Blog Smith: May 2015

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Friday, May 29, 2015

Engineer Claims Aliens are Real

Engineer

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Mott The Hoople, Golden Age of Rock And Roll, Japanese Band with Kazoos

28dot

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Techies Need History, Classics, and Languages

Classics

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

11.127x Unit 5 is now live! In this unit, we’re exploring assessment and classroom integration. We’ll hear how several game developers created support materials to help teachers use their games in an educational environment. We’ll hear from an organization working to build a community of educators around game-based learning. We’ll discuss assessment and consider how games assess players and the potential for using games to measure student learning. You’ll develop an integration or assessment plan for your game and provide feedback. Don’t forget that you can still join a survey-based working group and/or affinity group. We’re also thrilled to see participants meeting in the forum and then collaborating on projects.

http://youtu.be/jtlKYjbi-r0

Welcome to Unit 5!

In this unit, we'll talk about integrating learning games into the classroom and also consider how games can be used as assessment tools.

Integrating Games: Case Studies: Scot Osterweil (with Prof. Eric Klopfer), Louisa Rosenheck, Susannah Gordon-Messer, and Joel Levin discuss their experiences developing support material and helping teachers to use their games in the classroom. Jennifer Groff and Peter Stidwill talk about their work creating a community of educators around game-based learning.
Asssessement & Games: Prof. Eric Klopfer talks with Prof. James Paul Gee about assessment and they explore how games provide feedback to learners.
Choice-Based Assessment: Prof. Dan Schwartz explains choice-based assessment to Prof. Eric Klopfer and considers how video games can be used as assessment tools to improve teaching and learning.

We will be reading chapters from the Mind/Shift Guide to Digital Games + Learning. Those who wish to dive deeper can read excerpts from Stealth Assessment: Measuring and Supporting Learning in Video Games by Valerie Shute and Matthew Ventura.

Appearances by: Scot Osterweil, Louisa Rosenheck, Susannah Gordon-Messer, Jennifer Groff, Peter Stidwill, Joel Levin, James Paul Gee, Dan Schwartz

http://youtu.be/jtlKYjbi-r0

Prof. Eric Klopfer and Scot Osterweil return to Lure of the Labyrinth. Scot explains the vision for integrating Lure of the Labyrinth into the classroom and also discusses challenges faced by the project team. How will a teacher learn how to play your game? Scot mentions that it would have been helpful to have a "game-like activity" for the teacher to get aquainted with the game. Consider engaging ways you could help teachers and facilitators learn how to play your game.

http://youtu.be/R___bVy92c4

Louisa Rosenheck, a research manager at MIT's Education Arcade, and Susannah Gordon-Messer, an education content manager at MIT's Education Arcade, are back to talk about The Radix Endeavor, specifically about how the team supported teacher use of the game. They reflect on how they responded to teacher input and figured out what resources were needed. They mention the importance and prominence of state standards in the minds of teachers. You may want to consider standards/guidelines that are in place in the environment where your game will be used. In this video, we briefly show some teacher resources created by Louisa and Susannah. If you want to see more, go here. You'll have to click on a quest (at the bottom) to see examples of connecting questions.

https://www.radixendeavor.org/resources/market-market

http://youtu.be/R___bVy92c4

Jennifer Groff, Executive Producer, and Peter Stidwill, Senior Producer, of Playful Learning, discuss their efforts to create a community of teachers interested in and passionate about using games for learning. They reflect on the wrap-around support that teachers need in order to implement games, the feedback they hear most frequently from teachers, and its implications for game designers and developers. Take note of their advice for game designers towards the end of the video (at 15:11).

http://playfullearning.com

http://youtu.be/pSghaxzLTQc

Joel Levin of MinecraftEdu talks about his experience building in supports for teachers to facilitate classroom use of Minecraft. Are there game mechanisms that will help teachers use your game in a learning environment? While you may not be able to implement them all right now, it is worth considering.

http://youtu.be/l9qRrOSI1MM

Let's take a look at teacher support for learning games. Take a look at the examples below or find your own. What feature or aspect of these guides do you find to be especially helpful for teachers working to integrate a game in their class? Why? iCivics Teach Teach with Portals - Portal & Portal 2 were not explicitly designed to be educational. MinecraftEdu Resources Lure of the Labyrinth for Educators Share your thoughts in the forum so you learn from these practices for your project.

