In operating systems we already have Linux and Android (using Linux) which have way more deployments than Windows. Facebook was not originally conceived of as a dominant social platform it so happened that it turned out to be well liked by millions of people beyond the original community of Harvard students. But the fact that Google search dominates is not really a zero-to-one effect, but a decisive improvement over previously existing internet search engines. It is indeed hard to imagine a new business to threaten the dominance of Google Search or Facebook's social network. The act of creation is singular, as is the moment of creation, and the result is something fresh and strange.' But every time we create something new, we go from 0 to 1. It’s easier to copy a model than to make something new: doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. If you are copying these guys, you aren’t learning from them. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won’t create a social network. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. 'Every moment in business happens only once. I thoroughly enjoyed the book even if I have found myself in violent disagreement with many of its thoughts. Zero to One presents at once an optimistic view of the future of progress in America and a new way of thinking about innovation: it starts by learning to ask the questions that lead you to find value in unexpected places. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique.

Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace.

But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1. It comes from the most important skill that every leader must master: learning to think for yourself.ĭoing what someone else already knows how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. Progress can be achieved in any industry or area of business. Information technology has improved rapidly, but there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley. Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we’re too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notice. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things. The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. If you want to build a better future, you must believe in secrets.

Zero to one thiel