Zero to One summary
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Zero to One Summary Review | Book by Peter Thiel

Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

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Introduction

What if everything youโ€™ve been taught about business success is wrong? What if competition actually destroys value instead of creating it? And what if the biggest opportunities arenโ€™t found in crowded markets, but in spaces where no one else is looking?

These questions strike at the heart of Peter Thielโ€™s contrarian philosophy. The billionaire entrepreneur behind PayPal and early Facebook investor challenges nearly every piece of conventional business wisdom. Thielโ€™s insights have shaped some of the most successful tech companies in the world.

After selling PayPal for $1.5 billion in 2002, Thiel went on to invest in numerous startups that would eventually become billion-dollar companies. But hereโ€™s his most important lesson: the next Bill Gates wonโ€™t build an operating system, and the next Larry Page or Sergey Brin wonโ€™t make a search engine. The future belongs to entrepreneurs who create something entirely new.

Think about itโ€”going from zero to one means creating something from nothing. Thatโ€™s a much greater leap than going from one to 10 or even from one to 100. Itโ€™s the difference between inventing the first computer and manufacturing the thousandth one.

The world needs startups as an engine to both envision and create the future. Yet the dot-com crash of the 1990s taught entrepreneurs lessons that, when followed today, actually prevent real innovation. Based on a course Thiel taught at Stanford in 2012, his book offers ideas with strong perspectives on what it takes to build something genuinely new.

Hereโ€™s what makes this summary different: weโ€™ll share the hidden lessons Iโ€™ve learned from Thielโ€™s philosophy and how they can change your approach to business, innovation, and competition. These arenโ€™t just theoretical conceptsโ€”theyโ€™re practical insights that separate truly successful entrepreneurs from those who simply copy what already exists.

Life gets busy. Has Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future been on your reading list? Learn the key insights now.

Weโ€™re just scratching the surface in this audiobook summary. If you donโ€™t already have Peter Thielโ€™s bestselling book on startup strategy and innovation, get the audiobook for free to learn the juicy details.

โ€œPeter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how.โ€ โ€“ ELON MUSK, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla

โ€œThis book delivers completely new and refreshing ideas on how to create value in the world.โ€ โ€“ MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO of Meta

StoryShot 1: The Real Meaning of Zero to One

Ever notice how business schools teach you to study your competitors, but the most successful companies seem to ignore this advice entirely? Thielโ€™s core insight cuts through this confusion with a simple but powerful distinction.

Picture this: there are only two ways to make progress in business. You can take something that already works and copy it somewhere elseโ€”thatโ€™s horizontal progress, going from 1 to n. Or you can create something entirely new that didnโ€™t exist beforeโ€”thatโ€™s vertical progress, going from 0 to 1.

Understanding Horizontal vs. Vertical Progress

Horizontal progress means taking something that works somewhere and making it work everywhere else. Itโ€™s essentially copying existing models and extending them to new markets. Thiel connects this with globalizationโ€”the process of spreading successful ideas across the globe. China exemplifies this approach by replicating successful technologies from developed nations.

But hereโ€™s what most entrepreneurs miss: building 100 typewriters is horizontal progress. Inventing the word processor? Thatโ€™s vertical progress. If horizontal progress means taking existing solutions and scaling them, vertical progress means creating solutions that never existed.

Think about wind energy companies. Most make slight improvements to traditional rotating blade designsโ€”thatโ€™s horizontal progress. But companies like Humdinger Wind Energy developed entirely new โ€œwind beltโ€ technology based on different physics principles. Same goal, completely different approach.

Why creating something new beats scaling every time

Creating something from nothing offers advantages that scaling existing ideas simply canโ€™t match. Companies pursuing vertical progress can establish monopolies that capture substantial value. They operate in what business strategists call โ€œBlue Oceansโ€โ€”uncontested market spaces where competition becomes irrelevant.

Without new technology, globalization becomes unsustainable in a world of limited resources. While horizontal progress feels safer, it typically leads to brutal competition that drives profits toward zero. Most startups today pursue safer, smaller ideas rather than transformational onesโ€”a hangover from the dot-com crash that still influences thinking today.

