#31 Conspiracy: Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue and Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

**David Senra** (0:00)
So, just a quick update before we get into the podcast. I decided to get rid of ads. In my day-to-day life, I avoid ads like the plague. I pay for YouTube premiums, so I never have to see ads. I use a browser with a built-in ad blocker, and I fast-forward ads and podcasts. I do whatever I can to avoid ads because I know they are effective. To quote one of the books that I talk about on the podcast today, zero to one, advertising matters because it works. It works on nerds, and it works on you. You may think that you're an exception, that your preferences are authentic, and advertising only works on other people. It is easy to resist the most obvious sales pitches, so we entertain confidence in our own independence of mind. Anyone who can't acknowledge its likely effect on himself is doubly deceived. End quote. It is not the best experience for you, the listener, and I found myself trying to make podcasts that appeal to more people. I started making shorter podcasts because more people are likely to listen to 35 minutes than two hours. But that is in direct conflict with my goal here. My goal is to find ideas in these books that are useful for founders, entrepreneurs, or anybody else trying to create something. There shouldn't be a time limit on that. So here's what I'm going to do. Every podcast I create will be ad-free. I will release a new podcast every Monday. And every other podcast will be a podcast and will be a premium episode available on Patreon. If you like this podcast and you want more, then you can easily get access. And no one has to listen to any ads. Just useful ideas.
So that's it. Without further ado, please enjoy what is my longest podcast to date. And as always, thanks for listening.
The line attributed to the management guru Peter Drucker is that culture eats strategy. It's a truism that applies as much to conspiracies as it does to businesses. It doesn't matter how great your plan is. It doesn't matter who your people are. If what binds them all together is weak or toxic, so too will be the outcome, if you even get that far. But if the ties that bind you together are strong, if you have a sense of purpose and mission, you can withstand great trials.
So that was a paragraph I came across while reading the book that I want to talk to you about today, Conspiracy, Peter Thiel, Hulk Hogan, Gawker, and the Anatomy of Intrigue by Ryan Holiday. And today is going to be a little different. Normally, each podcast that I do is centered around one book. Today is centered around two. So a few years ago, I read Peter Thiel's book Zero to One, which as far as business books go, contains almost no fluff. It's relatively short, about 180, 190 pages, something you could easily read in a weekend.
And as I was halfway through a podcast on Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, I started listening to the audiobook of Conspiracy. So before I listened to the book and then read it after, I knew very little about Gawker or anything about the trial and the underlying Conspiracy. But once I started listening, the story was so compelling that I devoured the audiobook. It's I think 11 hours. I listened to the entire thing in like four days. And the entire time I was listening to it, I would hear echoes or reminders of some of the principles talked about in Zero to One. So I decided that I'm going to do the podcast on Peter Thiel using both the books. So I'm going to be talking about conspiracy first, and then we're going to see some of the principles that were applied successfully in this conspiracy. You're going to see them also resurface in Zero to One. And the entire time of this podcast, what I want you to do is really, when we're using the word conspiracy, think of the word business or project or art or whatever it is that you're making or that you want to do in life, the reason that you would be listening to a podcast about founders. Because to me, yeah, the story is very compelling and it is an interesting conspiracy. But I think the same principles that apply from a successful conspiracy are the exact same principles that can lead to a successful business or endeavor or whatever it is that you want to do with your life. At least that's what I took away from it when I was reading. As usual, this is not meant to be a summary or a book review. It's just me sharing some interesting parts that I highlighted, that I leave notes on, that I learned from in the hopes that when you listen to this, you come away with something valuable for your own life. Let's go ahead and jump right into it.