Just to play Devil's Advocate, many successful people owe their success to tacit knowledge and subconscious preferences. Others have an inkling of why they succeed, but can't fully articulate it. This is why there won't be another Steve Jobs or Warren Buffet, no matter how much they've written or been studied.

It follows that some people are successful despite themselves. Every piece of explicit advice they give can be wrong. They succeed because they're not actually following their own advice even when they think they are.

Then there's the possibility that someone like Thiel pushes advice and ideas to manipulate people. It might be deliberately wrong, or more likely (in this cynical scenario) he might not care if it's right or wrong, just that it'll produce a particular effect.