Zero-to-one companies attract top talent and investment because they offer greater potential returns through innovation. They solve problems in entirely new ways rather than making incremental improvements to existing solutions.

The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything

The zero-to-one approach requires contrarian thinking. Thiel poses a question that separates real innovators from imitators: โ€œWhat important truth do very few people agree with you on?โ€ Value creation happens in spaces where consensus hasnโ€™t yet formed.

This mindset also changes how you think about time. Instead of thinking about the future in fixed periods, Thiel suggests thinking about speed of progress. He asks provocatively: โ€œIf you have a 10-year plan to get there, why canโ€™t you do this in six months?โ€

Successful zero-to-one companies often start small but targeted. PayPal focused initially on eBay power sellers, Facebook on Harvard students, and Amazon on long-tail books. This allows companies to perfect their approach in smaller environments before tackling larger markets.

The key insight? Both approaches have their place, but recognizing which one aligns with your goals and strengths makes all the difference. As one expert notes: โ€œIn order to scale tomorrowโ€™s solutions, you need to discover and validate them (in other words, go from 0 โ†’ 1) today.โ€

StoryShot 2: Why Monopolies beat competition every time

Hereโ€™s something that might shock you: everything youโ€™ve been taught about competition is wrong. Thiel makes one of businessโ€™s most controversial arguments: competition actually destroys value while monopolies create it.

The competition myth thatโ€™s ruining your business

From childhood through business school, weโ€™re bombarded with messages about competitionโ€™s virtues. But Thiel argues this competitive mindset blinds us to opportunities for creating genuinely new things.

Consider this eye-opening comparison: airlines serve millions of passengers yearly, but their profit margins are razor-thinโ€”just 37 cents per passenger trip in 2012. Meanwhile, Google captured 21% of its $50 billion revenue as profits that same year, making it worth three times more than all U.S. airlines combined.

As Peter Thiel puts it: โ€œAll happy companies are different: each one earns a monopoly by solving a unique problem. All failed companies are the same: they failed to escape competitionโ€. This contradicts everything traditional economics teaches about perfect competition being ideal. Under perfect competition, no company makes economic profit in the long run since new competitors always enter profitable markets.

How Monopolies Actually Drive Innovation

Monopolies possess something competitive businesses never canโ€”the freedom to think beyond mere survival. A restaurant fighting daily competition must squeeze every efficiency, putting โ€œGrandma to work at the registerโ€. Such businesses canโ€™t invest in long-term innovation because theyโ€™re fixated on todayโ€™s margins.

Companies like Google โ€œdonโ€™t have to worry about competing with anyone,โ€ giving them โ€œwider latitude to care about workers, products, and impact on the wider worldโ€. This freedom allows monopolies to make ambitious research investments and long-term plans that competitors canโ€™t imagine.

But hereโ€™s the crucial distinction Thiel makes: heโ€™s talking about dynamic monopolies, not static ones. In a static world, monopolists just jack up prices. But our world is dynamicโ€”we can invent better things. Creative monopolies replace outdated models with breakthrough innovations, creating new markets rather than just altering existing ones.

What makes monopolies actually good

Not all monopolies are created equal. According to Thiel, beneficial monopolies:

Create something new and valuable rather than restricting existing supply

Emerge through innovation rather than control (like Apple with the iPhone)

Build genuine value through network effects and superior products

Enable significant future cash flows through breakthrough technology

Successful monopolies typically start by dominating small, overlooked market segments before expanding. Amazon exemplifies this perfectlyโ€”starting as an online bookstore before becoming a global e-commerce giant.

Throughout history, creative monopolies have succeeded one another. IBMโ€™s monopoly gave way to Microsoftโ€™s, which yielded to Googleโ€™s. Each new monopoly replaced incumbents by offering superior products rather than stifling innovation.

The bottom line? โ€œMonopoly is therefore not a pathology or an exception. Monopoly is the condition of every successful businessโ€. Your goal isnโ€™t competing within existing markets but creating entirely new ones where competition becomes irrelevant. Thiel advises entrepreneurs to pursue monopoly through differentiation rather than entering crowded competitive spaces.

StoryShot 3: The Power of Definite Optimism

Picture two entrepreneurs with identical business ideas. The first says, โ€œI believe things will work out somehow.โ€ The second says, โ€œI believe things will work out, and hereโ€™s exactly how Iโ€™ll make it happen.โ€ Which one would you bet on?