Prof. Eric Klopfer talks with Prof. James Paul Gee at Arizona State University about assessment in schools. They discuss what it is, what it could be, and give examples of how it is handled in games. Think about how your game measures progress and provides feedback. Are there improvements you could make that would allow learners and teachers to better track and understand accomplishments?

http://youtu.be/MZxIVHCE8LA

Eric and Prof. Gee continue their conversation about assessment, explaining why and how games can fit productively in the context of a learning environment. Prof. Gee asserts that we can learn so much about the core principles of learning and teaching from video games.

http://youtu.be/lmezIMTI5v0

Prof. Eric Klopfer talks with Prof. Dan Schwartz, Stanford University, about his work on choice-based assessment and its implications for how we teach, learn, and assess. Prof. Schwartz recognizes that video games are great at giving players compelling experiences and that this can be leveraged to prepare students to learn. He describes his reboot of Space Invaders, which was designed to help students learn statistics (9:09 in the video).

http://youtu.be/hwPuC5Ik5sM

Eric continues his conversation with Prof. Schwartz, focusing on how choice-based assessment can be used to understand students' thinking for the purpose of preparing them to make their own good decisions about their learning. One project he describes allows students to practice inquiry, creative thinking, and presentation skills, while making their decisions available to mentors.

http://youtu.be/OVN2ghNpK4o

Unit 5 Reading INTEGRATING GAMES Read the chapters "How to Choose a Digital Learning Game," "Overcoming Obstacles for Using Digital Games in the Classroom," and "How Teachers Are Using Games in the Classroom" (pgs. 19-40). We chose this reading to expand your understanding of factors teachers consider when selecting a digital game and of obstacles they may face. Shapiro, Jordan, et. al. 2014. Mind/Shift Guide to Digital Games + Learning. Joan Ganz Cooney Center/KQED.

http://www.kqed.org/assets/pdf/news/MindShift-GuidetoDigitalGamesandLearning.pdf

DIVE DEEPER Read "Digital Games, Assessment, and Learning" (pgs. 17-29). Shute, Valerie and Matthew Ventura. 2013. Stealth Assessment: Measuring and Supporting Learning in Video Games. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

http://myweb.fsu.edu/vshute/pdf/Stealth_Assessment.pdf

http://youtu.be/l7OCJjShOzU

In this unit, we talked about integrating games into the classroom, with a focus on assessment as a key opportunity to provide value to learners and educators. For this assignment then, focus on one of two options. You may either: Develop an integration plan - consider how you might integrate your game into your targeted environment? Are you going to create materials to accompany it? Would you conduct workshops to help train instructors on how to use your game? Maybe a series of videos? Explain (in any format you wish) how you'll integrate your game into the target learning environment you have chosen. Include accompanying materials and/or describe them. Develop an assessment plan for one or more of the learning objectives for your game. How might you help learners and mentors/teachers understand accomplishments in the game? How can you give the right just-in-time feedback to learners or their guides? In order to answer that question, really consider what your game is asking people to do, and whether you could say anything about their learning based on how they engage with the game. Explain to the course staff and students (in any format you wish) how you will help learners and teachers understand accomplishments/progress in the game. Of course, if you wish to do both, you may, but we would prefer that you focus on one and do a thorough job. We’re in the final weeks of the course and we understand it may be hard to address all of the questions we've asked here. Ultimately, this work is for your learning and development, so do what will serve you and your project best. Peer Feedback Guidelines Provide feedback to at least three participants whose posts appear below yours. If those participants have already received feedback, look for participants who have not received any. Follow the Peer Review Feedback guidelines and consider the following: In your opinion, does the participant's integration or assessment plan seem appropriate considering the targeted group and environment? Do you have any recommendations for improving the plan? How has the participant's plan influenced your own thinking?

