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☆ Opinion | Nate Silver on How Kamala Harris Changed the Odds
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-13 | by ( Ezra Klein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +81 min

You know, Hillary Clinton, who was, I think, kind of a terrible candidate, won the popular vote by two points. So I don’t think they gave her a very good hand to play. It doesn’t matter who you are, it matters that you’re right and you’re able to prove it or bet on it in some way. What wasn’t in the Harris model that should have been?” “Yeah, maybe you really can meme your way to victory. And there’s something in it that I don’t think she can explain how she does it, but it makes her a fascinating leader.

Persons: Nate Silver, ”, ESPN’s Nate Silver, Silver, He’s, “ Savage, ” “, he’s, Ezra, Harris, we’ve, Kamala Harris, Donald Trump’s, There’s, Hillary Clinton, she’s, She’s, Gavin Newsom, It’s, Biden, I’m, you’re, Joe Biden, Democratic Party Harris, Liz, —, “, Donald Trump, that’s, George W, Bush, Donald Trump wasn’t, it’s, Michael Jackson, Woody Allen, ’, Chick, don’t, George Floyd, ‘ COVID, COVID, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Michael Moritz, Elon, Mark Cuban, Thiel, Max Chafkin, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Marc Andreessen, Ted Cruz, Sam Bankman, Tom Brady, SBF, Carrick Flynn, Oregon’s, I’m Carrick Flynn, Tara MacAulay, vouched, Bill Clinton, Tyler Cowen, they’ve, Jane, JD Vance, Peter Thiel’s, Vance, Trump, Steve Bannon, Don Trump, Jr, Tucker Carlson, Tim Walz, Josh Shapiro, Tell, you’ve, Shapiro, Walz, I’ve, Iglesias, Obama, Susan Collins, Joe Manchin —, Jon Tester, ” “ Sherrod Brown, I’d, Dana White, Hulk Hogan, Joe Biden’s, — let’s, Mike Donilon, Kennedy, ” “ Tim Alberta, Georgia —, Brian Kemp, Blake Masters, Rick Scott, ” “ Trump, Doug Burgum, Black, didn’t, — Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, Michael Jordan, everyone’s, Nancy Pelosi’s, Nancy Pelosi, Joe ’, we’re, I’ll, John Coates, Richard Rhodes, Natasha Schüll, Natasha Organizations: Oracle, Trump, Democratic Party, Facebook, Twitter, The New York Times, ’ Harvard University, Democratic White House, Republican White House, Democratic, Silver, George, Vegas, Poker, extroversion, Elon, Sequoia Capital, McLaren, Paypal, Republican, New, PAC, Alameda, Las, Ohio Senate, underperform, White, UFC, RNC, Biden, Biden ., National Association of Black Journalists, Deutsche Bank, Manhattan Project, Design Locations: Nate, Russian, Russia, ’, Elon, Florida, predestiny, Bahamas, Sam, Africa, New York, Oregon, Las Vegas, Petersburg, United States, Ohio, Trump, Minnesota, ” “ Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Gaza, Chicago, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada , Arizona, Biden . Georgia, Carolina, Arizona, Ukraine, LA, It’s, Vegas

☆ What JD Vance's rise tells us about the influence of Peter Thiel — and Silicon Valley in the age of Donald Trump
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-26 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Without Peter Thiel, Vance does not get anywhere near the US Senate. And in Silicon Valley, the conservative movement is much stronger, and more muscular than it was before. AdvertisementThere's this narrative, promoted by people like Thiel, that Silicon Valley is super-liberal. Because Silicon Valley has conservative roots in addition to roots in the counterculture. AdvertisementLike I said, the liberal nature of Silicon Valley has always been sort of overplayed.