This scenario captures one of Thielโ€™s most important concepts in his zero to one philosophyโ€”the idea of definite optimism. This mindset separates visionaries from dreamers and is essential for creating true innovation through successful startups.

What is definite optimism?

Definite optimism means you believe the future will be better and you have a concrete plan to make it so. Itโ€™s about having both vision and a roadmap. This mindset stands apart from three other possible outlooks:

Indefinite optimism: Believing the future will be better but without a specific plan to shape it

Definite pessimism: Believing the future can be known but will be worse

Indefinite pessimism: Viewing the future as uncertain and likely unfavorable

Definite optimists see themselves as active architects of tomorrow rather than passive recipients of whatever comes. They understand the future and actively work to shape it. This mindset maximizes your agency and ability to create real change.

Why planning beats flexibility

Hereโ€™s where Thiel challenges popular startup wisdom that champions adaptability. He makes a compelling case for concrete planning over endless flexibility. The United States once ran on definite optimism, but has gradually lost that edge over recent decades. Think about the difference between the Apollo program and todayโ€™s approach to ambitious projects.

Thiel criticizes the modern business worldโ€™s obsession with โ€œindefinite thinking.โ€ Many entrepreneurs today favor incremental improvements and data-driven processes over bold designs for new futures. This leads to companies that make minor tweaks to existing products rather than creating breakthrough innovations.

Indefinite optimism feels fundamentally broken to Thiel. As he provocatively asks: โ€œHow can the future get better if no one plans for it?โ€. Itโ€™s like expecting to arrive at a destination without knowing where youโ€™re going or how to get there.

How this mindset shapes successful founders

The great visionaries of our timeโ€”figures like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, and Jack Dorseyโ€”exemplify definite optimism. Their conviction in specific visions of the future inspires others to help them succeed. They become leaders of movements rather than just managers of companies.

Definite optimism functions as a form of human capital. Economic analyst Dan Wang suggests that alongside traditional factors like education levels, economists should consider โ€œoptimism, imagination, and hope for the futureโ€ as critical components of growth.

Definite optimist founders follow a clear pattern:

Develop a clear and compelling vision of what they want to achieve

Create a concrete plan with specific steps and milestones

Commit to consistent and focused execution

This approach delivers significant advantages: clearer direction, increased motivation, better decision-making, and higher innovation potential. When you know exactly where youโ€™re going and how to get there, everything becomes easierโ€”from raising money to hiring talent to making tough decisions.

Definite optimism is about having the courage to envision a specific future and the conviction to make it reality. Thatโ€™s precisely the mindset needed to go from zero to one.

StoryShot 4: The seven questions every startup must answer

Thiel distills startup success into seven critical questions. Think of them as a diagnostic test for your business idea. Get all seven right and youโ€™ll likely succeed. Nail five or six and you might still work. Miss most of them and what feels like โ€œbad luckโ€ is actually predictable failure.

Hereโ€™s your startup checklist:

1. The Engineering Question: Can You Create Breakthrough Technology?

โ€œCan you create breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements?โ€ Your product must be at least 10 times better than existing alternativesโ€”not 10% better, but dramatically superior.

Appleโ€™s iPad wasnโ€™t just another tablet; it was 10 times better than previous tablets. Googleโ€™s search didnโ€™t make small improvements over earlier engines; it vastly outperformed them. PayPal wasnโ€™t slightly more convenient than mailing checks for eBay purchasesโ€”it was 10 times better.

Small improvements get lost in market noise. Only dramatic superiority offers transparent value to customers.

2. The Timing Question: Is Now the Right Time?

Timing can make or break even the most promising ventures. โ€œIs now the right time to start your particular business?โ€

Facebook launched perfectly when broadband infrastructure was rapidly expanding, then exploded when smartphones became widespread. Tesla seized a crucial moment in 2010 when governments were investing heavily in clean energy, securing a $465 million loan that might have been unavailable later.

Consider infrastructure readiness, social norms, government regulations, and existing ecosystems. Are the pieces in place for your idea to work?