Monday, May 25, 2015

Bonhoeffer Author on Nazi Parallels

Houston Nazis

Memorial Day, 2015

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Military Assault Vehicle Deployed Against 75 Year Old for Debt Collection

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Top 5 Guns

Top

Friday, May 22, 2015

Smart and Dumb Music

Music

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Willis Reed vs. The Lakers

October, 1966

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Socialist Attacks with Spittle

Spittle

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

NYC Street Musician Arrested for Obeying Law

Arrest

Monday, May 18, 2015

SEPTA Enforces Sharia Law

Philly buses

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Race-baiting Michelle

Moochelle

Home Movie and Anti-Communist Educational Film

The joys of showing 8mm home movies (1957 14 #05B Sh t P1150373 xvid short drama2)

Watch an insane 1970s anti Communist educational film

http://youtu.be/JcHFEO0024A

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Grant County, WA Police Violate the Law: Sentinal of Liberty Gav Seim Pulls Cop Over

Gav Seim

Pamela Geller: Home of the Brave and the Cowardly

Pamela

Friday, May 15, 2015

Mott The Hoople, Brian May Asked to Tour

Mott The Hoople

Muslim Honor Killing in Texas

Honor Killing

News Coverage about Muslims Killing for Religion

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Kevlar Helmut Saves Marine

Kevlar

CIA Head Warns of Islamic Operatives in America

Islamic State, USA

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

FBI
Yameen Allworld,

Birth name	Binyameen Friedberg

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3079146/Amtrak-train-crash-video-shows-passengers-crawling-safety.html

Projectile

OBAMA RIPS FOX: ‘WE’RE GOING TO HAVE TO CHANGE HOW THE MEDIA REPORTS’

I think that the effort to suggest that the poor are sponges, leeches, don’t want to work, are lazy, are undeserving, got traction. And look, it’s still being propagated. I have to say that if you watch Fox News on a regular basis, it is a constant venue. They will find folks who make me mad. I don’t know where they find them. They’re all like, “I don’t want to work. I just want a free Obama Phone, or whatever.” And that becomes an entire narrative that gets worked up. And very rarely do you hear an interview of a waitress, which is much more typical — who is raising a couple of kids and doing everything right but still can’t pay the bills.

And so, if we’re going to change how

Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)

40%

and

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)

54%

think, we’re going to have to change how our body politic thinks, which means we’re going to have to change how the media reports on these issues, and how people’s impressions of what it’s like to struggle in this economy looks like. And how budgets connect to that. And that’s a hard process because that requires a much broader conversation than typically we have on the nightly news.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Ben Shapiro: The Myth of the Tiny Radical Muslim Minority

Many Muslims want to kill non-believers.

Unit 4

11.127x Unit 4 is now live! For this two week unit, we’ll focus on testing and iteration. The development of the game The Radix Endeavor will serve as a case study and we’ll talk with several team members about their experiences prototyping and testing. We’ll learn about design-based research (DBR) and take a closer look at one project applying it. You’ll work on testing your game and you’ll provide feedback to your classmates. The activity break is especially important for this unit; submit your questions for playtesting and read other posts. After a round of testing, you’ll likely iterate your game. Consider getting some help from your working group (survey-based) and/or affinity group.

Two bonus videos from 11.126x have been released to provide participants with additional background regarding prototying and playtesting. Check out Philip Tan’s video about prototyping in the Unit 3 Overview and Sara Verrilli’s video about playtesting in the Unit 4 Overview.

Thank you for joining us for the Hangout on Air on Wednesday, April 29! We were impressed with your work and we enjoyed critiquing your prototypes. If you missed this live event, you can access the recording here. If you’d prefer to watch it on Youtube, go here.

The course staff is looking forward to reading about your experiences testing and iterating. See you in the Forums!

After reviewing activity in the forum, course staff thought it would be helpful to include some additional content regarding prototyping. Research Scientist Philip Tan from the MIT Game Lab introduces the concept of prototyping, explains what it is, and talks about why prototyping is an important skill in developing games.

This video originally appeared in 11.126x: Introduction to Game Design.

