Zero to One
When they announced lockdown in late March, I decided to read Zero to One once again. Because, why not? Considering it’s my favourite book of the decade. In the first chapter, Peter Theil who’s a prominent figure in Silicon Valley and is known for his early stage investment in Facebook starts with his contrarian question “What important truth do very few people agree with you on?”. Then he goes on to explain what Zero to One means and why it’s opposite to globalization.
Zero to One means making vertical technological progress, creating things no one has ever created. Invention of Semiconductors is one such example. Globalization is opposite to that, copying things that already worked somewhere. After narrating his first hand experience during the dot-com bubble in chapter two, he again asks a business version of contrarian question
“What valuable company is no one building?” and then compares Google with Airline Industry.
In subsequent chapter he argues that Capitalism and Competition are opposite things, explains the benefit of being a last mover in a particular industry, why people don’t understand power law, finding secrets where others don’t see anything, foundation of a great startup, his Paypal mafia, why sales is as important as technology itself and many more. This is a must read if you’re starting up in the future, love technological breakthroughs or you want to know the mind of a contrarian.
Rating : 5 / 5
