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J. Gray Dingler

@jgraydingler.bsky.social

1.1K followers 51 following 1.9K posts

Never get too comfortable on any one social media platform. None of them are trustworthy and none of them are obligated to remain functional.

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J. Gray Dingler

@jgraydingler.bsky.social

Yeah, but he did recently admit to DOING 9/11 on I think his Instagram when he posted this.

A photo of Rudy Giuliani superimposed over the smoke billowing out one of the World Trade Towers created by 9/11 attack. And beside it is the guy from the screaming cowboy meme doing... well it's in the name.

November 11, 2025 at 3:46 PM

J. Gray Dingler

@jgraydingler.bsky.social

It's easier to lie to others if you're already lying to yourself to avoid confronting a difficult truth about yourself.

Like if you're so desperate for approval that you constantly fake interest in things you think will make others like you... and everyone knows it... especially Joyce Carol Oates.

But it may take practice to feel comfortable with this way of being in the world—to cancel plans, decline invitations, negotiate contracts, critique others' work, all while being honest about what one is thinking and feeling. To do this is also to hold a mirror up to one's life—because a commitment to telling the truth requires that one pay attention to what the truth is in every moment. What sort of person are you? How judgemental, self-interested, or pretty have you become?

You might discover that some of your friendships are not really that—perhaps you habitually lie to avoid making plans, or fail to express your true opinions for fear of conflict. Whom, exactly, are you helping by living this way? You might find that certain relationships cannot be honestly maintained. Of course, we all have associations...

November 11, 2025 at 8:32 AM

J. Gray Dingler

@jgraydingler.bsky.social

I don't know if I agree "lying is the lifeblood of addiction" but it does make me think about what if someone is both a drug addict and a habitual liar? Each of those would make the other exponentially worse I'd expect. You can't be trusted and you have a drug addiction? You need an intervention.

Honesty can force any dysfunction in your life to the surface. Are you in an abusive relationship? A refusal to lie to others—How did you get that bruise?—would oblige you to come to grips with this situation very quickly. Do you have a problem with drugs or alcohol. Lying is the lifeblood of addiction. If we have no recourse to lies, our lives can unravel only so fat without others' noticing.

Telling the truth can also reveal was in which we want to grow but haven't. I remember learning that I had...

November 11, 2025 at 8:16 AM

J. Gray Dingler

@jgraydingler.bsky.social

Avoid embarrassment, exaggerate accomplishments, cover-up wrongs, broken promises, conceal DEFECTS IN THEIR PRODUCTS, MISLEAD THE COMPETITION TO GET AN EDGE?!

Wait, is Sam Harris writing ABOUT Elon Musk here?

Oh wait, lie to spare someone's feelings?
No, he's not. My mistake.

People tell lies for many reasons. They lie to avoid embarrassment, to exaggerate their accomplishments, and to disguise wrongdoing. They make promises they do not intend to keep. They conceal defects in their products or services. They mislead competitors to gain advantage. Many of lie to our friends and family members to spare their feelings.

November 11, 2025 at 8:04 AM

J. Gray Dingler

@jgraydingler.bsky.social

So the next book on Elon's list I looked at is "Lying". You'd assume it's an instruction manual but it's actually about how lying... is wrong.

Lying to protect yourself from harm (say from ICE)? That's an "exceptional" situation and it sounds like the book is mostly focused on everyday white lies.

The cover of "Lying" by Sam Harris, which features those words on a blank white background but with a fishing hook forming the "G" and fishing line attached to it.

November 11, 2025 at 7:07 AM

J. Gray Dingler

@jgraydingler.bsky.social

Checking 2-star reviews, I see a few of the "business" types didn't like it for a variety of reasons. Like being "anti-capitalist" or having "political correctness". Not words I associate with Peter Thiel.

One person mentions Peter's "sketchy bloodline." And another got a copy without chapter 4.

2 out of 5 stars - Monopolists Manifesto

I was expecting, based on the title, insights for entrepreneurs. Instead, I find an anti-capitalist (anti-competition, specifically) manifesto that relies on distantly relevant and perhaps misleading historical interpretations. The only actionable information is this: plan your startup to become a monopoly. Dominate a small market then move into neighboring markets. But don't disrupt existing monopolies because they will crush you. So what you really need is to find a niche with no competition and then expand into niches that have no big competition. There really comprise only a few lines in the book...there's no in depth information.

"There's no such thing as luck" is stressed. The book does not deny that the small group of people who start with advantages in life, especially money, end up with more advantages and money. (Thiel himself is the son of a highly educated father and went to Ivy League Sandford for his bachelors in philosophy then stayed on for a post-grad degree in law.) In fact, Thiel calls this a "Power Law" and says it is "nature" (and possibly biblical given the chapter opens with a bible quote but not cultural and not changeable). So, he makes the unusual recommendation in a book for entrepreneurs that they should not attempt to start their own business.

