Sam Altman on what he has learned from Peter Thiel

October 01, 2024

Sam reflects on Peter’s ability to come up with evocative, short statements that really stick in your brain (e.g. “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.”):

“I don’t really know anybody else who does that like he does, but he just has very interesting things to say and very interesting ways to say them. With most people you’re lucky to get one or the other, and he’s a very rare combination of both. It’s super impressive.”

Sam believes what makes Peter special is his ability to think about the world in a deeply unconstrained way: “The first thing anybody would say about him is he is a truly brilliant original thinker, and that’s just rare.” Sam doesn’t believe he has this ability but he did learn an important lesson from Peter when he said the biggest investment mistake he ever made was not investing in the Series B of Facebook:

“That is the kind of mistake I try not to make. I’m a big believer in find what is working and go aggressively after it. The really good ideas are rare, and when you find one, you should quadruple down on it… In writing, business, whatever, I really, really believe in this principle.”

P.S. We’ve put together a YouTube playlist with every Sam Altman insight we’ve ever shared. You can watch it here: "Best startup advice from Sam Altman"