Peter Thiel's favorite thinker: Rene Girard

As a philosophy undergrad at Stanford, Peter Thiel took classes with the French thinker Rene Girard. Thiel used what he learnt from Girard to become an investor and entrepreneur worth billions. Here are Girard's top insights on human nature, business, and more👇

Girard wrote, "We desire what others desire because we imitate their desires." Humans are apes, and to ape is to copy. Girard's core insight is we mimic other people's desires, and conflict breaks out when two people desire the same thing.

Our ability to mimic others' desires gives us language, empathy, and effective teamwork. But when a desire multiplies and the object of desire doesn't, mimesis leads to violence too.

Thiel applies the mimetic theory to business. He argues "there's a tremendous value in trying to do things that are new or different" because this breaks the mimetic feedback loop. By chasing a fresh vision, we evade the potential violence of chasing what others are chasing.

In his bestselling book Zero to One, Peter Thiel famously asked startup founders to avoid competition and become a monopoly. Viewed through the Girardian lens, this strategy is an attempt to avoid the mimetic violence of chasing the same customers in a crowded market.

A "0 to 1" business creates a completely new product; a "1 to n" business borrows an existing idea or product and applies it in a different market. 0 to 1 businesses are preferable as they play in a new domain by their own rules instead of bleeding out through competition.

How to avoid conflict. CEOs should "preemptively avoid conflict by making sure roles are differentiated." Employees should have their own clearly demarcated turfs - this avoids a mimetic turf war.

The Facebook investment. Peter Thiel was the first outside investor in Facebook. Facebook's explosive growth was powered by a mimetic dynamic: people wanted to be on Facebook because their friends were on Facebook. It's no accident Thiel was among the first to notice this.

Thiel believes the fate of the 21st century depends on how well we quell the negative aspects of mimesis while using its positive aspects.

Bottom line. Thiel agrees that the translation of theoretical knowledge into practice is "imprecise." But results speak for themselves: Thiel's life shows that the right set of ideas can inspire profitable practical decisions.