Why Peter Thiel Fears “Star Trek”

Star Trek in many ways does not make any sense. You have all these crew members on a ship that are miserable. They could be living much more happier lives somewhere else. But out of some weird lost sense of duty they are all alone on this star ship running around doing the federation's bidding. Why? What's so compelling to get these people to make themselves miserable when they could do anything else at all that they wanted to. Like in DS9, the captain's father is running a creole restaurant. That's a much better way of making a living than the shit these idiots are doing. And they complain about being lonely and miserable more than once in TNG and TOS. But yet they keep on. For years, if not a lifetime. No family. No purpose but the trek.

The reason he's considered an intellectual is that he has intellectual achievements. It's not posture since one can read his Wikipedia page and quickly realise that he's more intellectual than most other VCs. Likely better at Chess, Philosophy, etc.

How many other billionaires have books out focused on getting you to start a business focused on something no one else is?

Except for the fact that he's never in tuned anything. He just rides the coattails of real inventors.