Joe Lonsdale Quotes
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We founded Palantir in 2003-2004 because we perceived a giant gap between how the defense and intelligence community was harnessing technology to achieve its goals and what we had seen was possible in Silicon Valley over the last decade.
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David and Ellen Siminoff are legends in Silicon Valley - they are two of the most influential mentors to top executives and leaders behind the scenes, with long track records of success.
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I am not by any means a philosopher, although I have worked with some talented people in the discipline. But certain philosophical concepts deeply inform the way I think about the world. The idea of 'opposing truths at extremes' is a powerful concept that I came to appreciate in my twenties.
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Government officials and citizens care about many causes - and they all require resources. For example, I am personally passionate about ending the human trafficking that still occurs within our borders.
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I was really lucky about two things about my life as a kid: I had awesome parents, and I had awesome peers.
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As we progress as a species, we will unlock new means for enhancing our lives at every turn - and our conceptions of wealth and poverty will evolve in tandem.
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It always struck me as pretty cool that people who changed the world often knew each other. After reading them separately, hearing that David Hume and Adam Smith were friends made sense.
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We want to inspire everyone to recognize the positive social impact they can have if they choose to become technologists.
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Success gives you a platform for further success - suddenly everybody wants to work with you, and your opportunities and possibilities open up. But at the same time, success is also immensely challenging - it ultimately often creates pride, stubbornness, and sloppiness that beget failure, taking down people and organizations.
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In my experience, it's common that deep truths exist at both extremes of a dialectic, and the wisest stance on an issue will incorporate 'both of the opposites within itself.'
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Applying smarter IT to genomic data may offer the potential to cure many types of cancer and other diseases.
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I have learned that if I only see and deeply appreciate one side of an argument, it means I am probably missing something important.
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Palantir owes much of its success to the amazing talent of the first 30-40 technologists who joined the company, as well as to the internal leadership that helped motivate this core group to achieve its ambitious goals and to continue to attract extraordinary people.
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In their infancy, startups need geniuses who fit their current tight-knit culture and will iterate quickly as they push towards an ambitious vision - and they need a scaffolding of advisors, strategists, early users, and product-thinkers around these savants to guide them.
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In a well-run tech company, small, elite groups who have ownership in the company are given the freedom to define and achieve their tasks in line with a broader mission that they have internalized as their own.
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A common mistake among new entrepreneurs who have raised large rounds is that they have essentially infinite resources.
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The Pentagon should use data to guide financial decision-making.
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Good government is one of the most important factors in economic growth and social well-being.
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One of my biggest intellectual influences in my life was Alex Karp of Palantir.
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Great leaders inspire incredible loyalty in their followers and subordinates.
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There will be trillions of dollars under Addepar. You will have tons of money and information flowing through it.
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Private equity investors are an integral part of the economy and should be celebrated for making our country wealthier.
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Engineering is the art of managing scarcity - it's easy to design and build a massive bridge that will last forever if cost is not an issue. Similarly, to build a new company, you must manage scarce resources.
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A deep concern of mine is that leaders in the technology sector have not developed a culture that insists upon courage, honor, duty, and humility - what we might call a culture of virtue.