3. The monopoly question: Can You Dominate a Small Market?

โ€œAre you starting with a big share of a small market?โ€ This flips conventional wisdom on its head. Instead of entering large, competitive markets, start by dominating tiny ones.

Google maintained a search monopoly for over a decade, giving it freedom to invest in radical projects like Google Glass and driverless cars. That monopolistic position provided the cash flow for long-term innovation. Companies stuck in brutal competition canโ€™t think beyond survival.

4. The People Question: Do You Have the Right Team?

โ€œDo you have the right team?โ€ This sounds obvious but trips up many founders. You need people capable of building real innovations, not just talking about them.

When evaluating cleantech companies, Thiel noticed many were led by โ€œmen in suitsโ€ rather than engineers. Red flag. As he puts it, โ€œreal technologists wear T-shirts and jeansโ€. You need builders, not just managers.

5. The Distribution Question: Can You Actually Reach Customers?

โ€œDo you have a way to not just create but deliver your product?โ€ Even breakthrough technology rarely sells itself.

Better Place had impressive electric vehicle technology but failed to market it effectively, creating confusion about their offering. Having a superior product means nothing without an effective way to reach customers. Distribution matters as much as innovation.

6. The durability question: Will Your Advantage Last?

โ€œWill your market position be defensible 10 and 20 years into the future?โ€ Think like the last mover in your market, not the first.

Tesla established durability through rapid innovation that created a widening lead, plus it built a trusted brandโ€”a significant advantage in the slow-moving auto industry. Durability comes from network effects, high switching costs, strong brands, or proprietary technology.

7. The secret question: What Do You Know That Others Donโ€™t?

โ€œHave you identified a unique opportunity that others donโ€™t see?โ€ Great companies are built on secretsโ€”valuable insights hiding in plain sight.

Airbnbโ€™s secret was that strangers would actually rent rooms in each otherโ€™s homes. Most investors laughed at this idea initially. Finding these hidden truths gives startups a crucial head start before competitors catch on.

These seven questions work as a complete system. Miss one and your startup faces serious challenges. Get them all right and youโ€™ve built a foundation for going from zero to one.

StoryShot 5: Secrets Are the Key to Innovation

What if the biggest business opportunities are hiding in plain sight? Peter Thiel argues that every exceptional company is built on a secretโ€”a valuable truth that others donโ€™t see or believe.

Think about it: if everyone already knows something works, why would you have any advantage? The real money gets made when you discover something others miss entirely.

Why secrets still exist in a crowded world

Thiel defines secrets as problems that have answers but nobody has figured out yet. From Pythagoras discovering the secrets of triangles to NASA landing humans on the moon, historyโ€™s greatest advances came from uncovering hidden truths.

Hereโ€™s the question that drives everything: โ€œWhat important truth do very few people agree with you on?โ€ This isnโ€™t about being contrarian for the sake of itโ€”itโ€™s about finding overlooked opportunities that could change everything.

Airbnbโ€™s secret was recognizing that strangers would rent rooms in each otherโ€™s homes. When the founders first pitched this idea, investors laughed. Who would trust a stranger in their house? The concept seemed ridiculous until it became a $75 billion company.

Facebookโ€™s secret was that college students desperately wanted to connect online, but only with other verified students. Everyone else was trying to build social networks for everyoneโ€”Facebook succeeded by starting with an exclusive, small group.

How to find secrets others overlook

Finding these hidden truths requires a different approach:

Look at what everybody agrees on, then question what lies behind those beliefs

Examine the lessons from past failuresโ€”sometimes they create unnecessary fears

Talk to people with different backgrounds and experiences

Get comfortable with uncertainty instead of seeking safe answers

The dot-com crash taught entrepreneurs to avoid โ€œbig ideasโ€ and focus on proven markets. But this created dogmas that now limit innovation. What seemed like wisdom then might be holding us back today.

Consider this: Nokia laughed at flip phones, saying โ€œnobody would want a phone that needs two hands.โ€ Then they dismissed smartphones entirely. Their attachment to existing revenue models literally blinded them to market changes.

The danger of conventional thinking

Throughout history, conventional wisdom has killed innovation. When everyone thinks the same way, opportunities get overlooked.