There was one unique argument I hadn't heard before: monopolies, alone, have the wealth necessary to 1) innovate and 2) treat and pay their employees well. Capitalist firms who have to engage in cut-throat competition can't afford these luxuries. They have to "iterate" instead of really innovating and treat their employees poorly in order to reduce costs. He uses Google as an example of a monopoly that is known to treat its employees well and to be constantly innovating. However, the time when Google was famous for being a fun work environment was in the early days--back when it needed to compete with other monopolies for top-notch programmers.

2 out of 5 stars - Little useful information or insight - mostly a pointless time-waster
Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2024

Bought this for an MBA program. There are a couple of chapters worth of useful information; the rest is self-indulgent, pseudo-intellectual rambling filler. His broad generalizations are unsupported and primarily seem to stem from personal anecdotes. His "Power Law" is poorly defined and articulated. The "seven questions for every company" are useful. The subtle orthodox political correctness undermines the book almost entirely. His PC critiques of "green energy" companies and "oligarchs" are implausibly ignorant; he's crafting disinformation to have something to say without saying what he knows to be true. The establishmentarian political correctness is an entirely unforced error, IMO. Uncritically citing PayPal's racist betrayal of Americans to make a minor point, for example. The book is also characterized by long, rambling filler stories that aren't worth the time to read them. If you're required to read this, you wouldn't miss anything buy buying one of those short summary books/audiobooks.

Minus 3 stars for political correctness and rambling pseudointellectual filler.

2 out of 5 Stars - Worst book on entrepreneurial success I’ve read
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2025

This book is more of a book on the author's worldview moreso than it is to help curious business owners' take action to get things running. Arguably the lowest return I’ve gotten out of reading any self help / educational book.

Although his worldview is valid, he comes across as air headed and self-absorbed to the point that a lot of his views seem out of touch. the only real actionable steps were the content involving the 7 questions, which were decently insightful. A ton of stories that just get repetitive & felt like filler as the book progressed.

A ton of safe and cliche motivational stuff were thrown in randomly too. Like he wanted to save his credibility or pay the user back for listening like a transaction. The book could have been organized better to have different sections focusing on each aspect (his world view, the 7 q's, then the mindset) but it threw all 3 at the reader in a disorganized way.

Plus, I am now learning that the author is a very immoral person with a sketchy bloodline and connections. Very easy to Google and see what he’s doing in the business & political world as of 2025. It makes sense now why his book seems so far out there compared to other books I’ve read.

2 out of 5 Stars - Your missing chapter 4
Book does not have chapter 4. Book has two chapter 6.

And there's a thumbnail of the open book, which I can tell you is for a video that shows this book has chapter 6 printed twice, one before and once after chapter 5.

November 11, 2025 at 6:16 AM

J. Gray Dingler

@jgraydingler.bsky.social

So the first review I look at it... is kinda suspect? I'd say it feels like AI wrote this but it was posted in 2016. Part of it is English isn't this person's first language but I also think Thiel attracts a certain audience. The only 1-star review they left was for a book debunking race science...

A review posted on Amazon for Peter Thiel's book: Zero to One - 1/4

5. out of 5 stars - A Propely Prescribed pair of Specacles that puts the world in focus
Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2016
Verified Purchase

This book is like a pair of Prescription Spectacles that put the Innovation Startup Business world, into Sharp Focus.

When I first saw the price I almost hit exit. However, I thought “If this guy has the balls to ask this price, this book had better be good”. Else I'm going to roast him in my Amazon review. I ain't roasting!!

As usual I attacked reading this book in concept extraction mode for my normal initial scan read. Chapter 6, You are not a Lottery Ticket, hit me with a Baseball bat right between the eyes. and slowed my reading pace down to almost snails'. Despite this slow first read, this Chapter deserved a re-read, at almost letter by letter speed. Almost every word or phrase brings an idea from the past, often vague, to the fore and into sharp focus. When I finished my first highlighting trip, almost every word in this chapter was lit. I had to choose and eliminate some of them.

In Zero to One, Thiel explores the world of New Business Creation. I would have loved using the word entrepreneurship but excessive and inappropriate use by “experts” have stripped this word of it's true meaning. We even invented a new version in South Africa under the ANC – Tenderpreneur.

True entrepreneurship from basics is the creation of a New business that facilitates Economic Development by providing an Inventive New Product creating a New Market Sector that facilitates New Consumer Productivity enhancing opportunities.

