OK, so I just learned elsewhere that there's a secret group run by Peter Thiel (https://dialog.org/) for fancy people who want to be able to talk to each other 'off the record'.
Friends. If you go to the website, and open 'developer tools' in your browser, go to 'inspector' and drill down in the dom you will find a plain text list of members of this group.
There are something like 113 fancy people.
I will list them in this thread.
1/x
Immad Akhund β Founder & CEO, Mercury.
Turki Al Faisal Al Saud β Founder, King Faisal Foundation. Fmr. Minister of Intelligence, Saudi Arabia.
Reema Al-Saud β Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the U.S.
John Arnold β Co-Chair, Arnold Ventures. Fmr. Founder, Centaurus Advisors.
Susan Athey β Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business. Fmr. Chief Economist, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice.
2/x
Peter Attia β Physician, Attia Medical. Author, Outlive.
Scott Belsky β Partner, A24 Films. Fmr. Chief Strategy Officer & Chief Product Officer, Adobe. Founder, Behance.
Nicolas Berggruen β Founder & President, Berggruen Holdings.
Scott Bessent β Secretary, U.S. Treasury.
Preet Bharara β Fmr. U.S. Attorney, New York Southern District.
3/x
Elizabeth Blackburn β Fmr. President, Salk Institute for Biomedical Studies. Nobel Prize winner.
Sarah Bond β President of Xbox, Microsoft.
Cory Booker β Senator (New Jersey), U.S. Senate.
Rachel Brand β Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary, Walmart. Fmr. Associate Attorney General, U.S Department of Justice.
Scooter Braun β CEO, Hybe America. Founder, Ithaca Holdings.
4/x
Pete Briger β Principal & Chairman of the Board, Fortress Investment Group.
Greg Brockman β Co-Founder & President, OpenAI. Fmr. CTO, Stripe.
Manuel Bronstein β Chief Product Officer, Roblox.
Peter Brown β CEO, Renaissance Technologies.
Thasunda Brown Duckett β President & CEO, TIAA.
5/x
Sophia Bush β Actress, One Tree Hill.
Mike Cannon-Brookes β Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Atlassian.
Cesar Carvalho β Co-Founder & CEO, Wellhub.
Wences Casares β Founder & Fmr. CEO, Xapo Bank. Founder: Wanako Games, Banco Lemon, Lemon Wallet.
Julian Castro β Fmr. Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
6/x
Bob Cialdini β Author, Influence.
Matt Clifford β Prime Ministerβs Advisor on AI Opportunities, U.K. Government. Co-Founder, Entrepreneur First.
Caroline Cochran β Co-Founder & COO, Oklo.
Matt Cohler β Fmr. General Partner, Benchmark.
Scott Cook β Co-Founder & Chairman, Intuit.
Tyler Cowen β Professor of Economics & Director, Mercatus Center, George Mason University.
Ted Cruz β Senator (Texas), U.S. Senate.
7/x
Adam D'Angelo β Co-Founder & CEO, Quora. Fmr. CTO, Facebook.
Mitch Daniels β Fmr. Governor, State of Indiana. Fmr. President, Purdue University.
Dan Driscoll β Secretary, U.S. Army.
Charles Duhigg β Author: The Power of Habit, Supercommunicators.
Steve Ells β Founder & Fmr. CEO, Chipotle.
Tim Ferriss β Author: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef. Host, The Tim Ferriss Show.
8/x
Marcos Galperin β Co-Founder & CEO, MercadoLibre.
Atul Gawande β Author: Being Mortal, The Checklist Manifesto. Fmr. Assistant Administrator for Global Health, USAID.
Tom Goldstein β Partner, Goldstein & Russell. Founder & Fmr. Publisher, SCOTUSblog.com.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt β Actor, 500 Days of Summer, Inception, Looper, Snowden.
9/x
Adam Grant β Organizational Psychologist, Wharton School of Management. Author: Think Again, Originals, Give and Take.
