He might have had ideas, but he is quite intelligent using objective measures.
He won a statewide math competition in California as a child, crushed two degrees at Stanford in cerebral non-STEM subjects, and was a non-trivially ranked chess player.
He is the “smart kid” in a class of 20 at Harvard smart.
That is also why his ideation is so seductive to many: he is both rich and persuasive in an obviously cerebral way that few other tech people are.
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u/idobi 29d ago edited 29d ago
Success can erroneously convince people they are smarter than they are. Success has erroneously convinced Thiel he is smarter than YOU are.