The problem with investing based on pattern recognition by Chris Dixon, +1.
Women 2.0: Stop Sabotaging Your Own Success: A Manifesto, by Automattic’s own Sara Rosso.
New iPad Introduction
Guest photographer: the inimitable Om Malik.
Tony’s Party
A surprise birthday dinner with friends for Tony.
Friend and HSPVA alum Robert Glasper’s new album Black Radio is out today and has so far been well-received by a great feature in the New York Times and on NPR. You can grab the album on iTunes ($7) or on Amazon ($9).
Ethiopia Day 4
Saw charity: water’s new drilling rig, was shown some local houses, visiting Gereb Eshiibela where a well had been built, then a drive and portraits in a beautiful valley, and dinner at Geza-Gebreselassie.
Shaktown
Visited a well being hand-dug with dynamite, a drilled well hitting water, and Shak’s sites in Seglemen, Ethiopia.
Second Day in Ethiopia
Climbed Gheralta to visit the church at the top of the mountain, checked into the Gheralta Lodge, and visited a village called Girat Mikdah Keshe that received a well from Charity: Water two years ago. Guest photographers: John Vechey and Scott Harrison.
First day in Ethiopia
Visiting new drilling rig, in Charity: Water yellow, visited a village without clean water yet that’s going to get it later this year, played soccer in Abenaa (lost 2-1, but good game).
En Route to Ethiopia
Flying to Ethiopia and dinner at Yordanos.
Starting in the early 1990s, he began to suspect that a single-celled parasite in the protozoan family was subtly manipulating his personality, causing him to behave in strange, often self-destructive ways. And if it was messing with his mind, he reasoned, it was probably doing the same to others.The parasite, which is excreted by cats in their feces, is called Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii or Toxo for short) and is the microbe that causes toxoplasmosis — the reason pregnant women are told to avoid cats’ litter boxes.
How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy in The Atlantic. Don’t worry, it has a happy ending.
Georgia Aquarium and High Museum of Art
Visiting the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta and the High Museum of Art with Jane.
LIFE magazine has relaunched, powered by WordPress.com VIP. I’m a huge fan of the magazine’s history and the work of photographers like John Dominis.
On the Evolution of Investing
Today Y Combinator announced they are adding two new partners, Garry Tan and Aaron Iba. This announcement is unique because it does not list their academic credentials, their previous investments, the boards of companies or non-profits they have sat on, how many years of experience they have, or any of the usual badges of honor investors parade in their biographies and Crunchbase profiles.
Instead we get accolades of “rare individuals who can both design and program” and “best hackers among the YC alumni.” Take note of this moment.
I was part of a dinner conversation the other night that included institutional and angel investors, entrepreneurs, and someone who was part of the YC program. The group circled with alarming intent on grilling the YC entrepreneur: “How much time did you actually get with PG?” “It’s a cult of personality.” “The average quality of the companies has really dropped as they’ve broadened.” “I can’t wait for this bubble to pop.” I believe it was mostly in jest — few topics were spared that night — but there was some truth in the defensive undertone.
The hackers and engineers of Y Combinator are doing what hackers and engineers do to any industry, they’re efficiently and ruthlessly disrupting the traditional model of venture capital and are going to destroy far more more wealth for their contemporaries than they create for themselves, as broadband did to entertainment, Craigslist did to newspapers, and Amazon did to traditional retailers. This is what outsiders, by definition, do.
The dark humor in this is that the same people who delight and celebrate investing in disrupting other industries are blind or in denial about it happening to their own.
The question then becomes if you’re an investor with a traditional LP model (and expectations), or a more financial background than an operational one, or an operational background more in management than in design or coding, what should you do to stay relevant through this shift?
Two excellent essays on how Hollywood has completely put our legal system out of whack through years of twisting our legislative process to their ends, or as Shirky put it “imagine the possibility of a longer jail term for streaming a Michael Jackson video than Jackson’s own doctor got for killing actual Michael Jackson?”
Andrew Bridges on PandoDaily: Forget SOPA, Hollywood Already Had a Field Day with the Justice System.
Clay Shirky on his blog: Pick up the pitchforks: David Pogue underestimates Hollywood.
Really great article from my friend Hunter Walk on #Reinventing the Chamber of Commerce, which is especially relevant given how the US Chamber of Commerce has been tending to side with the MPAA and RIAA rather than actual small businesses, startups, and tech communities.