The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 9 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Strachman: Early media backlash targeted individual Thiel Fellows directly
“Reporters targeted specific fellows, people like Dale Stevens.”
Strachman: The American gap year did not exist before the Thiel Fellowship
“The American gap year did not exist when the fellowship started. It was not a thing. No one talked about taking gap years here, and now it's super common.”
Strachman: Thiel started the public conversation about the higher education bubble
“What's wonderful about the fellowship is that people talk about the cost of higher ed now and the education bubble and the crazy inflation that it's outpaced without ever mentioning Peter. Like people have forgotten that he's actually the one who started that …”
Strachman predicts AGI will arrive in seven to ten years
“I think 20 years is too far out. I think five years is probably too soon. Yeah, I don't know. I want to say between seven and 10, something like that.”
Strachman: O'Shaughnessy Ventures and 776 modeled fellowships on Thiel Fellowship
“Like you look at O'Shaughnessy Ventures, seven, seven, six, these types of programs are very much modeled off of things like the Teal Fellowship.”
Strachman: Almost all inaugural Thiel Fellows voluntarily relocated to SF group houses
“When we first set up the program, we didn't, and we never had any sort of mandate about moving to San Francisco or anything like that. But the first year, almost all of them came to San Francisco, which was a bit of a surprise because we assumed they would Kin…”
Strachman: Thiel Fellowship originally set up SF startup house Mission Control
“Mission Control is a startup house that's been around now for probably about 13 years. And we originally set up that house for fellows, and then it's gotten sort of passed on to friends of friends.”
Strachman: Thiel Fellowship's '20 Under 20' concept was brainstormed on a flight
“Jim and Peter and Luke Nozick had flown back on a plane from New York. This was right before the Sarah Lacy interview the next morning, actually. And I think they sort of brainstormed this number of 20 people, and then the idea of, like, 20 under 20”
Strachman: Thiel Fellowship launched before assembling a dedicated program team
“There was no team. I mean, there was Jonathan Cain, who was the president of the foundation, Jim O'Neill, who is, is now at HHS. He was on the board of the foundation Michael Gibson. That was his first day of work actually. And he wasn't expecting to be there …”