We hear Clarium's holdings are up 30 percent in a year, from $3 billion to $5 billion. For hedge funds, the standard deal is that the managers keep 20 percent of profits, which means Thiel's take would come to $400 million. Has anyone on Wall Street been posting those kinds of numbers lately?

Clarium already has an office in New York, and Thiel an apartment there. So the move would have more of an effect on his employees than on Thiel. As brainy as the Valley is, financial expertise is still centered in New York, as are the deep pools of capital Thiel would tap. For Clarium's existing workers who might be asked to move, the prospect is unsettling.

There is one other aspect to Thiel's move that fascinates. I've been told Thiel has been dating Matt Danzeisen, a vice president at BlackRock, for some time and the handsome fellow pictured above to the right of Thiel. (No one has yet confirmed for me if they're still going steady.)

An acquaintance of Thiel scoffs at the idea that Thiel would do anything for romantic reasons. Thiel, he says, is an utterly rational thinker. But the heart is capable of its own rationalizations. The mere possibilty that Thiel might maximize happiness, rather than profit, is a comforting thought.