Zero to One
Peter Thiel with Blake Masters
Read
What I am examining
I keep this for one distinction: copying a product that already exists, or making something that is actually new.
The distinction is not a machine that produces a company. A familiar product, done carefully, can still be the right thing to build.
I have written about this question in First Principles in Product Development. Those notes are mine. They are not a review of the book.
My note
What I keep is the question of whether I am making something new or shipping a variation of a product that already exists. I use it before a screen: who is stuck, what they do today, and what would have to be true for a switch to be worth it. I do not accept the book as a method that produces a company.
Bibliographic note
Peter Thiel with Blake Masters. The full title is Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future. Crown Business, first edition, 2014, ISBN 9780804139298. The copy I read is not recorded. The jacket and the Amazon link are that hardcover.