Tan

http://youtu.be/Oqksxk56dlM

Welcome to Unit 4! Now that we have entered the later stages of game development, it's time to focus on two challenging aspects of the process - testing and iteration. Since testing and iteration is necessary to get the game "right," we'll be spending two weeks on this unit. Radix: Iterative Design: In this case study, Louisa Rosenheck and Susannah Gordon-Messer talk about their work developing and iterating The Radix Endeavor. They show us the game and offer a true behind-the-scenes perspective. Radix: Digital Prototyping: In the continuation of our look at The Radix Endeavor, Prof. Eric Klopfer and Colin Greenhill discuss the digital prototyping process from the developer's point of view. Design-Based Research: Prof. Eric Klopfer explains design-based research. Prof. Eric Klopfer, Prof. Matthew Berland and Devon Klompmaker discuss the creation of Makescape (now Oztoc) as an example. We will be reading the "11.127x Guide to Playtesting" and Louisa Rosenheck's "Six Strategies to Make the Most of Student Playtesting." Those who wish to dive deeper can read the Edutechwiki entry on design-based research. BONUS: Sara Verrilli talks about playtesting in this video from 11.126x (included in this section). The course staff thought this video would be helpful for a general overview of playtesting. Appearances by: Sara Verrilli, Louisa Rosenheck, Susannah Gordon-Messer, Colin Greenhill, Matthew Berland and Devon Klompmaker
http://youtu.be/Oqksxk56dlM
After this unit was completed, the course staff thought the addition of this video would be helpful to participants. Sara Verrilli, Development Director at the MIT Game Lab, talks about testing games, the different types of testing, and when you should use each of them. This video originally appeared in 11.126x: Introduction to Game Design.
http://youtu.be/Zkz73q4wmpI

Louisa Rosenheck, a research manager at MIT's Education Arcade, and Susannah Gordon-Messer, an education content manager at MIT's Education Arcade, discuss their work iteratively designing, prototyping, and testing The Radix Endeavor. In this segment, they reflect on how prototyping and playtesting contributed to the development of the marketplace quest. The Radix Endeavor, an online multi-player game for high school math and biology, is currently being tested in a large-scale pilot involving teachers and students.

http://youtu.be/tf5TzG79JB4

Louisa and Susannah continue their conversation, walking us through the transition from paper to digital prototypes. They explain how they realized that in-game activity could support certain learning components, but that others might be better served through complementary classroom activities and teacher support. Your learning game could also have complementary activities. We'll talk more about integration in Unit 5, but you may want to start thinking about it.

http://youtu.be/Z6Btdq2uPAk

Louisa and Susannah discuss developing the quests in the final version of the game. They consider how the protoyping and testing phases shaped the final design and influenced their thinking regarding game levels and scaffolding. Does your learning game have levels? Before you leave this section, reflect on your levels. Consider the difficulty, the flow, etc.

http://youtu.be/ZPEsLoL4YV8

When you test your game, you'll want to ask the players some questions so you can learn about their experience. For this activity break, write some questions you'd like to ask playtesters. Consider what questions should be asked and also when you should ask them (Before game play? During? After?). Here are a couple to consider incorporating into your protocol: What was the concept of the game? How did you figure out how to play? How did the game make you feel? What was fun about the game? What was hard or challenging about the game? How could the game be better? These questions may look very general to you. You'll want to follow up with additional questions regarding specifics and details. These additional questions will arise naturally out of the playtest experience itself, though you may want to consider in advance the types of questions you're likely to get. Example: If a playtester says that Level 2 was especially challenging because of the instructions, you'll want to find out more. What about the instructions was challenging? You'll notice there are no questions about learning in this list. Think about how you'd like to talk to your playtesters about educational content in the game. What questions will help you find out if playtesters are learning? The list of questions above is adapted and inspired by the Playtester Feedback Worksheet created by Gamestar Mechanic. You may also want to check out the related content.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZWxpbmVtZWRpYS5jb218Z3NtbGVhcm5pbmdndWlkZXxneDo3YjMxNTM0OGRiZmM1NzE5

https://gamestarmechanic.com

https://sites.google.com/a/elinemedia.com/gsmlearningguide/game-design-101/lesson-5-playtest-and-iterate

Even if you don't always share your thoughts for activity breaks, please consider doing so this time. Other course participants may want to reflect on and use the questions you come up with.

