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.

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