Rich Guy Philosophers Hit Silicon Valley

For some time now, there’s been a tendency on Wall Street for rich guys to become philosophers – think George Soros and his reflexivity thesis, or Ray Dalio and his little red book of self-criticism. Now, that trend seems to be coming to Silicon Valley – witness PayPal founder and investor Peter Theil’s new book Zero to One, which, among other things advises young people to drop out of college to do tech start ups (this from a guy with double Stanford degrees). While I agree with Theil’s advice that people should think different (a la Steve Jobs) to really come up with ground breaking innovations, I fear that this book may herald a new era of tech gurus who imagine themselves public intellectuals simple because they’ve made a lot of money.

Joe Nocera and I discussed the topic on this week’s WNYC Money Talking, along with where the tech industry itself is headed in the wake of Apple’s new product announcements.