From Zero to One

Peter Thiel is a multi-faceted character, some of which are highly questionable, such as the one who finances Palantir, whose military contracts are controversial, to say the least, or the one who has largely supported Donald Trump, to name a few.

But Peter Thiel is also a "Maverick", who has set up many companies including Paypal, who was present at the first round of financing of Facebook and who has demonstrated his talent as a visionary in many ways. As such, From Zero to One can be considered as one of the best business books ever. His reading of the world and more particularly the economic world is quite destabilizing. His intuitions on the need to eradicate all competition to increase margins, even if they are morally questionable, are nonetheless explained with a candour that we can salute. Or the way he attacks startups that replicate an existing business model rather than launching an original activity is masterful.

What is surprising is that many of the tips mentioned here are only superficially mentioned in most management books. So it's hard, in all honesty, not to rank this book among the best books on digital culture and innovation.