I’ve been enthralled in Thiel’s new book, Zero to One. I find myself taking much more notes then usual, which is credit to his distilled thinking.
One of the most interesting examples he gave was to prove his counterintuitive, but poignant point on competition. paraphrased ->
We are indoctrinated to love competition. Grades measure exactly our competitiveness. You are taught the same style on the same subject.
As we go up into higher education, it gets worse. You reach higher and higher levels of competition, until your dreams are beaten out of you.
This is the place where your dreams of being great die, as you become involved in intense competition with similarly strong peers on trivial and conventional jobs like management consulting.
Why not create, learn in a way that suits your strengths?