A review posted on Amazon for Peter Thiel's book: Zero to One - 2/4

In Thiel's thesis, basic human attitudes can be split into a 2x2 matrix. I also tend to think in 2x2 matrixi. So this chapter fitted my mind. But Wow did he blow my mind with his various Definite vs Indefinite and Optimistic vs Pessimistic discussions. Despite many years in multinational business I could not fault the Author on any of his explanations. He clarified a lot for me. One of them “strategically humble” is certainly a new, yet valid descriptor for a company with a profitable monopoly. Yet in their Financial market press releases, they deliberately select a market description that yields for them a minority market share in a large market and not their true market share in the niche they dominate totally. (Are they hiding from Monopoly acuzations?)

A few key quotes.
”In the 1950's, Americans thought big plans for the future were too important to be left to experts”. (San Francisco Dam)

Ralph Waldo Emmerson is quoted as saying “Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances …...... Strong men believe in cause and effect.”

“you should do what you could, not focus on what you couldn't” Is to my mind the Quote of the Year.

Another hand clapper was “No one pretended that misfortune didn't exist, but prior generations believed in making their own luck by working hard”

I consider the following a nice funny; When Peter had to use either the words he or she in his text he seemed to consistently use she. I suppose this enables him to duck accusations of Sexism. Showing signs of being scared of Indefinite Pessimists?

“We have to find our way back to a definite future, and the Western World needs nothing short of a cultural revolution to do it.”
“ A startup is the largest endeavor over which you can have definite mastery. You can have agency not just over your own life,
but over a small and important part of the world. It begins by rejecting the unjust tyranny of Chance”

A review posted on Amazon for Peter Thiel's book: Zero to One - 3/4

The rest of the book is devoted to discussing the practicalities of founding Innovative Startups successfully. These are focused at exploiting what is commonly considered a secret simply because nobody has really explored it before. Their uniqueness create innovative monopoly opportunities - the key source of profit.

One of the issues discussed is; Power Law; We all know the Pareto principle is valid and 80-20 describes the unequal distribution of results in everything. Peter adds these considerations;

“It defines our surroundings so completely that we usually don't see it”.

He continues with; “but everyone needs to know exactly one thing that even venture capitalists struggle to understand: we don't live in a normal world; we live under power law.”

In this way many other facets of Startup founding are discussed practically.

A review posted on Amazon for Peter Thiel's book: Zero to One - 4/4

In the end I came away with the following thought pattern;

A potential successful startup founder is someone who is a Definite Optimist with a long term perspective, prepared to take risks. Who has a mind open enough to identify factual or human secrets that need illumination. Who is prepared to do the hard work necessary to acquire the factual knowledge needed to explore this secret and find a way to change this mystery into a solution. Who is capable of funding this idea or selling it to Venture Funders to acquire funding. Who is prepared to expend the effort to develop the idea into a useful practical end product that solves something significant for a new market sector. AND; Who then has the flexibility to turn around from dreaming, research and creativity. To then display the tenacity to knuckle down to make this idea work in practice, prepared to live through the low personal income initial loss making era, building the practical business.

Thanks – A stimulating read, well worth the time and money – even for retired me!

12 people found this helpful

November 11, 2025 at 5:37 AM

J. Gray Dingler

@jgraydingler.bsky.social

I guess I could ask Blinkist to summarize this for me, but I'm just gonna look at some of its Amazon reviews. Kinda crazy there's not a SINGLE one-star rating for this despite nearly 39,000 ratings. I'm not sure if I've EVER seen that before. Typically there's always one grouch leaving a bad review.

The Customer Reviews segment for Zero to One on Amazon. It has an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars over 38,981 global ratings, with the following the distribution of scores.
64% gave it 5 stars.
26% gave it 4 stars.
9% gave it 3 stars.
1% gave it 2 stars.
0% gave it 1 stars. (Apparently there's not a single 1 star review)

November 11, 2025 at 4:52 AM

J. Gray Dingler

@jgraydingler.bsky.social

Anybody actually look at that list of books Elon Musk supposedly recommended?

Cause I did, and although I'll risk sounding dumb by admitting I don't read books as much as I should, I'm pretty confident there's some really stupid shit on here.

One of them is by Peter Thiel (with Blake Masters).

Blinkist's cover art for "Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future" by Peter Thiel with Blake Masters (doing what I don't know).

And there's a very simple cartoon rocket skip taking off against a blue background.

November 11, 2025 at 4:44 AM

J. Gray Dingler

@jgraydingler.bsky.social

The only thing that parasite gives to the rest of the world is the amusement of seeing him repeatedly humiliate himself in increasingly ridiculous ways.

Drop in the bucket compared to what he siphons out but like hell if I'm not gonna SAVOR it.