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Peter Thiel’s CS183: Startup - Class 2 Notes

blakemasters.tumblr.com

108 points by huetsch 14 years ago · 20 comments

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bannerts 14 years ago

Here is a link to his notes from the first lecture in case if anyone is interested: http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/post/20400301508/cs183class1

karpathy 14 years ago

I'm auditing the class as well and I like it quite a lot. Make sure to not get TLDR discouraged and at least scroll all the way down for the (very amusing) video that was played in class. Direct link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6IQ_FOCE6I&feature=playe... from 2007 but still semi-relevant :)

jcc80 14 years ago

Being in my early 30s, it's pretty funny to think about someone in college today taking notes about the late 90s. It doesn't make me feel old...yet.

coopdog 14 years ago

Loved this. As someone who was into tech but oblivious to the tech scene in the 90's this was incredibly useful, will read as many as you write!

(anyone know if there are videos of the lectures available?)

yanowitz 14 years ago

From the notes: "by late 1998, the NASDAQ was at about 1400—just 400 points higher than it was in August ’95. "

A 40% increase in a stock index in ~3 years is an amazingly huge bull market and the sense of frothiness was everywhere at the time. In general, telescoping the "bubble" to 18 months doesn't make sense to me -- the craziness really started with the Netscape IPO. But it was a hockey stick and so those 28 months of the curve look particularly crazy.

Create 14 years ago

College dropout advocate Peter Thiel to teach course at Stanford

http://www.mercurynews.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/pr...

  • pgbovine 14 years ago

    I know you're being snarky, but I really don't see the contradiction. These students haven't graduated yet, so they can still drop out if they're inspired by his class.

    • grogs 14 years ago

      Moreover, he likely advocates/d dropping out because college courses are not useful in the industry... By teaching himself, he can change/influence that.

villagefool 14 years ago

Sorry for the ignorance, but who is Nolan that is listed as the second lecturer of the course? (tried Googling)

mukaiji 14 years ago

I'm in that class. The stories about his awesomeness are all true.

rshe 14 years ago

good read, thanks for posting these notes!

chrismealy 14 years ago

No girls!

"Facebook Backer Wishes Women Couldn’t Vote" http://gawker.com/5231390/

  • patricklynch 14 years ago

    If you have any legitimate criticisms of Peter Thiel, or the essay mentioned in that gawker article ( http://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/the-educa... ), please consider elaborating on them in a new post. I'm sure many here would be interested.

    But linking to gawker in the comments of an unrelated story probably isn't the best way to express your concerns.

    • javajosh 14 years ago

      >But linking to gawker in the comments of an unrelated story probably isn't the best way to express your concerns.

      I agree that the concern should be expressed differently, but the concern sounds genuine. The OP is a lay-history of Silicon Valley of the 90's and it's very interesting history at that. Concerns about the historian's background are not ad hominem attacks; they are relevant to understanding the narrative. For example, I was personally unaware that Thiel is a die-hard libertarian, and agree or disagree, surely that colors his narrative and affects my interpretation of it to some extent.

      To use Thiel's own (quite wonderful) metaphor that culture is like a dinner conversation, it's important to know who these people are that are at the table.

    • chrismealy 14 years ago

      My legitimate criticism of Thiel is that he's a sexist creep.

      • patricklynch 14 years ago

        That's not what I meant by legitimate criticism.

        Go write a compelling, well-cited account of all the things he's done to upset you or--even better--all the ways he's discriminated against women.

        Publish it somewhere. On a blog, in a municipal paper, on TechCrunch, whatever. If you can actually write that story, do it. Make it good enough that people care.

    • factorizer 14 years ago

      Why would anyone want to discuss the ideas of uneducated people? What next? Ayn Rand?!?

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