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The New New Thing : A Silicon Valley Story Hardcover – October 1, 1999

by Michael Lewis (Author)

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In the weird glow of the dying millennium, Michael Lewis sets out on a safari through Silicon Valley to find the world's most important technology entrepreneur, the man who embodies the spirit of the coming age. He finds him in Jim Clark, who is about to create his third, separate, billion-dollar company: first Silicon Graphics, then Netscape-which launched the Information Age-and now Healtheon, a startup that may turn the $1 trillion healthcare industry on its head.

Despite the variety of his achievements, Clark thinks of himself mainly as the creator of Hyperion, which happens to be a sailboat . . . not just an ordinary yacht, but the world's largest single-mast vessel, a machine more complex than a 747. Clark claims he will be able to sail it via computer from his desk in San Francisco, and the new code may contain the seeds of his next billion-dollar coup.

On the wings of Lewis's celebrated storytelling, the reader takes the ride of a lifetime through this strange landscape of geeks and billionaires. We get the inside story of the battle between Netscape and Microsoft; we sit in the room as Clark tries to persuade the investment bankers that Healtheon is the next Microsoft; we get queasy as Clark pits his boat against the rage of the North Atlantic in winter. And in every brilliant anecdote and character sketch, Lewis is drawing us a map of markets and free enterprise in the twenty-first century.

Print length

272 pages
Language

English
Publisher

W. W. Norton & Company
Publication date

October 1, 1999
Dimensions

6.5 x 1 x 9.6 inches
ISBN-10

0393048136
ISBN-13

978-0393048131
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Michael Lewis was supposed to be writing about how Jim Clark, the founder of Silicon Graphics and Netscape, was going to turn health care on its ear by launching Healtheon, which would bring the vast majority of the industry's transactions online. So why was he spending so much time on a computerized yacht, each feature installed because, as one technician put it, "someone saw it on Star Trek and wanted one just like it?"

Much of The New New Thing, to be fair, is devoted to the Healtheon story. It's just that Jim Clark doesn't do startups the way most people do. "He had ceased to be a businessman," as Lewis puts it, "and become a conceptual artist." After coming up with the basic idea for Healtheon, securing the initial seed money, and hiring the people to make it happen, Clark concentrated on the building of Hyperion, a sailboat with a 197-foot mast, whose functions are controlled by 25 SGI workstations (a boat that, if he wanted to, Clark could log onto and steer--from anywhere in the world). Keeping up with Clark proves a monumental challenge--"you didn't interact with him," Lewis notes, "so much as hitch a ride on the back of his life"--but one that the author rises to meet with the same frenetic energy and humor of his previous books, Liar's Poker and Trail Fever.

Like those two books, The New New Thing shows how the pursuit of power at its highest levels can lead to the very edges of the surreal, as when Clark tries to fill out an investment profile for a Swiss bank, where he intends to deposit less than .05 percent of his financial assets. When asked to assess his attitude toward financial risk, Clark searches in vain for the category of "people who sought to turn ten million dollars into one billion in a few months" and finally tells the banker, "I think this is for a different ... person." There have been a lot of profiles of Silicon Valley companies and the way they've revamped the economy in the 1990s--The New New Thing is one of the first books fully to depict the sort of man that has made such companies possible. --Ron Hogan