Companies wedded to conventional thinking become blind to reality. They discourage risk-taking and fall into groupthink. But our world changes fastโ€”what people consider โ€œsafe thinkingโ€ today becomes dangerous tomorrow.

Thiel suggests that true contrarian thinking isnโ€™t about opposing crowds just to be different. Itโ€™s about thinking for yourself and discovering valuable secrets that others miss. The biggest opportunities often lie where conventional wisdom says they canโ€™t exist.

Ever notice how the most successful companies often started with ideas that seemed crazy? Thatโ€™s not coincidenceโ€”itโ€™s the power of secrets at work.

StoryShot 6: Sales Matter More Than You Think

Ever wonder why brilliant startups with amazing products still fail? Hereโ€™s a hard truth that many founders learn too late: having a superior product is only half the battle. Peter Thiel challenges one of the most dangerous myths in startup cultureโ€”the idea that great products sell themselves.

Poor sales, not product problems, cause most startup failures. This insight flies in the face of what technical founders want to believe. Weโ€™d rather perfect our code than learn how to sell it.

Why great products donโ€™t sell themselves

Think about it this way: if products really sold themselves, why do Apple and Microsoft spend billions on advertising? Even the iPhone needed marketing to become a household name.

Thiel argues that distribution isnโ€™t just an afterthoughtโ€”itโ€™s essential to product design itself. As he puts it: โ€œIf youโ€™ve invented something new but havenโ€™t invented an effective way to sell it, you have a bad businessโ€”no matter how good the productโ€.

Hereโ€™s what makes this especially tricky: the importance of sales gets hidden at every level of business, even though it secretly drives everything. Engineers build features, but salespeople decide which features customers actually care about. This explains why even brilliant technical minds often miss the sales piece entirely.

Understanding CAC or Kack and CLV

Two numbers determine whether your sales approach actually works: Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC or Kack) and Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

Kack represents how much you spend to get one new customer, including all your marketing and sales costs. CLV measures the total revenue one customer brings you over their entire relationship with your business.

The magic ratio? You want to earn three dollars in customer lifetime value for every dollar spent on acquisition. So if your CLV is $3,000 and your Kack is $750, youโ€™ve got a healthy 4:1 ratio. Anything below 3:1 means youโ€™re burning money to grow.

Sales strategies for different product types

Thiel breaks down four distinct sales approaches based on what youโ€™re selling:

Complex sales work for high-value products over $1 million. Your CEO needs to personally coordinate with multiple decision-makers. Growth typically caps at 50-100% yearly.

Direct sales fit products between $10,000-$100,000. Sales reps meet customers face-to-face to build confidence and demonstrate solutions.

Mass marketing suits consumer products with lower CLV, reaching many potential customers at once.

Viral marketing costs the least and works best for low-cost products that spread through existing user networks.

The key insight? Pick one channel and master it. As Thiel warns: โ€œIf you can get just one distribution channel to work, you have a great business. If you try for several but donโ€™t nail one, youโ€™re finishedโ€.

Most founders spread themselves too thin trying multiple approaches instead of dominating one. Better to own a single channel completely than dabble in several unsuccessfully.

StoryShot 7: Build a Strong Foundation and Culture

Ever wonder why some startups with mediocre products succeed while others with brilliant technology fail? The answer often comes down to something you canโ€™t see on a pitch deck: team dynamics and company culture.

Hereโ€™s a sobering reality checkโ€”23% of startup failures stem directly from team issues. That means nearly one in four promising ventures crashes not because of market problems or funding issues, but because people canโ€™t work together effectively. Peter Thiel places huge emphasis on getting these early decisions right, and for good reason.

Why your first hires shape everything

Think about your early team members as the foundation of a building. Get the foundation wrong, and everything else becomes unstable. Teams with more than one founder outperform solo founders by an astounding 163%, with 25% higher startup valuations. These arenโ€™t just numbersโ€”they represent real companies that succeeded or failed based on who was in the room making decisions.

Your initial employees establish patterns that either push the business forward or create friction that slows everything down. Before making hiring decisions, make sure you have adequate funding, a clear roadmap, and know exactly which roles matter most.

