100 Plus

100 Plus is Sonia Arrison's 2011 investigation of the science of life extension, covering the biological, technological, and social implications of radical life extension. Arrison surveys the research on aging — from telomeres and stem cells to caloric restriction and genetic engineering — and argues that living past 100 will be common within decades, with profound consequences for careers, families, and society. Thiel was an early funder of life-extension research through his Breakout Labs initiative.

Thiel recommended this book as one of his favorite reads, and Senra connects it to Thiel's belief that death is a solvable engineering problem rather than an inevitable natural process. Thiel's investment in life-extension research (Unity Biotechnology, the Methuselah Foundation) and his public statements calling death a 'problem to be solved' are direct applications of the thesis Arrison lays out.

For founders, 100 Plus is not about investing in biotech. It is about a founder's relationship with the long-term. Senra draws a line from Thiel's interest in life extension to his venture time horizons: Thiel thinks in decades, funds companies that require 10-15 year patience, and believes the most important things are the ones that seem impossible within a normal human lifespan. The book is evidence that a founder's willingness to invest in very long time horizons is connected to their view of their own mortality.

Arrison's framework — aging is not a mystery but a set of engineering problems that are yielding to science — mirrors the startup mentality: any problem that can be decomposed into subproblems can be solved by enough talent and money. For founders in any field, the willingness to invest in problems that will not pay off in a conventional career is the difference between incrementalism and the kind of ambition Thiel advocates.