Tough act to follow

Peter Thiel called his friend and former co-founder Elon Musk "a negative role model." Plus, 7 other things worth reading today.

Hi. I’m Bill Murphy Jr. Welcome to Understandably. And welcome especially to everyone signing up after reading about this in Inc. This Morning! I’m very excited.

If you’re not signed up yet, here’s how. Feedback is always welcome at hello [at] understandably [dot] [com].

Let’s talk about Peter Thiel and Elon Musk.

This week, Thiel was on stage in a debate at the UCLA Internet 50 conference, over the proposition: Innovation has stalled.

Thiel took the “pro” side, meaning, “yes, innovation has stalled.” Professor Robert Metcalfe, who teaches innovation and entrepreneurship at the University of Texas at Austin, took the “con” side.

Afterward, most headlines were about a quick line in Thiel’s spiel, in which he described Musk as “a negative role model.”

The whole thing went like this. Since he was arguing that “innovation has stalled,” Thiel had to address Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, as the exception that proves the rule.

“Elon is the counterexample,” Thiel began. “It’s a very weird thing wh…