Peter Thiel’s startup class notes in PDF

At around 27MB download, this notes PDF is more of a medium sized book. I browsed the first few pages and it looks great. Will need a few hours to study it and get into Peter's head to see how he sees the world.

swah2• 14 years ago

I found the original notes much easier to consume: http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/peter-thiels-cs183-startup/

The pdf has a very big font, probably for reading on the Kindle.

andreasklinger7• 14 years ago

Yes it's made for the kindle. Sorry. I figured too late i could have done it as html converted mobi/epub file.

maxprogram2• 14 years ago

And the same thing in "book" version ready to print/read:

http://img.atlastory.com/PeterThielOnStartups.pdf

andreasklinger7• 14 years ago

Very nicely made. Thanks for sharing.

zachwill• 14 years ago

Thanks for this. Looks fantastic, Max.

rdudekul2• 14 years ago

At 3.4MB and 366 pages this PDF/book can be easily read on iPad. Thanks for sharing!

maxprogram2• 14 years ago

Ah sorry had to take it down, didn't know about the terms attached.

I made the PDF personally to turn into a printed/binded copy (I like physical books) with nice typography and after seeing the HN post thought I'd share.

If anyone still really wants this fancier version follow/msg me on twitter: @maxolson

mwsherman• 14 years ago

Here they are as a Readlist, which one can send to Kindle all chapter-ized. http://readlists.com/eff6d6d6/

andreasklinger7• 14 years ago

Readlist looks great. Thanks for the hint. I think i will use this from now on instead of copypasting like a monkey. ;)

alagu2• 14 years ago

This is awesome. But, I hope Blake is fine with this. I did the same thing earlier, scraped the posts and created a epub. He immediately sent me an email:

Please remove the ePub version of my notes that you put on Github.

Peter Thiel, Clarium, and I are still figuring out what to do with the content. Very likely we will be publishing something ourselves.

As you do not own the content and did not ask for permission, please take down the doc immediately

(You can of course do this for personal use. Just please don't distribute it right now.)

andreasklinger7• 14 years ago

Thanks for mentioning. I hope i didnt crossed a line. I will remve the dl link tomorrow (as soon as i have a proper laptop in front of me)

alagu2• 14 years ago

I hope Blake Masters & Clarium come up with their own version soon. It is easier to be consumed on iPad/Kindle than on web.

crasshopper• 14 years ago

Andreas, rdd.me has a very nice facility for sending web pages to the Kindle.

Also, here is what @bgmasters has already said about reproducing the content: http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/post/22922727433/read-share-p...

wslh• 14 years ago

I sent the blog posts, one by one, to the kindle using Readability.

ghurlman• 14 years ago

How does this not violate the No Derivatives portion of the content license?

andreasklinger7• 14 years ago

Thanks for noticing. I oversaw it (although i believed to have double checked it) I will remove the d/l link tomorrow asap i am in front of my laptop again.

rrjamie2• 14 years ago

Given that this is licensed Creative Commons under Attribution, Non-Commercial, and No Derivative Works, -- and notwithstanding a general desire to respect the authors wishes (http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/post/22922727433/read-share-p...) -- it becomes a question as to whether it is a truly derivative work.

Since the meat-and-potatoes of the work is entirely textual, and faithfully reproduced, you could argue that work is non-derivative and within the license.

CC puts two additional restrictions on “transformation” and “alteration,” but it is not clear on what those would be. It would be reasonable to argue in the spirit of the license, that as long as we do not alter the meaning, intent, or spirit of the original work we did not alter or transform it. Any stricter interpretation would like defeat the purpose of licensing something CC, as any form of distribution requires some, however small, amount of altering (eg, I have to convert it to photons before I can hit your retinas).

There are precedents for what is considered a “derivative work” in the US, but usually as to define “new” works that may desire protection, but not likely as many in this reverse situation where we wish to argue that a slightly altered version is equivalent.

If I made printed-to-PDF from my web browser, is that a derivative work? a transformation? a substantial alteration?

If we take a strict (perhaps stretched) interpretation of Masters desires: you should read it only on my website and share only links to it from there? Then why license it as CC BY-NC-ND? Such interpretation of the license gives you no rights you did not have before under fair use (or fair dealing).

andreasklinger7• 14 years ago

Can you iterate on this a bit more. Based on this I am actually a bit unsure if blake is not miss-interpreting BY-NC-ND at all.

E.g. http://mollykleinman.com/2008/10/20/cc-howto-no-derivatives/ interpretes the legal text like this: "The key words here are “recast, transformed, or adapted.” A derivative work involves enough creativity and originality that it constitutes a new copyrightable work. Simply converting a work from one medium to another — from print to digital, or CD to MP3 — does not produce a derivative work."

Not that it matters - they asked people not to create epubs/pdfs so i removed mine just to respect the wish.

I just want to learn for future issues.

Starmie• 14 years ago

Does anyone know if he plans to teach the course again? I'd love to take it before I graduate...

FraaJad• 14 years ago

Masters is not OK with this. See earlier post: http://blakemasters.tumblr.com/post/22922727433/read-share-p...

swah2• 14 years ago

Anyone has actually read the thing and can make a little "lessons learned" summary?

alpine• 14 years ago

I've turned Blake's blog posts into an audio collection simply using Apple's built in Text to Speech. It makes for a remarkably listenable series.

Peter Thiel’s startup class notes in PDF

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