You could have probably gotten some similar/greater gains investing in some of the dotcom "stars" (even "real" companies like Qualcomm/Broadcom/Sun/etc rather t

You could have probably gotten some similar/greater gains investing in some of the dotcom "stars" (even "real" companies like Qualcomm/Broadcom/Sun/etc rather than Pets.com) & exiting before the bubble burst! Easier to say in hindsight of course. I remember my brother convinced my parents to buy stocks (something like a few thousand $s) in a company making broadband internet modems in the mid 90s (this was high-tech future-like stuff at the time when most people were on dial-up internet - ISDN was considered fast) and they ended up going out of business shortly thereafter. So even if you have good insight & bet on the right trajectory of technology it's not that easy to get it right without the benefit of a time machine or crystal ball.