Person is a nutter -> nutters more likely to be at the extremes of achievement (success and failure) -> you see the successes -> there's a bunch of insane people who became billionaires
versus:
Some people win at the success game -> they start to think they are special -> environment encourages them towards extremes of thought -> bunch of crazy billionaires
One way the negative traits are merely uncovered by getting rich. Other way the negative traits are actually developed along with getting rich.
Don't forget selection bias. There are plenty of ultra-rich people who are not, as far as we know, nutters. We tend to talk about the nutters more precisely because they are nutters.
In the case of Thiel, I think his particular flavor of craziness is key to his success. I believe his paranoia was a major factor in the founding of Palantir.
You say nutter, I say neurodivergent. I think there is a lot more truth than you think to your first statement! I have a hypothesis that neurodivergent people are overrepresented at the highest levels of government, finance, technology, etc, and that this has probably been the case for, most of human history. Part of the (extremely justified) complaints about the rich and powerful is that they're "not like us", and I think that's true in more ways than one!
Person is a nutter -> nutters more likely to be at the extremes of achievement (success and failure) -> you see the successes -> there's a bunch of insane people who became billionaires
versus:
Some people win at the success game -> they start to think they are special -> environment encourages them towards extremes of thought -> bunch of crazy billionaires
One way the negative traits are merely uncovered by getting rich. Other way the negative traits are actually developed along with getting rich.