I have also met many intelligent and thoughtful investors. I am speaking only to the systemic effects of a kind of marketplace for information that overvalues hype, and undervalues criticism.
My speculative musing is that if people could take short positions in startups and not just coattail on as one of a group of investors, I wonder if we’d get a lot fewer breathless PR puff-pieces and a lot more cases for pessimism around certain types of hype cycle investments, backed by investors betting their own moeny against the hype.
I think that that's very possible, and I completely agree with you on the phenomenon. There are also few limitations on your ability to talk your own book in the private markets which further turbocharges the hype cycle.
My speculative musing is that if people could take short positions in startups and not just coattail on as one of a group of investors, I wonder if we’d get a lot fewer breathless PR puff-pieces and a lot more cases for pessimism around certain types of hype cycle investments, backed by investors betting their own moeny against the hype.