Severin Hacker β Co-Founder & CTO, Duolingo.
Jonathan Haidt β Professor, Stern School of Business, NYU. Author: The Anxious Generation, The Righteous Mind, The Coddling of the American Mind.
Peggy Hamburg β Fmr. Commissioner, U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
10/x
Sam Harris β Podcast Host, Making Sense. Author: Free Will, Lying, Waking Up.
Jim Himes β Congressman (Connecticut), U.S. House of Representatives.
Auren Hoffman β CEO, NQB8. Chairman & Fmr. CEO, SafeGraph. Founder & Fmr. CEO, LiveRamp. Chairman, Dialog.
Reid Hoffman β Partner, Greylock Partners. Co-Founder & Fmr. Executive Chairman, LinkedIn.
Rob Hur β Fmr. Special Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice.
11/x
Bob Jain β CIO, Millennium Management. Founder, Jain Family Institute.
Bryan Johnson β Founder & CEO: Kernel, Blueprint.
Kaja Kallas β Vice President, European Commission. Fmr. Prime Minister, Estonia.
Gaurva Kapadia β Founder & CEO, XN.
Karen Karniol-Tambour β Co-CIO, Bridgewater Associates.
Garry Kasparov β Fmr. Member, Russian Opposition Movementβs Coordinating Council. Fmr. World Chess champion.
12/x
Neal Katyal β Partner, Milbank. Fmr. Partner & Supreme Court Practice Leader, Hogan Lovells.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi β Fmr. Prime Minister, Pakistan. Founder, Airblue.
Ezra Klein β Opinion Columnist, The New York Times. Founder & Fmr. Editor-in-chief, Vox. Host, The Ezra Klein Show.
TarΕ KΕno β Digital Minister, Japan. Fmr. Minister of Defense, Japan.
Henry Kravis β Co-Founder, Co-Chairman & Co-CEO, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
13/x
Jared Kushner β Founder, Affinity Partners.
Jason Kwon β Chief Strategy Officer, OpenAI.
Leonard Leo β Co-Chairman & Fmr. Executive Vice President, Federalist Society.
Jon Levin β President, Stanford University.
Howie Liu β Founder & CEO, Airtable.
Joe Lonsdale β Founding Partner, 8VC. Co-Founder: Palantir, Addepar.
14/x
Micky Malka β Founder & Managing Partner, Ribbit Capital.
Stan McChrystal β Founder & CEO, McChrystal Group. Fmr. General, U.S. Army.
Neal Mohan β CEO, YouTube.
Lisa Monaco β Fmr. Deputy Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice.
Wes Moore β Governor, State of Maryland.
Elon Musk β Founder & CEO, SpaceX. Co-Founder & CEO, Tesla Motors.
15/x
Demet Mutlu β Founder & CEO, Trendyol Group.
Vas Narasimhan β CEO, Novartis.
Grover Norquist β President, Americans for Tax Reform.
Mike Novogratz β CEO, Galaxy Digital. Fmr. CIO, Fortress Investment Group.
Jim O'Neill β Nominee for Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Co-Founder, Thiel Fellowship.
Chamath Palihapitiya β Founder & CEO, Social Capital LP. Co-Owner, Golden State Warriors.
16/x
Benj Pasek β Songwriter & Producer: La La Land, The Greatest Showman, Dear Evan Hansen. Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony winner.
Daniel Pink β Author: Drive, To Sell is Human, The Power of Regret. Fmr. Chief Speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore.
Steven Pinker β Professor, Harvard University. Author: Enlightenment Now, The Better Angels of Our Nature.
Jared Polis β Governor, State of Colorado.
Jonathan Ross β Founder & CEO, Groq.
17/x
Robert Rubin β Fmr. Secretary, U.S. Treasury. Fmr. Co-Chairman, Goldman Sachs.
Gretchen Rubin β Host, Happier with Gretchen Rubin. Author: The Happiness Project, Better Than Before, The Four Tendencies.