Hereโ€™s something interesting: first-time founders have approximately an 18% success rate, while those who previously failed achieve a 20% success rate. That small bump suggests experienceโ€”even from failureโ€”teaches valuable lessons about building teams.

The PayPal Mafia phenomenon

Want to see what great culture looks like? Look at the โ€œPayPal Mafiaโ€โ€”former PayPal employees who went on to found Tesla, LinkedIn, YouTube, and SpaceX. This might be the most successful alumni network in tech history, and it didnโ€™t happen by accident.

PayPal did something different from other Silicon Valley companies. Instead of hiring through headhunters, they recruited primarily through friendship networks. As former COO David Sacks noted, they were โ€œcut from the same clothโ€. This wasnโ€™t about hiring people who thought alikeโ€”it was about finding people who could work together effectively.

PayPalโ€™s culture was distinctively โ€œconfrontationalโ€ where ideas rose through informed debate. They valued doers over titles, promoting from within based on merit rather than hiring outside management. As Sacks put it, they were โ€œa bunch of misfitsโ€ who developed deep friendships that went beyond just working together.

The result? When these people left PayPal, they took with them not just skills but a shared understanding of how to build companies. They became each otherโ€™s investors, advisors, and collaborators in future ventures.

Building culture that actually works

Creating strong culture starts with being intentional about it. As one founder notes, โ€œFounders usually focus on โ€˜winningโ€™ in businessโ€ฆ when they decide to share their leadership and develop an amazing company culture, they are paving the way to a real shiftโ€.

Hereโ€™s the key: define observable behaviors, not just principles. Observable behaviors are clearer when you model them and easier to recognize in others. Instead of saying โ€œwe value innovation,โ€ describe what innovative behavior looks like in your specific context.

The numbers back this up. Companies with strong cultural alignment see 2.5 times greater cash flow per employee compared to competitors. Ethnically diverse executive teams are 27% more likely to outperform competitors financially, while gender-diverse teams see 15% higher returns. Diverse teams deliver 60% better results and make better decisions in 87% of cases compared to homogeneous groups.

But hereโ€™s the thing about startup cultureโ€”it must be deliberately created. As your company grows quickly from two employees to five to twenty, youโ€™ll lose control of the culture if you donโ€™t actively shape it, potentially leading to bad hires and toxic environments.

The lesson? Your culture isnโ€™t something that happens to youโ€”itโ€™s something you build, one decision and one hire at a time.

Final Summary and Review of Zero to One

Peter Thielโ€™s Zero to One offers more than business adviceโ€”it provides a complete framework for thinking about innovation and value creation. The book challenges nearly every assumption weโ€™ve been taught about business success, from the supposed benefits of competition to the myth that great products sell themselves.

The core insight remains powerful: creating something entirely new (zero to one) offers far greater opportunities than copying existing models (one to n). This isnโ€™t just theoreticalโ€”companies like Google, Facebook, and PayPal succeeded precisely because they created new categories rather than competing in existing ones.

Here are the key takeaways that can change how you approach business and innovation:

Seek monopoly, not competition: Competitive markets destroy value while creative monopolies drive innovation and capture substantial returns

Practice definite optimism: Have both a clear vision of the future and a concrete plan to make it a reality

Answer the seven critical questions: Engineering, timing, monopoly, people, distribution, durability, and secrets must all align for success

Hunt for secrets: The biggest opportunities come from discovering valuable insights that others miss or dismiss

Master distribution early: Even breakthrough technology fails without effective ways to reach customers

Build culture intentionally: Your early team decisions and company culture determine everything that follows

The most fascinating aspect of Thielโ€™s philosophy is how it reveals the hidden patterns behind successful innovation. Every major technological breakthroughโ€”from the personal computer to social mediaโ€”happened because someone saw possibilities that conventional wisdom couldnโ€™t imagine.

Whatโ€™s your biggest takeaway from Thielโ€™s contrarian approach to business? Do you see opportunities in your field that others are missing because theyโ€™re following conventional wisdom? Leave us a comment to join the conversation.

We rate โ€œZero to Oneโ€ 4.5/5. How would you rate Peter Thielโ€™s book based on this audiobook summary?

Our Score

Loved Zero to One by Peter Thiel? Here Are the Top Book Summaries You Should Listen to Next

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