It seems that the author had to come up with those complicated theories b/c he couldn't get Milner to open up. The loan insight that he uncovers about the perception that led to investing in SV is that YM foresaw that social networks could generate huge margins from advertising. Well, that certainly was smart of him, but how did he get there and how did he pick the companies he did? He buys Mail.ru and then ... he buys facebook? One dinner with Goldman people in Moscow and voila!?! The article provides a decent biographical sketch but the author is left to speculate on all the whys. I wonder whether he asked tough questions and was simply rebuffed or whether YM provided access but laid strict ground rules. If so, the author should have let the readers know this.

That he would prefer to remain enigmatic rather than open up about his process means that he is at least partly responsible for the overly complicated theories about him. Maybe he has good reasons not to or maybe it reflects a different culture. But I find it more than a little ironic that someone so tight-lipped is a social network tycoon.