Last week Peter Thiel (ex PayPal) talked at the NextGen conference about the investment perspective he uses for the Founders Fund.
He's interested in things which can make a big difference - if you are starting a company, you are taking so much risk that you might as well try to do something big. Pick a contrarian field, rather than dive into the current bubble. They are interested in artificial intelligence, robotics, space, and next generation bio-technology, among other things. They look for talented people passionate about changing the world. Only some thinking should be outsourced to others. Companies with a complex sales cycle are underestimated.

All of this is encouraging for someone who has made a habit of looking out for the ideas and technologies which are likely to have long term fundamental effects, as an indicator for where to invest time and attention. It feels very different from the 'chase the current meme' which appears to drive many investors' decisions.

Talking of current themes, Brad Feld said today he's seen several proposals for 'the Quora of X' - people taking advantage of the meme for curated Q&A to use it as an explanation for their latest idea.

References
Founders Fund
The Quora for X
Quora