Picture the world of the future. What do you see? When we think about the future, we usually imagine things being better or more advanced than they are now. We know this because the world has changed a lot since we were kids, with many new technologies and ideas. So, let’s think about the future. What comes to mind? Maybe you’re thinking about super-fast planes, self-driving cars that are quiet and sleek, or computer screens so thin you can hardly see them from the side. You’re probably imagining an improved version of things we already have.

This is called “horizontal progress.” It’s when we make existing things better or expand on existing ideas. Globalization, which spreads these ideas to more people around the world, often drives this type of progress. But if you want to be really innovative, just making things better isn’t enough. You should aim for “vertical progress,” creating something entirely new.

Think about the invention of the smartphone. That was vertical progress because it took us from a world without smartphones to a world with them. On the other hand, getting smartphones to more people in different countries was horizontal progress – just spreading what already existed. This is where Peter Thiel’s idea of “going from zero to one” comes in. Imagine a graph with two lines: one going from 1 to 2 to 3 (horizontal progress), and the other going from 0 to 1 (vertical progress). Thiel is talking about moving up that second line, from nothing to something new.