Persons: —, I'm, Donald Trump, Vance, Peter Thiel —, Max Chafkin, who's, Thiel, Peter Thiel's, Trump, JD Vance, Narya, It's, supercharge, Bill Pugliano, David Sacks, Peter Thiel, revel, that's, he's, Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen, They're, Elon Musk's, Apu Gomes, Steve Jobs, Ben Horowitz Organizations: Service, Republican, Trump, Business, Bloomberg Businessweek, Republican National Convention, YouTube, Ohio Senate, The, Thiel, Twitter Locations: Silicon Valley, Mithril, Narya, Ohio, West Coast, —, America, Silicon, San Francisco

☆ Elon Musk pushed for PayPal's website to be rebranded as X.com more than 20 years ago, but focus groups reportedly thought it sounded like a porn website
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( Gabriel Rivera | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk rebranded Twitter as X over the weekend — a name that has long been one of his favorites. But focus groups thought the name sounded "seedy," according to Musk biographer Walter Isaacson. Musk wanted the company to be rebranded either as X.com or X-PayPal, but his fellow executives disagreed. Several of Musk's brands among his slate of companies include the letter X, including SpaceX and the more recent company xAI. Over the weekend, he changed the company's logo from the iconic blue bird to a white letter X against a black backdrop.

Persons: Walter Isaacson, Elon Musk, Musk, Peter Thiel, Max Levchin, Max Chafkin, Chafkin, Isaacson Organizations: Elon, PayPal, Service, Twitter, musing, SpaceX Locations: Wall, Silicon

☆ Peter Thiel thinks Elon Musk is a ‘fraud,’ and 6 other unexpected details about the billionaires' love-hate relationship
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Dorothy Cucci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Thiel and his allies conspired against Musk and replaced him as PayPal CEO while Musk was on his honeymoon. In a new biography, Max Chafkin shares surprising details about Thiel and Musk's relationship, through all of its ups and downs. Here are seven surprising details about Musk and Thiel that provide a glimpse into their long and often-fraught relationship. A source who spoke to both men said that Musk thinks Thiel is "a sociopath," and Thiel considers Musk "a fraud." Musk and Thiel, while longtime collaborators, are fundamentally opposites: Musk is considered an outgoing, eccentric risk-taker, and Thiel is known as a cautious introvert.

☆ Peter Thiel was the 'puppet master' behind Facebook's political dealings, and 6 other unusual details about the billionaire tycoon's relationship with Mark Zuckerberg
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-08 | by ( Dorothy Cucci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Peter Thiel and Mark Zuckerberg have known each other since 2004, when Thiel became Facebook's first major investor. Some believe Thiel acted as Zuckerberg's "puppet master," and Facebook employees noticed that Zuckerberg seemed to rely on Thiel in an unusual and sometimes concerning way. Zuckerberg told Thiel he should resign from Facebook's board of directors in August 2017. Thiel underestimated Facebook's potential and told Zuckerberg to sell the company in its second year. When Yahoo offered to buy Facebook for $1 billion, Thiel told Zuckerberg to take the deal — but then-22-year-old CEO said no.

☆ Peter Thiel ran an SAT side hustle in high school and charged $500 to take the test for people, according to a former classmate
▼ + stars: | 2021-09-21 | by ( Dorothy Cucci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Those who knew him in grade school say Thiel was a "joyless" childOne of Thiel's classmates told Chafkin, "I can't remember him laughing. In his senior year of high school, Thiel took the SAT for underclassmen for $500 each, according to a classmateThiel, whose own scores were near perfect, seemed bored and careless by the end of high school. Though he knew it could cost him his spot at Stanford, Chafkin says Thiel made an "unbelievably risky" move and started the lucrative side hustle. While at Stanford, Thiel argued that his peers' anti-apartheid positions were overblown and, according to Chafkin, Thiel told a Black student that apartheid "works." A man who used to play with him told Chafkin that Thiel "liked that quiet control" of determining the reality of the game.

☆ Inside the disastrous early days of the Thiel Fellowship and the depression, mental health issues, and drug abuse that followed
▼ + stars: | 2021-09-21 | by ( Dorothy Cucci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

After reading the script for "The Social Network," Peter Thiel didn't like how the film portrayed him. But for some Thiel fellows, the program ended up being "disastrous," according to a new biography about the billionaire entrepreneur and venture capitalist. The staff failed to act quickly enough to help either of them, past fellows told Chafkin. I just need someone to hang out with," one Thiel fellow told Chafkin. One fellow told Chafkin that "they'd come to regard their time with Thiel not as some profound intellectual exercise, but rather, 'a super-smart PR move.'"

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