Gawker, Peter Thiel and me
With the subsequent revelation that Thiel was indeed financially backing the lawyers pursuing Hogan’s invasion of privacy suit, I felt foolish indeed — not the first time a conversation with the whip-smart Denton left me feeling that way. [...] bewildered by the thought that Thiel — the tech entrepreneur and investor I met 16 years ago when he was a co-founder of PayPal — had been so enraged by something I wrote that he reportedly spent $10 million fueling lawsuits like Hogan’s in a bid to put a stop to Gawker’s reporting. From 2007 to 2009, I was the managing editor of Gawker Media’s Valleywag, where I pursued, let’s say, disruptive innovations in reporting about the tech industry. At one point, insiders told me, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg paused her views on gun control long enough to declare to confidantes that she wanted to shoot me. [...] our reporting from deep inside Facebook, where Thiel wielded great influence on a small board of directors, and whose fluctuating valuation as a private company likewise drove the perception of Thiel’s success. Facebook — and some bad — Clarium’s assets shrank by 90 percent and Thiel quietly moved away from the hedge fund business. [...] there’s the much-cited 2007 post I wrote about the puzzling reaction of Silicon Valley’s elite to any discussion of Peter Thiel’s sexuality. In a post where I hailed Thiel, on the basis of his timely and savvy investment in Facebook, as “the smartest venture capitalist in the world,” I asked whether being gay formed part of his identity as an outsider who questioned conventional thinking in business and society. Four years later, Thiel discussed his sexual orientation with the New Yorker’s George Packer in much the same terms: a fact about him, perhaps interesting, but less important, in his view, than others. [...] nothing to merit $10 million thrown at lawyers on unrelated cases. The main character, Andrew Wiggin, roams the galaxy trying to expiate his past sins by serving as an itinerant storyteller who delivers not saccharine eulogies but the true and complete narratives of people’s lives. “What would you do with the rest of your life if you knew you would live that long?” Thiel has asked in discussing his efforts to fund research into extending lifespans. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, speaking about Thiel’s disputes with Gawker at the Code Conference in Los Angeles last week, had this piece of advice: Grow a thick skin.