot of organizations signaling that your work is completed is more important than the work itself.

Ch. 2

- When growing a company exponential growth in size of your business also means exponential growth in your cost structure.

- Out of fear of a post 90's tech bubble do not treat the lessons learned as dogma. The goal of lessons is that the mistakes of the past are potential future realities not a determined future. Silicon Valley currently is trapped in this thinking that the bubble of the past dictates how we should act presently.

- Current tech companies focus on too much 1) incremental advances 2) have no idea where there business will go or what they will be doing 3) forego creating new markets and instead attempt to gain more ground in overcrowded markets 4) ignore sales completely

- The opposite is important 1) risk boldness 2) have a framework of where you'd like to take your company 3) search for new markets 4) sales matter as does product design not more though

Ch. 3 All Happy Companies are Different

- Ask yourself what valuable company is nobody building.

- Create value and then capture that value

- Choose to become a monopoly as competitive markets strip your profits away. Become a company so good at what you do that no one offers a close substitute. Differentiate your company from all others.

- Monopolists lies to protect themselves (google claims its an advertising company and thus has only 3% of the global advertising market but if it is to be considered a search engine company then it owns 67% of the search engine market).

- Competitive companies lie and exaggerate their share of the market to attract investors.

- Monopolistic profits allow companies to transcend the competitive struggle and focus on their employees.

-Monopolies can keep innovating and profits ease long term planning and make it more feasible to attempt ambitious R&D projects.

- Basic economics are a relic of the past.

- Every business is successful exactly to the extent that it does something others cannot.

- Rivalry causes us to overemphasize old opportunities and slavishly copy what has worked in the past.

- Is your market the right one to be in? Everybody loses when the war isn't worth fighting.

- Do not accumulate enemies. And if you can't beat a rival consider merging.

- Short term thinking diverts your focus from company growth and durability.

- Will your company be around in 10 years?

- Characteristics that may guarantee you dominance: proprietary technology, network effects, economies of scale, and brand.

- The problem with MBA types: initial markets are small that they often do not perceive them as opportunities.

- Choose small market demand with immediate product adoption.

- First dominate a specific niche and then scale to adjacent markets.

Chapter 6:

- How you perceive the future may dictate your outcome. Are you indefinitely pessimistic, definitely pessimistic, definitely optimistic or indefinitely optimistic.

- Indefinite pessimist: the future is bleak and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

- Definite pessimist: the future is bleak and must be prepared for.

- Definite optimist: the future will be better and everyone must work in a direction to make it better (Entrepeneurs)

- Indefinite optimist: the future will be better but how it will materialize is unforeseeable (law school students).

- Entrepeneurs do not view their future as out of their hands and are optimistic enough to plan for their future. They only sell their company when they have no plans for where they would like to take it.

- Long term planning has become undervalued in a world that only thinks in quarterly cycles and 4 year election cycles.

- A startup is the largest endeavour over which you can have some sort of control over your own destiny.

Ch. 7

- Venture returns don't follow a normal distribution, rather they follow a power law: a small handful of companies outperform all others.

- The biggest secret in venture capital is that the best investment in a successful fund equals or outperforms the entire rest of fund combined. Every investment in your portfolio must have the potential to succeed at a vast scale. Less than 1% of companies started each year receive venture funding.

- You are an investor in yourself. When you choose a career you believe your line of work will be desired in years to come.

- An individual cannot diversify his own life by keeping dozens of possible careers in his back pocket.

Ch. 8

- What company is nobody building?

- Have unorthodox ideas and do not be afraid to hold these ideas. Having mainstream ideas that everyone else has is not a sign of progress. It is thinking with a contrarian-esk perception is where new ideas stem from.

- If you think something is hard you'll never try.

Ch.9 Foundations

- Thiel's law: a startup messed up at the beginning cannot be fixed.

- Bad decisions made early on such as choosing the wrong partners or hiring the wrong people can be very hard to correct after they are made.

- You cannot build something great on flawed foundations.

- When you start something the most important decision is who you start it with.

- Technical abilities and complementary skill sets matter, but how well the founders know each other and how well they work together matter just as much. Founders should have a prehistory before they start a company together otherwise it is just a gamble.

- The benefit of working for yourself is you have sole control of a vision the downside is that you don't gain the benefit of having a team.

- You need good people who get along but you also need a structure to keep everyone aligned for the long term.

- Sources of unalignment: ownership, possession and/ or control. Ownership: who owns equity. Possession: who runs the company on a day to day basis. Control: who governs the company's affairs.

- Be aware when bureaucracy is creeping into your company.

- Refrain from having conflict between investors and founders due to differing interests and priorities. Have a smaller board because the smaller the board the easier it is for people to reach consensus and for control to be exercised. Every person on your board matters because each has the possibility to bring an issue that you may have to deal with so be selective. A board of 3 to 5 is perfect.

- Everyone should be a full time employee (except lawyers and accountants) to keep your company aligned with your goals.

- A company does better the less its CEO makes. A CEO that takes a high salary in startup will defend his pay and the status quo while a CEO that takes less money or money equal to his founders and employees will work hard to ensure problems do not arise and when problems arise to help solve them. A cash poor executive will continually focus on creating value for his or her company.

- Anyone who prefers owning a part of your company rather than being paid in cash reveals a preference for the long term and a commitment to increasing your company's value.

- The most valuable kind of company maintains an openness to invention and new ideas.

Ch. 10

-Do not assemble a team by hiring the most talented people based on a resume or some other arbitrary metric of talent.

- Your time is your most valuable asset and thus create a team you would enjoy spending time with on a shared vision. You want a tight knit group not a team of free agents only looking out for themselves. Hire people who enjoy working together, excited about your vision and talented.

- Always ask yourself why someone would want to work for you not the inverse which is why should I hire them. If they ask why they should work for you you should be able to respond why your mission matters and why your team is a team people likeminded people where they could not afford to not want to join.

- Make every person responsible for doing just one thing by defining roles to reduce conflict. Avoid people overlapping each other doing the same job and thus leading to conflict over the same responsibilities. Eliminate competition among your employees by differentiating their tasks.

Ch. 11

- Never underestimate the importance of sales. Sales works best when hidden. The worst salesmen are the ones who let us know we are being sold to.

- A product is viral if its core functionality encourages users to invite their friends to become users to.

- You must also sell your company to investors and employees. Keep them engaged.

- You should never assume that people will admire your company without a public relations strategy.

Ch. 12

- Computers are complements for humans not rivals or substitutes. The most valuable businesses of the future will be created by entrepreneurs who seek to empower people rather than making people obsolete.

Ch. 13

- Companies should strive to make their product 10X better than their rivals because merely incremental improvements often end up meaning no real improvement at all for the end user.

- Entering a slow moving market can be a good strategy but only if you have a definite and realistic plan to take it over.

- Customers won't care about any particular technology unless it solves a particular problem in a superior way.And if you can't monopolize a unique solution for a small market you will be stuck with vicious competition.

Ask yourself 7 questions

1) Is your technology superior?
2) Is the timing right?
3) Do you have a monopolistic advantage?
4) Have you assembled a good team?
5) Do you have a good distribution chain?
6) How durable is your company?
7) Do you have any insight as to why your company is different?

Ch. 14

- The most important task in business is the creation of new value which cannot be reduced to a formula.

- We need unusual individuals to lead companies beyond mere incrementalism.

Ch. 15

- Always remember the first essential step is to think for yourself.