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 …
Author Archives: David Lee
Bill Belichick: Below The Line
Jack Dorsey recommended “The Score Takes Care of Itself” as one of his top business books. I think Keith Rabois referred it to him. Even if you don’t like sports, it’s a fascinating read into how Bill Walsh transformed a dormant loser into a durable franchise. I’m from Boston and am an insufferable Boston sports …
Nonlinear Optics
The last class I needed to take from graduate school was “Nonlinear Optics” taught by Nobel Prize winner Stephen Harris. I struggled. I was a decent scientist/engineer but not elite. And beyond that, nonlinear optics was really freaking hard. Not only was the math complex, but it was nearly impossible for me to picture the …
Paint it Black, Friday
I wrote earlier about my impressionistic thoughts on bitcoin. I’m still learning as much as I can about bitcoin, currency systems, protocols and platforms. My brain hurts. I feel like Billy Ray Valentine. In order to be a currency (i.e., money), bitcoin needs to serve three functions: store of value, medium of exchange, unit of …
Beginner’s Mind
When I was really sick with cancer in 1994, I was freaking out emotionally. My emotions were super volatile – some days I was upbeat and in a fighting spirit and some days I was scared shitless and paralyzed with fear. My doctors eventually told me that I needed to get on a more emotional …
10 Things I Think I Think on Bitcoin
I’m relatively late to Bitcoin. I’m probably more current than 99.9% of the general population but less informed than the hackers, hobbyists and investors who have been studying this since its inception in early 2009. I’m no payment systems or cryptography expert. So I went back to first principles and studied the Khan Academy lectures …
Homeland and The Long Game
Because Abu Nazir is playing the long game. This way no one expects a thing. -Carrie Mathison, Homeland I missed the Season 3 premiere of Homeland last night. It’s one of my favorite shows in recent memory. For those that don’t watch it, the main plot is this: a POW returns home after 7-8 years …
Pitching SV Angel: The Executive Summary
This post will give a small glimpse into how we evaluate opportunities. It’s more about process than substance (i.e., what we look for). When we receive an email from a referral source introducing us to a founder, we typically ask the founder if they have an executive summary. This may sound tedious and old-school. But …
Photo-sharing Fatigue
Photo-sharing gets a bad rap in startup worlds. The conventional wisdom is that there are too many and that bright entrepreneurs should work on something more significant than “just another photo-sharing app.” Douchebag investors pontificate about how bright founders should use their gifts to solve hard and valuable problems. This obviously implies that photo-sharing isn’t …
Richard Feynman and FoundationDB
Richard Feynman is one of my heroes. He was a true original thinker and probably one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century. He was the Michael Jordan of physicists. In his day, NBA All Star players said Jordan was on a different level. They were great but he was different. That’s a …