What was the concept of the game? How did you figure out how to play? How did the game make you feel? What was fun about the game? What was hard or challenging about the game? How could the game be better? How does the game compare to other Humanities, history, or general education classes you have taken? Which is more engaging: standard classes or game-based classes? In which type of class–standard or game-based–are you more active? Which game would you rather participate in based on your work and family schedule?

Prof. Eric Klopfer talks with Colin Greenhill, who works as a software developer at MIT's Education Arcade, about his experience communicating with the design team and his work iteratively creating and refining digital prototypes for The Radix Endeavor.

http://youtu.be/ZPEsLoL4YV8

Eric and Colin continue their conversation and take a closer look at the geometry quest area. Colin highlights the importance of figuring out which interface elements are helpful and useful to the player. Think about your game's interface as you test and iterate this week.

http://youtu.be/UBZfoVvI8R0

http://youtu.be/z-jzwtSmFys

Unit 4 Reading PLAYTESTING 11.127x Guide to Playtesting (posted in this section) Rosenheck, Louisa. 2015. "Six Strategies to Make the Most of Student Playtesting" Gamesandlearning.org (Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop).

http://www.gamesandlearning.org/2015/02/16/six-strategies-to-make-the-most-of-student-playtesting/

DIVE DEEPER Edutechwiki. "Design-Based Research." Hosted by TECFA at the University of Geneva.

http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Design-based_research

11.127x Guide to Playtesting How do you find out if your learning game works the way you expect and gives players the experience you want? Playtesting! Use your observations and tester feedback to make your game even better. WHO DO I TEST WITH? Test your game by playing yourself. Do this before you engage any outside testers. Try to view the game from the perspective of a player rather than as a designer/developer. Make necessary changes before you engage playtesters. Allow people you know to try your game. While this audience may not be as objective, you may feel more comfortable testing your game with this group first. You can also fine-tune playtesting questions. This may mean seeking out participants who have seen your past prototypes or who are in your affinity group or survey-based working group. Test with people who do not know you or your game. This group can give you objective feedback. Maybe you can approach 11.127 participants who you have not engaged with previously. Test with your target audience. This may not be possible for all participants. Feedback from this group will be especially relevant. HOW TO CONDUCT A BASIC PLAYTEST Consider what you hope to get out of playtesting sessions. Make sure your questions for the tester will help you iterate effectively and improve the game. For in-person tests, decide if you will test one-on-one, in groups, etc. Provide the information your tester will need to access and play the game. Don’t tell the tester about all of your experiences developing the game or why you think it can help people learn. You want to get a fresh perspective. Ask the playtester any questions you’ve created for the pre-gameplay phase. It’s time to play the game! Ideally, watch your tester play the game and write down your observations. You may notice interesting body language, etc. You may also want your tester to think aloud and explain why they are making certain choices. If that’s not possible, consider asking your tester to write down some observations as they play. Ask post-game questions and discuss the overall game experience. Use the questions you developed for the activity break and also any great questions you might have noticed in the forum. Bibliography: Fullerton, Tracy. 2014. “Playtesting.” In Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, 248-271. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis.

http://youtu.be/z-jzwtSmFys

It's time to test your game! Get your prototypes into some stable, presentable form, and start looking for playtesters in the real world. You can ask friends and family to play, but the best feedback you can get will be from your target audience. It can be challenging to get into certain kinds learning environments to test a prototype (American schools, for instance), but if you find children of the right age through friends and family, do your best to get your game in front of them. If you can’t get into an afterschool program, perhaps you can get some time with someone who works in an afterschool program and you can ask them to play your game and/or talk to you about how they would use your game in their program. Also, try to make changes to your game based on the feedback from others and then get your game back out there! This type of iterative game design is done by game designers and developers at every level. It is extremely rare that your game is going to come out of your head perfectly. It is much more likely that it is going to take watching a lot of other people playing your game and asking them about their experience to get your game into a good place. If you are working with a team, it may be a good idea to standardize your questions somewhat if you are playtesting with groups in different towns, states, countries etc… This will make sure everyone on the team’s questions are getting answered, and it will make sure that the same type of feedback is coming back to your team. Your deliverable should be publicly viewable and include the following: A written reflection on your experiences testing your game - Did things turn out differently than you expected? Would you test your game the same way in the future? An overview of how you iterated your game based on feedback and observations A brief explanation and list of the type of testers (no names please!) you engaged with The questions you used for testing and a few comments on why you picked certain questions Guidance for Peer Feedback Provide feedback to at least three participants whose posts appear below yours. If those participants have already received feedback, look for participants who have not received any. Follow the Peer Review Feedback guidelines and consider the following: Comment on how the participant responded to lessons learned from testing. Do you have any recommendations regarding how the participant can test and iterate more effectively? How did the participant's experience testing and iterating influence your own thinking?

