Did he actually think this idea would make him rich? Was he that naive? I mean it's a damn retractile stick, there's no actual value to it, of course it would be copied to oblivion...
I am sincerely happy to see most of HN is taking the stance of defending Thiel--by doing it, they are simply defending the freedom to back the candidate you like, and not the one that the industry wants you to like.
I have a Twitter stream of hundreds of developers from different backgrounds and it was like 99% pro-Hillary--by defending Trump you would get spanked. Something was really wrong there, and this conversation we are having proves it.
And I can't help but wonder if Thiel did this just so this conversation would spark. It simply is brilliant.