Conspiracy

Conspiracy

Ryan Holiday

Useful Lies

Self-deception as strategy: the best liars believe themselves.

This transition is common: one can’t see one’s choices as simply selfish or personal or one would never have the strength to do what ultimately needs to be done. In the way that it became important for Thiel to see Gawker as singularly bad, the conspirator takes up, often without consent, the mantle of defending (or freeing) a number of other people as his or her real reason for proceeding. It is a sort of self-serving selflessness, a shield against what is to come and the feelings it will provoke.
Necessary Drag

Removing friction sometimes creates chaos.

Clausewitz said that battle plans were great but ultimately subject to “friction”—delays, confusion, mistakes, and complications. What is friction? ... Friction is the Russian rasputitsa, the endless mud that makes quick work of brilliant plans and bigger armies.
Information Edge

Knowing what others don't creates competitive advantage.

An investor tells me that with each investment, Peter Thiel likes to ask: What do I know about this company that other investors don’t know? In other words: Do we have an edge? It’s only with some sort of informational asymmetry, goes the thinking, that one can not only beat the market but dominate it, and get the kind of return that takes a $500,000 check and turns it into a billion.