Unit 4 Deliverable

A written reflection on your experiences testing your game - Did things turn out differently than you expected?

Yes, things turned out differently than what I expected. My first tester was very enthusiastic, was very experienced with the game Civilization, and offered to work on a scenario. The second tester was more ambivalent and had no experience with the game but did make an attempt to learn. My third tester had no experience whatsoever with gaming but really enjoyed the testing process. The same tester had expressed a dissatisfaction with the companion course to mine that I had not taught. Their experience confirmed the idea that if a student did not like the standard pedagogical approach the game could be very stimulating. The last tester was a very experienced gamer but was unfamiliar with Civilization. As a result, it was necessary to walk them through the testing process.

In summary, the previous experience or lack of experience with gaming did not determine how the tester reacted to my iteration process. Some experienced players really embraced the idea or some still struggled with it. On the other hand, those with little to no experience did really enjoy the new approach. I would have anticipated previous to the testing that the more experienced gamers would more readily embrace the new approach and the less experienced gamers would struggle.

Would you test your game the same way in the future?

The next time around I am better prepared with the readings and experience in this course to test in a more effective manner.

An overview of how you iterated your game based on feedback and observations

I took into consideration the feedback that I received. The issue with a scenario is how accurate does it need to be based on the learning objectives of a regular course. For example, the scenario is limited because I do not have Italy in the course; does it need to account for every, or only some of the key elements of the Renaissance. Or, do I favor the realistic nature of gameplay as opposed to the actual events of the past?

A brief explanation and list of the type of testers (no names please!) you engaged with

1. Very experienced gamer

2. No experience with Civilization but a fair amount of gaming

3. No gaming experience

4. Very experienced gamer.

The questions you used for testing and a few comments on why you picked certain questions

Because of my particular audience I asked questions that would address the key issues that they are concerned with. How does gaming technology contribute to the students being more active and engaged? I also wanted to compare their experience with gaming as opposed to traditional pedagogy.

Monday, May 11, 2015

Boston University Against White People

Boston University

How Islamists Prosper in the West

Survive

Krauthammer: Saudi Loud Statement

Loud Statement

Barbara Seaman

Seaman

Seaman and the Catholic Church

PBS The American Experience

Isis He was also a practicing Catholic who found himself in the spotlight of controversy ... he took these attacks far more personally than those from the Catholic Church. ... and health feminist Barbara Seaman catapulted the controversy onto center ... www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/652100

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1086/652100?uid=3739808&uid=2460338175&uid=2460337935&uid=2129&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=83&uid=63&uid=3739256&sid=21104366538991

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Islamic States Volunteers for 72 virgins

Candidates for 72 virgins.

DHS Strategy Against Islamists: Talk

Talk

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Waller, TX Cop Pepper Sprays Student Filmer

Waller, TX

Friday, May 8, 2015

State Department Promoting Islamist Colonies in America

Secure Freedom.org

Marines Beat Korea in Drum Battle

Drums

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Court Rules Against NSA's Section 215

215

Peter Thiel, PayPal, Palantir Technologies, Zero to One

Peter Thiel on what works at work (from the Washington Post)

Peter Thiel is often described in techno-hyphenated words: Techno-philosopher. Techno-libertarian. Techno-utopian. Technology, after all, is how he first made his name and built his billions. Yet his reach has since stretched beyond that, with his political opinions now getting him nearly as much notice as his tech investments.

