I would rather be in the cycle when people underestimate us, because I would rather be underestimated. Then we can really excite and amaze people. I think a lot of people are underestimating us.

-Mark Zuckerberg, Sept. 11, 2012

People ask us all the time if we’re in a “technology bubble.” I’m not sure what that question means so I try to think about it through a different lens. The key question I ask is whether one should be optimistic or pessimistic for the near- and long-term trends in technology. Peter Thiel has some incredible thoughts on optimism versus pessimism.

When it comes to the long-term, I’d argue that there has never been a better time to be more optimistic about technology. But that’s just one opinion. Hard technologies like drones, virtual reality, cryptocurrencies, life extension and others are like a Rorschach Test - one can be either optimistic or pessimistic of whether they will be valuable and/or create value.

“We always overestimate the change...

“I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything that I don’t know the other side’s argument better than they do.”

-Charlie Munger

I tweet frequently about our portfolio companies' products. It’s a little shameless and shameful at the same time. I get annoyed when others do it so I don’t know why I still do it. But whatever.

The main reason why one would get annoyed is two-fold. First, there’s an obvious financial self interest in doing it. Second, you don’t know if the person actually likes or even uses the product s/he’s tweeting about. So there’s that.

Having said that, here are a few products built by SV Angel portfolio companies and why I like them and use them every day.

Snapchat

The first app update that I love is Snapchat’s new text feature. I use Snapchat regularly even though I’m of American Beauty age. Communicating with pictures was a fun way to chat...

David Boies is one of - if not the - most brilliant lawyers in the past 20 years. He’s certainly one of the most celebrated, having argued US v. Microsoft, the landmark case that decided that Microsoft was liable as a monopolist and Bush v. Gore, which effectively decided the US 2000 Presidential election.

I can’t remember where he said the following. But I recall his saying effectively that he would take any complex litigation and boil it down to five key issues. If he didn’t win on those, the rest didn’t matter. He needed to master those issues, understand the other side’s arguments better than his and win on those issues. The rest didn’t matter.

That left a lasting impression on me. Boies essentially made the complex simple - something that is...

The number of startups doing really hard stuff has skyrocketed recently. Bitcoin, drones, food substitutes, 3D printing, bioinformatics, deep learning. We used to see these “science fiction” or “moonshot” startups only occasionally. Now it feels like every other startup (or at least 30%) is working on something pretty wacky.

These ideas are like old school Silicon Valley startups: Fairchild Semiconductor, Intel, Sun and Silicon Graphics. In order to work at those places (let alone start one), you needed to have one big brain - and back then, that was usually validated by an advanced technical degree. Deep technical expertise and know-how (i.e., being a smart motherf*cker) created a barrier to entry.

Similarly, the startups in today’s “moonshot”...

I’ve tried every system to enhance my productivity. I’ve read “Getting Things Done” by David Allen a few times. I’ve used Evernote, Wunderlist and all the others. I read that email was a bad place to process “to do” and I’ve also read that it’s the best place.

I finally settled on a system. I asked Ron what he does. It’s pretty simple. In the morning, he sets three things to do for the day. If he does all three, then it’s a good day. If he doesn’t, then it’s a bad day.

It’s been a decent system so far - about 15 days in. The binary approach can be pretty judgmental but it’s been effective so far. Tactically, I take 3 things from my Asana and label them with “@TODAY.” If I get them done,...

The best moment in 2013 was the safe, healthy arrival of my 2nd daughter

The biggest letdown in 2013 was Homeland, Season 3.

The best book I read in 2013 was “The Success Equation” by Michael Mauboussin. Helped change the way I think about my day-to-day job.

The biggest tech story in 2013 was the growing skepticism around hierarchies, authorities and governments - i.e., NSA/Snowden, healthcare.gov, decentralized money.

The second biggest tech story in 2013 was the emergence of crowdfunding and the future of money. About ten years ago, the story was about the changing way that people created, shared, consumed media (‘real-time’ or ‘social media’). A few years ago, the story was about one way that people were changing the way they consume stuff and...