Competition as Ideology, and How to Escape It
Why do smart people crowd into competitive markets at all? Thiel, drawing on his teacher Rene Girard, blames imitation. Humans learn by copying, and we copy desires too: we want things because other people want them. Competition is not just an economic condition, it is an ideology we are trained into from childhood.
The whole system reinforces it. School ranks everyone on the same tests. Elite students compete for the same handful of firms and credentials. Thiel's own story: he chased a Supreme Court clerkship, lost, and only later realized winning that prize would have kept him from ever starting a company. The hardest competitions to see are the ones you are proud to be in.
Rivalry also makes companies dumber. Microsoft and Google fought each other across search, browsers, phones, and office software while Apple sailed past both of them. Fixating on a rival means copying their moves and inheriting their blind spots. The escape is to ask a different question entirely: what valuable company is nobody building?
“If you can recognize competition as a destructive force instead of a sign of value, you are already more sane than most.”
Key idea
We compete because we imitate each other's desires, not because the fight is worth winning. The most valuable opportunities sit where nobody is looking.