The following is a summary of Zero to One: Notes on Startups or How to Build the Future. I do not claim to own any of the book's original work, the following is simply a bulleted summarization with a few direct quotes. All copyrights and trademarks belong to their respective owners. Chapter 14 - The Paradox:

• Are all founders unusual people?
  • Normal people follow a bell curve with normal being the middle/top
    • Founders would be at the end
  • Founders follow an inverse normal distribution
  • The most famous people in the world are founders too
• Where Kings Come From:
  • Leaders are given all fame/infamy
    • A scapegoat
  • Founders are the same way
• We need founders
• Individual prominence is good and bad, and can go between the two at any moment
• Do not overestimate your own power
• This chapter is odd
  • Thiel looks at many historical and pop culture icons and examines them
  • This barely ties into the theme of the book

  Conclusion - Stagnation or Singularity?:

• Thiel sees four possible futures:
  • Recurrent collapse
    • Society build, collapses, and repeats
  • Plateau
    • Society plateaus and stays relatively the same
  • Extinction
    • We do not survive
  • Takeoff
    • Exponential growth of society
• Thiel sees takeoff as a more possible outcome
  • The most extreme is the singularity
    • Superhuman Artificial Intelligence is created
• No matter what the future won’t happen on its own
• Our job is to find ways to make the future better and new by going from zero to one
• The first step is to think for yourself

  If you've liked this summary, I highly recommend you get the full book here: Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future < Previous Chapter | Overview - Alec Kriebel