It is not especially well written and can’t even clearly describe what Palantir does (perhaps because it kept changing in the early days in what sounded like a chain of consulting projects).
It is better as a biography of Karp and Thiel, and I’ll share the best bits below if you want the TLDR;
But, one notable example of original research: despite Karp’s use of evasive language when asked about the common folklore, Palantir did not play a role in finding Osama Bin Laden.
Ch 2: Spun from a Different Orbit
Karp’s Dad “was strangely competitive with his older son, and even after Alex had taken Palantir public and acquired a vast fortune, his father showed little inclination to acknowledge his success, let alone celebrate it.” (35) [Similar to Elon] “For several years, Alex didn’t speak to his father.” (56)
Neither Karp nor Thiel had television at home. [I too grew up without television]
“’My father wanted to marry a black woman.’… Alex’s realization, years later, that racial and ethnic identity had been foundational to his parents’ relationship was part of the reason he developed a visceral dislike for identity politics. He felt as if he had been the product of virtue signaling, and it bothered him.” (37)
“Dyslexia was the greatest adversity he had ever faced. He was extremely diligent and organized when it came to homework, which his mom attributed to his dyslexia — he craved order.” (41)
“He quickly regretted going to law school. It ended up being ‘the worst three years of my adult life.’ In his view, Stanford Law was just a glorified trade school.” (47) [that is where he met Peter Thiel, who also became disaffected with law]
Ch 7: The Peter Problem
“The company remained an object of scorn and mistrust. This feeling was due in no small part to Thiel, as many Palantirians acknowledged. ‘Peter is our biggest problem,’ one Palantir executive told me.” (170)
After “Thiel has met with several well-known white nationalists during the 2016 campaign” (173)… “Karp felt indebted to Thiel and thought it would have been an act of betrayal to part ways with him just because it might have been expedient. ‘Peter brought me into the game; no one else would have brought me in as a cofounder, no one else would have supported me as CEO,’ Karp said.” (172)
“Thiel told me that he was stepping away from politics. He said he had been shaken by the hostility that he had drawn because of his previous support of Donald Trump” (270) In 2024, “Thiel indicated that his checkbook was now closed, especially to Trump. Trump, in a subsequent conversation, called him ‘a fucking scumbag.’” (272)
The New Orleans fracas: “Preventative policing uses data to identify individuals who, because of where they live, whom they associate with, or their previous behavior, seem at greater risk of committing or falling victim to violent crimes.” (175) “To Karp, the New Orleans fracas was emblematic of what he saw as the left’s descent into mindless dogmatism. He said that many liberals now seemed ‘to reject quantification of any kind. And I don’t see how being anti-quantitative is in any way progressive.’” (178)
Ch 9: The Batshit Crazy CEO
“’I’m insane,’ he said. This perception, he went on to explain, contributed to Palantir’s success. ‘The thing about being viewed as bonkers is that people don’t want to compete with you.’” (217)
“The failed war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, coupled with human rights violations and concerns about privacy and civil liberties, had tainted the fight against terrorism. The Trump years had been fruitful but challenging for Palantir. With Ukraine, however, there were no complicating factors — it was good versus evil, and Palantir was unequivocally on the side of good.” (216)
“Russian soldiers — including, it turned out, commanding officers — were using their personal cell phones to communicate because their military-issued phones didn’t work. This allowed the Americans to identify their precise locations, information then shared with the Ukranians. ‘It was the war on terror all over again. I mean, the one thing we know how to do, we know how to pinpoint you anywhere in the world and kill you. The terrorists who learned to live without their phones survived. Those who didn’t, didn’t.” “Palantir is responsible for most of the targeting in Ukraine,’ Karp said” (219)
“At the heart of DEI, Karp said, was a belief that America’s claim to being a meritocratic society was a lie. But Karp said that Jews stood as inconvenient evidence to the contrary — they had ‘started below anyone else’ and were now ‘arguably the most successful group in America,’ a distinction they had achieved without any assistance and often in the face of great hostility. ‘Jews unravel the whole ideology of DEI,’ he said, and this, in his judgement, accounted to the hatred now being at them on campuses. Karp claimed that DEI was ‘the precursor to antisemitism’ and needed to be dismantled.” (246)
Karp published a book called The Technological Republic. It’s central argument was that the cultural relativism that supposedly held sway on college campuses had undermined the Amercian Project and that a new tech-driven nationalism was needed to keep American, and by extension, the West, dominant.” (279) “Some critics regarded the book as a pitch for techno-authoritarianism.” (280) [I also reviewed that book, in the comments below.]
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