Sheikh Nawaf Saud Nasir Al-Sabah β CEO, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.
Will Scharf β Co-Founder & CTO, Oscar Health.
Mario Schlosser β Staff Secretary and Assistant to the President, U.S. White House.
17/x
Dan Schulman β Fmr. President & CEO, PayPal.
Drew Scott β Co-Founder, Scott Brothers Global. Co-Host, Property Brothers.
Kim Scott β Author, Radical Candor.
Pete Shadbolt β Founder & Chief Science Officer, PsiQuantum.
Ali Siddiqui β Board Chair, OnZero. Fmr. Ambassador of Pakistan to the U.S.
Barry Silbert β Founder & CEO, Digital Currency Group.
18/x
Anne-Marie Slaughter β CEO, New America. Professor, Princeton. Fmr. Director of Policy Planning, U.S. Department of State.
Charlie Songhurst β Board Director, Meta. Fmr. Head of Corporate Strategy, Microsoft.
Jens Spahn β Member of Parliament, German Bundestag. Fmr. Federal Minister of Health, Germany.
Scott Stephenson β Chairman, President & CEO, Verisk Analytics.
Barry Sternlicht β Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO, Starwood Capital Group.
19/x
Bret Stephens β Opinion Columnist & Associate Editor, The New York Times. Pulitzer Prize winner.
Lawrence Summers β Fmr. President, Harvard University. Fmr. Secretary, U.S. Treasury.
Astro Teller β Captain of Moonshots, X.
Peter Thiel β Co-Founder: Founders Fund, Palantir, PayPal, Dialog.
Nick Thompson β CEO, The Atlantic. Fmr. Editor-in-chief, Wired Magazine.
John Townsend β Author, Boundaries.
20/x
@amyfou Eight posts in, and so far only one person I didn't already consider a shithead.
I mean, there are some names I didn't recognize, but they are probably shitheads.
@liquor_american @amyfou
I never thought of Kono as a shithead. He's well on the moderate side of the LDP, and people have lamented that he doesn't have internal support to actually become PM.
Edit: on the other hand, if you wanted an in with the japanese government, Kono strikes me as C-list material at best. If that's the best Thiel can do...
@tsturm @ai6yr @amyfou I've been poking around the site and I'm almost offended how poorly built this shit is. Like, I don't know what space cadets they hired to make this, but it's bad. So bad. Their CSS is garbage, and their frontend is embarrassing. The whole "exposing the list of members" thing is just the cherry on top.
They coulda paid me $50,000 and I'd have made them a beautiful, functional website that doesn't turn into a PR debacle. Well, I probably wouldn't've, given who they are.
@ai6yr @amyfou They're actually all in the "directory-card" section of index-BO5d259a.js which is pulled into the main index page without requiring a login, and not obfuscated. So much winning. And whyTF is Cory Booker in there?
(I wonder, are these meant to be conversations with actual people, or could these be LLM personality simulations?)
(Nope, not simulated. https://www.wired.com/story/leak-exposes-members-of-peter-thiels-secretive-dialog-society/ )
@ke7yxz
> Is there anyone foolish enough to believe that anything on the Internet is off the record?
Yeah, me. People have countless private discussion on the internet, and most of them don't have leaks.
End-to-end encryption is pretty routine for traffic (including discussion) on the internet; e.g. Signal or OpenPGP.
Which is not to say the chuckleheads who made dialog.org know anything about making a secure system for private discussion. Nor would I trust anyone on that list with privacy.
@ke7yxz
> End-to-end encryption means that those chuckleheads get your clear text.
The people implementing the system (which is what I said)? No, the whole point of end-to-end encryption is that no one in the middle, not even the party running or implementing the system, can access the clear text.
So you don't need to trust the internet, nor trust the people who run the system. You just need to trust the other part(y|ies) and whether they'll leak your text. Which is what I said.
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