What important truth do very few people agree with you on?

Originally asked

Peter Thiel, to job candidates, Zero to One, chapter 1, 2014

Peter Thiel, Zero to One, chapter 1, where it is introduced as his job-interview question. Thiel supplies his own standard: a good answer takes the form "most people believe x, but the truth is the opposite of x."

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Peter Thiel said elsewhere, not written here
My own answer to the contrarian question is that most people think the future of the world will be defined by globalization, but the truth is that technology matters more. Without technological change, if China doubles its energy production over the next two decades, it will also double its air pollution. If every one of India's hundreds of millions of households were to live the way Americans already do — using only today's tools — the result would be environmentally catastrophic. Spreading old ways to create wealth around the world will result in devastation, not riches. In a world of scarce resources, globalization without new technology is unsustainable.

Excerpt from Zero to One (2014), reproduced by Quartz, Quartz (quoting Zero to One), 2018 source ↗

Others on this question

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Peyton Manning American football quarterback
They always say,  “Don’t take your job home.” When you go home, don’t take it. I don’t agree with that.
Recorded American Academy of Achievement interview, 22 June 2007 source ↗
David Vélez Co-founder and chief executive of Nubank
Pix is probably the most successful payment infrastructure run by a government in history. I think Pix has been what has allowed a country like Brazil to leapfrog developed economies like the U.S. and in Europe, and has positioned Brazil today probably five years ahead of the U.S. I don't think anybody understands that, and probably in the U.S. they didn't really expect that.
Recorded Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez, interview, Fortune, 9 October 2023 source ↗
François Ozon Film director and screenwriter
I think they have no duty. But we do have the opportunity, not to change the world, but to make people think differently.
Recorded Mersa Auda, The Upcoming, 30 May 2018 source ↗
Adam Zagajewski Poet and essayist
Why ardor? Because, I think, there’s not enough of it in our time. Or, at least in our literature. There’s too much lukewarm irony, too much sophisticated indulgence. The tragic dimension disappears in this intellectual environment. That’s why ardor is to be defended.
Recorded Anna Maria Hong, Poets & Writers, 13 August 2004 source ↗

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David Vélez, Hiroshi Mikitani, Jensen Huang, Henry R. Kravis, Jacqueline Novogratz, François Ozon

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