Thiel, 46, was born in West Germany and moved to California at age 10. He was the first outsider to invest in Facebook ($500,000 for a 10 percent stake), the co-founder and chief executive of PayPal, and now serves as chairman and co-founder of data-analytics company Palantir Technologies. He’s also the author of Zero to One, a manifesto on how to create American progress.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. You can also listen to the conversation with Thiel in the latest episode of our new On Leadership podcast. (You can listen on the Post's site or on iTunes.)

Q. What’s a question you always hope you’ll be asked in interviews, but no one ever seems to ask you?

A. There are all these questions about what’s working in Silicon Valley today, what’s not working, that I think are really interesting. There’s something about the software businesses built in the last 30, 40 years that works incredibly well for actually capturing value. And I think it’s interesting to explore how unusual that is relative to many other areas of technology, because there are so many innovations that were good for society but the people who came up with them ended up with very little. The Wright brothers built the first airplane—they didn’t make any money on that.

Q. So is this something we’ve cracked the code on now?

A. I don’t know if we’ve really cracked the code. Innovation is a very strange thing in general, because it’s so hard to know what to learn about it or how to study it. Every moment in the history of business, in the history of technology, happens only once. And so there’s no formula.

A lot of business books are these pseudo-scientific books that say, “These are the five steps to follow and you will make a lot of money.” But if you have no formulas, you will be open to some new possibilities, some new ideas.

Q. Some people outside Silicon Valley see it as a place that is not really in touch with the rest of the country. Does that ring true to you in any way?

A. There is a big disconnect, because you have this sense of stagnation and slow growth in many other places, and you have this incredible boom in Silicon Valley.

Also, I do not think we live in a scientific and technological age, as a society. I think most people do not like science and technology. They’re scared of it. All you have to do is watch science-fiction movies — they all show technology that doesn’t work, or they’re dystopian. I watched "Gravity" last year, and it’s like you’re so glad to be back on a muddy island. You never want to go into outer space.

There’s something about our society that’s incredibly conservative, in the sense of not wanting things to change. So I think there’s a cultural disconnect with Silicon Valley that’s pretty big.

Q. You’ve written that you doubt the efficacy of MBA programs to prepare future business leaders. What would an effective MBA program look like?

A. The question is, what substance of business are you focused on? The conceit of the MBA is that you don’t need to have any substance at all. It’s just this management science, and you can apply that equally well in a software company or an oil drilling company or a fashion company or a rocket company. That’s the bias I’d want us to cut against. So for the degree, people would learn substantive things and then on the side you’d pick up some business skills. But you wouldn’t treat the business degree as the central thing.

I think one challenge a lot of the business schools have is they end up attracting students who are very extroverted and have very low conviction, and they put them in this hot house environment for a few years — at the end of which, a large number of people go into whatever was the last trendy thing to do. They’ve done studies at Harvard Business School where they’ve found that the largest cohort always went into the wrong field. So in 1989, they all went to work for Michael Milken, a year or two before he went to jail. They were never interested in Silicon Valley except for 1999, 2000. The last decade their interest was housing and private equity.

So there is something about the way in which business school is decoupled from anything really substantive that I’d want to rethink.

Q. Even though you don’t agree with teaching management in and of itself, were there any lessons you learned as CEO that you would share with others?

A. One is that competition is overrated. People should try to do unique things. As a business, you want to have a monopoly, not be in a company where you have cutthroat competition. Google is a better business than opening a restaurant, for example.

The internal management application of this is that it’s always a bad idea to set one’s employees too much against one another. You want to find ways to differentiate people’s roles. Frame it this way: If you were a sociopathic boss who wanted to create trouble for your employees, the formula you would follow would be to tell two people to do the exact same thing. That’s a guaranteed formula for creating conflict. If you’re not a sociopath, you want to be very careful to avoid this.

We have this ideological understanding of conflict, where we say it happens when people want different things. But I think it actually happens when people want the same thing — the same promotion, recognition for doing the same job well, the same toy as a kid.

One of the rough rules I had at PayPal was that people were responsible for one primary thing. I wanted to be really clear that the job descriptions for everybody were different, so you would not have this endemic conflict. I think that was very powerful.

