Seeing VCs like a16z shift so quickly from crypto to AI has made me doubt how smart these guys really are. When I started my career I thought, wrongly, that VCs were the real smart guys in the room when startups were founded. They were already rich, they provided great advice to early companies, they could see the future and knew what direction tech was going, they were essential.

As I've progressed in my career my view of them has changed dramatically. They're the money men who in many cases got lucky a few times. Sometimes really just once.

Now I don't mean to completely diminish their role. I've pretty much only worked at VC funded startups in my career and so imo there's no underselling the importance of having some cash in the bank so you can work. But the people providing that cash are not visionaries. They are simple investors chasing returns. Whatever they think is the current thing that will generate returns that's what they want to talk about. Whether it's social media, new media, crypto currencies, or now AI they're all just chasing returns and trying to hype the space their portfolio companies are in. It doesn't really feel so visionary or special after all.