Late last year, Palmer Luckey flew his helicopter to my office for a quick chat. He sported one of his signature Hawaiian shirts, but instead of his usual flip-flops, he wore what looked like a pair of heavy-duty socks with individual slots for each toe. Kind of like a glove for your feet.
“Flying the helicopter requires a lot of footwork,” he said. “These give me a better feel for the pedals.”
As you may know, Palmer Luckey is the virtual reality guy who started a company called Oculus when he was in his twenties and sold it to Facebook a few years later for a couple billion dollars. He has since gone on to do a number of interesting things, including starting a company called Anduril, which manufactures state-of-the-art weapons and a variety of autonomous systems for the United States military.
I first met Palmer back in April at an energy conference in Laguna Beach. He showed up at that event on a motorcycle, wearing a jacket made entirely of copper.
“It’s the perfect jacket for motorcycle riding,” he told me. “Much tougher than leather if you have a spill.”
“How much does it weigh?” I asked.
“Five pounds,” he said. “I like it because copper is an anti-microbial, so it never gets moldy. Plus, I can put my phone in the pocket, and it acts like a Faraday cage. Nobody can track me.”
Obviously, we had a fascinating conversation about a number of topics, including how to win future wars, deindustrialize our manufacturing base, and reinvigorate the skilled trades. Along with a plan to eliminate the TSA, and some Hobbit-related sidebars. A short clip is attached. Our whole conversation is here. bit.ly/TWIHI464PalmerLuckey