In the real world outside economic theory, every business is successful exactly to the extent that it does something others cannot. Monopoly is there… - Peter Thiel

In the real world outside economic theory, every business is successful exactly to the extent that it does something others cannot.

in exchange for better insurance contracts, we seem to have given up the search for secrets about longevity.

Fourth is “flatness.” As globalization advances, people perceive the world as one homogeneous, highly competitive marketplace: the world is “flat.” Given that assumption, anyone who might have had the ambition to look for a secret will first ask himself: if it were possible to discover something new, wouldn’t someone from the faceless global talent pool of smarter and more creative people have found it already?

Americans mythologize competition and credit it with saving us from socialist bread lines. Actually, capitalism and competition are opposites. Capitalism is premised on the accumulation of capital, but under perfect competition all profits get competed away.