You still end up having conflicts in all these startups because the roles are very fluid and things change a lot, but it’s something you want to really avoid. For a lot of these businesses, the most common cause of failure is that they blow up internally when people don’t get along.

An executive once told me she thought that if you had three good friends at your office then you’d never leave. If you had no good friends, you were a very at-risk employee. It’s a really good question: How do you build a company culture where people have strong friendships with at least a few people at work? That’s healthier than having a super professional approach where there’s this low-level chronic dislike everybody has of everybody else, and it somehow functions but people are unhappy — which I think is true of a lot of law firms or investment banks.

Q. Did you figure out any good ways to support that fostering of friendships? Aside from some of things we immediately associate with Silicon Valley companies, like ping-pong tables and free food.

A. You try to hire people you think you could become friends with. I’m personally very skeptical of the ping-pong tables and all these corporate perks. I think the company culture is always best organized around the mission of what the company does.

Q. What did you find the hardest part of being CEO?

A. As CEO, you’re somehow both the total insider and the total outsider at the same time. In some ways you’re at the center of the organization. In other contexts, you’re like the last person to know anything.

Q. What’s your basic philosophy on how to effect change in a society?

A. I’m biased to the model that change happens in small groups, in small organizations. I’m skeptical of solo efforts, and I’m skeptical of mass movements. This is why I like the Silicon Valley startup, or the Constitutional Convention of the United States. You have a small group of people who come together, united by a purpose.

In theory, everything should be solved within large existing organizations — governments, large companies, large nonprofits. They have more resources, they have longer time horizons. Yet there’s always a need to start small new organizations, because the politics in these large organizations slow things down too much.

Q. What’s a trait you possess that you really value?

A. I’ve built some great friendships over the years with people I’ve worked with. And I think that’s a really important part of what enables one to be successful in the long run in our society. There are ways people can succeed without doing that, but I think it’s very underrated. My friend Reid Hoffman always says it’s hard to know what the meaning of life is, but he thinks it has something to do with the people you spend time with.

Q. What about the flip side? Is there anything you’ve had to work at over the years, some trait you’ve had to tweak?

A. There are all these things that you never know whether they’re features or bugs—in a company or organization, or even in a personal trait. I’m interested in lots of different things. I’m interested in business but also economics and philosophy and literature. I always like to rationalize that as helping me think about things better, or that these things are interdisciplinary. But maybe it’s just being a dilettante or procrastinating and not ever really getting focused.

Q. When you were young you were a U.S.-rated chess master. Has chess influenced your strategic thinking outside of the game?

A. When I was in high school, one of the intermediate learnings in chess is that you should always have a plan. Even having a bad plan is better than no plan at all. I think something like that is true in a lot of business contexts, where even a bad plan is better than randomly going from day to day. But I suspect in general it’s a mistake to try to say that life is too much like chess. It’s a lot more complicated.

Q. Who has had the biggest impact on shaping you?

A. I grew up in this very middle-class context where there was sort of this mindset that if you worked hard, you could get ahead. That was a sensibility that I powerfully picked up from my parents.

Q. What’s it like to be a billionaire?

A. Well, you have a lot of money, and there are sort of good things and bad things that go with that. You certainly have a lot more freedom. There are fewer financial worries. On the other hand, one of the strange dynamics with extreme wealth is you always have these questions — are people interested in talking to you because of your money? — and all this second-guessing that can happen to varying degrees. I try not to worry about that stuff too much. My experience was not that different from many people in Silicon Valley, where it happened virtually overnight. It was this very fast and very strange change.

Q. What’s your concept of what it will mean to have lived your life well?

A. People always say you should live every day as though it's your last. I sort of have taken the opposite tack, where I think you should live every day as though it's going to go on forever. You should treat people like you're going to see them again in the future. You should start working on projects that may take a long time. And so I want to live every day as though it's going to go on forever.

Q. What’s your best piece of advice?

A. Always prioritize the substance of what you're doing. Don't get caught up in the status, the prestige games. They're endlessly dazzling, and they're always endlessly disappointing.