Chamath Palihapitiya's ego and a scattershot strategy gutted his venture capital firm. Now, the investor has a new playbook that could put him back on top.

· Chamath Palihapitiya's tech pedigree and iconoclastic pronouncements about investing made Social Capital one of the most buzzworthy venture-capital firms of the past decade.
· But the firm stopped raising new funds two years ago after angering some of its own investors, who watched a series of changes in the investing...