Umm uh umm
Thiel is a great Conservative Gay. A true role model for many of the posters here. All you Gay libs here need to vote Republican like Peter.
What is the threshold for becoming a "chess wizard"?
According to fide, his rating is just shy of 2200. While that's certainly very good, it's probably the equivalent of a 2:30 marathon.
My thinking is depending on natural inclination, both would take 4-5 years of dedicated work to achieve. And 2:30 probably wins smaller marathons just like ~2200 would win smaller chess tournaments. Wouldn't come close to qualifying in any professional way (2:30 is pretty far from otq, 2200 is pretty far from IM and even farther from GM).
Would you call a 2:30 marathoner a "running wizard"? Probably not...
Don't mean to take away from the achievement. Just trying to be a bit more realistic here.
The only reason for him to go on this podcast is to push an agenda. When interviewing people like this ( on both sides) you need to be very well researched to pushback when they say bat sh't crazy things, which as usual joe did not do.