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Intellectual breakthroughs come from those willing to follow contrarian thoughts into forbidden territories without regard for prevailing wisdom.

Evidence for

Conclusions the firm has recorded that cite this principle or sit in its supporting cluster.

• Thiel has a rare willingness to follow a thought no matter where it leads.
  tier · open · cited by principle draft
• Thiel naturally thought in grand, civilizational trends and was congenitally disposed to disagree with whatever the moment’s prevailing wisdom happened to be.
  tier · open · cited by principle draft
• Thiel thinks differently because he is willing to traverse the expanses of thought unafraid.
  tier · open · cited by principle draft
• Thiel’s intellectual power stems from an unusual mind, defined by reflexive contrarianism and a willingness to follow thoughts into forbidden territories.
  tier · open · cited by principle draft

Evidence against

Open-tier conclusions in the same cluster — claims the firm has not yet promoted to firm or founder confidence, and which would weaken this principle if they hold up.

• If there is one thing I hope to convey through this essay, it is a better appreciation for the rich connections between Thiel’s various ideas.
  tier · open
• Thiel’s high openness draws him toward off-piste ideas and attracts unusual contrarian founders.
  tier · open

Lineage

The temporal lineage view stitches every step that produced this principle — sources, claim extraction, methodology profiles, reviews — into a single trace.

Open lineage