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Clarity comments on Open thread, Oct. 12 - Oct. 18, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: MrMind 12 October 2015 06:57AM

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Comment author: Clarity 14 October 2015 06:20:34AM 0 points [-]

Inspired by an interview answer given by Thiel to Ferris, I ask: 1. How can you become less competitor in order that You become more successful? 2. Who are the smartest people you talk to on an ongoing basis and do you learn from them?

Comment author: [deleted] 15 October 2015 04:04:24AM 1 point [-]

Thiel goes a bit deeper on 1. in his book.

Comment author: Viliam 14 October 2015 10:15:00AM 1 point [-]
  1. How can you become less competitor in order that You become more successful?

Not sure what exactly you meant here. But if you want to avoid being "one of many people doing the same stuff", your options are, approximately:

  • find something no one else does. Problem is, other people may follow you, so this itself is not enough.
  • build a brand. No one else can produce your brand, so now you meta-compete with other brands.
  • establish a monopoly. Try to put yourself in a position where other people can't compete with you because they lack some critical resource.
  • make a cartel with your competitors, or bribe a government official to make competition illegal. This is technically illegal, but not unusual. Be sure you have the right friends, otherwise you may risk prison.
Comment author: Clarity 17 October 2015 04:59:45AM 0 points [-]

The closest thing my country has a functioning libertarian political party is conisdering signing up to a campaign tragedy firm from the USA called i320. They collect data on voters then analyse it and spit out recommendations. But the data collection is done by volunteers from the party. I reckon it will a bad idea because the party won't be able to switch data analytics firms in the future without losing access to data. I happens to meet the party's president the other day and he said to talk to his Vice President. I reckon they could work out a contract to give them data ownership but. I doubt the firm will judge on that front. Any advice?