[jfabre]

Well, I suggest you search them on youtube to have an accurate representation. They all have multiple interviews available. I will probably butcher them and it's not going to be exhaustive, but from the top of my head:

Peter Thiel: His contrarian views enlightened me many many times, for example his views that higher education is not a temple of knowledge anymore, but a big elitist economic bubble. I also suggest you read his book Zero to One, I liked it a lot.

Elon Musk: One could argue he's not really a thinker, since he's working so much on his businesses. Even so, it's evident that he thinks a lot and very deeply. He's willing to figure out the big picture of what's good for humanity and go all-in on it.

Rand: Her philosophy and her system of values which is in a deep contrast with what is preached everywhere else. This would be a start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQVrMzWtqgU

[uxcolumbo]

Thanks for clarifying.

What’s your view on Thiel supporting Trump? Why would a deep thinker support a charlatan, destructive and narcissistic person like Trump? Zero to one had some good ideas.

And Elon apparently isn’t really a deep thinker. A good hype person… yes. Most of his projects are vanity projects, e.g hyperloop, neurolink, self driving cars etc. He badly wants to be seen as a real life Tony Stark. He’s also a narcissist and a terrible leader… e.g. the hyperloop project was to derail a public transport project.[01]

There is also a good video series outlining Musk’s false claims [02]

And Rand’s ideas are toxic [03]… just look at the state of America… huge inequalities in the richest country of the world. Or UK also getting worse… thanks to a similar mindset. Dog eat dog world… self interest trumps helping others to maintain a stable society.

[01] https://sfist.com/2022/08/11/musk-backlash-continues-with-ti...

[02] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeUvcJUdRK0

[03] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/column-this-is-what-hap...

[jfabre]

I didn't write my choices to start debating them with people. People are more than what you or I think of them. Be mindful of your reductionist view towards other people. You have done that 3 times in your reply.

1- Here's a video explaining his rationale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU5TIKTZzk4

2- Yeah, no. Elon has accomplished more than all of us and it will surely stay that way until we die. So I'm not going to tolerate you calling him a hype person, a narcissist and a terrible leader when he has a track record of immense success. He's aiming high with ambitious ideas, who cares if Hyperloop didn't work after all. Try to make a business successful and see how difficult it is.

3- You seem again, to rely on opinion hit pieces to forge your ideas.

[uxcolumbo]

I believe this forum exists so people like us can have a civilized debate. Hence why I wanted to find out more why you support the people you listed.

1) Supporting Trump - a populist - was a terrible idea. Thiel's rationale doesn't make sense in this context. If you support a known liar and narcissist who doesn't care about the country then you get what we have now - an ever more divided country and 6th of Jan insurrection attempt - where people died.

2) When experts in the field Musk has businesses in are calling him out on his false claims then I think it's not just opinion based but based on fact. When it comes to Hyerloop, he had no intention to make it a success. It was purely to benefit his business - Tesla. Selling Tesla as self-driving cars and people believing it has cost actual lives as well. Again - Elon doesn't care - he only cares about himself. Or what about calling a rescue diver a pedo. This alone tells you a lot about his character.

3) Look at the state of the US - do you think it's going well? A lot of those folks that are in power believe in Rand's ideas.

So it's not opinion based - but observational and listening to the expert and scientific community.

I agree with you - we need bold visionaries - but Thiel and Musk are not those people. Both are exploitative.