> (losing huge amounts of investors' money on hubristic hedge fund bets + lucky VC investments).

Wow, dammed if he does and damned if he doesn't in your eyes.

If he picks a winner it's luck, if he picks a loser, then no luck involved, that was all him.

As someone who sits on the side of trying to pick the winners i can assure you it's extremely hard and alot of work goes into it.

You may not like Peter, but let's try to give some credit where credit is due. He's clearly done many things right in his life.

His idea's might not be worth dismissing out of hand.

> As far as I can tell Thiel's successes are mostly based on tapping his social network. White guys already know how to do that, in theory

Classy

No disrespect to someone I have never met. I am frustrated that you pretend there is a symmetric equivalence between macro hedge fund investing and the world of private placements. Mathematically it couldnt be farther from your silly damned if you do solipsism. It is not Thiel I mind, it is his accolytes.

> I am frustrated that you pretend there is a symmetric equivalence between macro hedge fund investing and the world of private placements.

I never did any such thing:).

I happen to think that both men are worthy of praise.

I do feel the same as you that Elon's accomplishments are more impressive.

Back to your original plea

> let's see more Elon Musk worship, less Peter Thiel worship.

We can have both. Both men have done some pretty impressive things:)

I don't mean to be harsh in any way but as I said I get frustrated sometimes by the hero worship. I can separate that frustration from my admiration for anyone's accomplishments.

His ideas about "picking" maybe, but then, why the hell are we listening to the rest of them?

It takes money to make money. The investors knew this. Don't feel bad about it.