From Publishers Weekly

While it purports to look at the business world of Silicon Valley through the lens of one man, that one man, Jim Clark, is so domineering that the book is essentially about Clark. No matter: Clark is as successful and interesting an example of Homo siliconus as any writer is likely to find. Lewis (Liar's Poker) has created an absorbing and extremely literate profile of one of America's most successful entrepreneurs. Clark has created three companiesASilicon Graphics, Netscape (now part of America Online) and HealtheonAeach valued at more than $1 billion by Wall Street. Lewis was apparently given unlimited access to Clark, a man motivated in equal parts by a love of the technology he helps to create and a desire to prove something to a long list of people whom he believes have done him wrong throughout his life (especially his former colleagues at Silicon Graphics). As Lewis looks at the various roles of venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and programmers and at how these very different mindsets fit together in the anatomy of big deals, he gives readers a sense of how the Valley works. But the heart of the book remains Clark, who simultaneously does everything from supervise the creation of what may be the world's largest sloop to creating his fourth company (currently in the works). Lewis does a good job of putting Clark's accomplishments in context, and if he is too respectful of Clark's privacy (several marriages and children are mentioned but not elaborated on), he provides a detailed look at the professional life of one of the men who have changed the world as we know it. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Acclaimed journalist Lewis does for Silicon Valley in the Nineties what his previous best seller, Liar's Poker, did for Wall Street in the Eighties. The book is threefold in scope. First, it offers an insightful look at the life and career of Dr. Jim Clark, the eccentric but brilliant visionary who thus far has created three multi-billion-dollar ground-breaking enterprises--Silicon Graphics, Netscape, and Healtheon. Second, it gives an insider's look at how the concept of the "new new thing" has been translated into an actionable product by key players in the game. Finally, it presents a social history of Silicon Valley, which has become the primary driver for worldwide social, economic, and political change. Although a little slow at times, this book is a great read and tells a compelling story. Highly recommended for both academic and public libraries.
---Norman B. Hutcherson, Beale Memorial Lib., Bakersfield, CA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Lewis, in his eye-opening and best-selling Liar's Poker (1989), told tales on himself: about his meteoric rise from trainee at Salomon Brothers investment firm to very successful trader. Now he tells tales on someone else: Jim Clark, who created Netscape and thus "triggered the Internet boom." To write this profile, Lewis more or less shadowed Clark for a while, and dogging him meant participating in Clark's transatlantic journey in his obsessively designed, totally computerized sailing ship, Hyperion. Lewis' book, in effect, provides a look at the whole computer industry, for the more we learn about Clark, the more we learn about the industry as a whole. Silicon Valley, referred to as "the greatest legal creation of wealth in the history of the planet," is the Wall Street of the 1990s, and Clark is a primary mover and shaker. He is strictly an idea man, coming up with new ideas of how to make millions and leaving his engineers to arrive at workable details. Clark, as we follow and marvel at his career, invents his life as he goes along. What drives him is his abiding need to pursue new concepts and experiences. He is protypical of the superwealthy leadership in Silicon Valley: "the geek holed up in his basement all weekend discovering new things to do with his computer." That's the point of the Silicon Valley computer industry: people don't have to build new computers to make a fortune, they just have to devise new things for the computer to do. This book will prove very popular, not only with readers interested in business and computers but also with those who are simply curious about "the new new thing." Brad Hooper

Review

"The most significant business story since the days of Henry Ford... Lewis achieves a novelistic elegance."
― Boston Globe

"It is a splendid, entirely satisfying book, intelligent and fun and revealing and troubling in the correct proportions, resolutely skeptical but not at all cynical..."
― Kurt Andersen, The New York Times Book Review

"[R]emarkable....Clark proves to be a character as enthralling as any in American fiction or non-fiction....Lewis tells a great story in this book, with prose that ranges from the beautiful to the witty to the breathtaking."
― Fred Moody, Wall Street Journal

About the Author

Michael Lewis is the best-selling author of Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, The Blind Side, The Big Short, The Undoing Project, and The Fifth Risk. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his family.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition (October 1, 1999)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393048136
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393048131
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1 x 9.6 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #314,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #207 in Computers & Technology Industry
- #625 in Economic History (Books)
- #983 in Business Professional's Biographies

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Michael Lewis

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Michael Lewis, the best-selling author of The Undoing Project, Liar's Poker, Flash Boys, Moneyball, The Blind Side, Home Game and The Big Short, among other works, lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, Tabitha Soren, and their three children.

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Jim Wynkoop

Great Story Told by a Great Story Teller

Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2022

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This is a story about the dawning of the Internet as we know it. It is the story of Jim Clark and his whims, his thoughts, and ideas that shaped the world of Silicon Valley and the world beyond. It’s also a historical perspective written in the past without the benefit of knowing what we know now so that can be a little frustrating at times, but these are instances of exception rather than overwhelming and do not impact the power of the story. I’d recommend the book if you’re a Micheal Lewis fan as the imagery is as rich and the story is as enrapturing as his other books.

2 people found this helpful

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J. Wright

Fun, Educational and Inspiring

Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 1999

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This book is just a fun read. It is not an academic book, and Lewis does love to dwell on the excesses or silly points, but Lewis captures better than any other author the culture and people of Silicon Valley, who have legally created a stupendous amount of wealth in less than a decade.
There were two parts of the book I particularly loved: First, the part on the engineers from India was compelling. These kids grow up on the brink of starvation and work their tails off to make it to Silicon Valley to seek their dreams. The book keenly demonstrates how Jim Clark is able to harness these kind of people and let their talents operate in the most productive way, and also make them rich beyond their wildest dreams.
Second, the best part of the book was the second to last chapter, about how Jim Clark came from absolute poverty in Texas. Clark had to defend his mother from his drunken father, and his mother had only $5 a month after the bills were paid. The book keenly demonstrates how Clark's sense of anarchy and adventure led him to rise far above the hand he was dealt in life.
The story of how Clark has made 3 different billion dollar companies is amazing, and even more amazing is that he is using his talents to create a fourth company instead of only sailing his crazy boat.
You'll learn a lot when you read this book, it will inspire you, and you'll enjoy it. Read it soon, before the next new new thing makes it irrelevant.

49 people found this helpful

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808fooddude

good read!

Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2022

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All admission, I'm only half way through this book.
but with that "musky guy" in the news so much of late. It put things a bit more in perspective.
I would recommend this book to my closest of friends

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chris hitchko

Better than Shoe Dog?

Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2023

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Amazing book! Jim Clark was a stud. Must read for entrepreneurs.

One person found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Wonderfully framed narrative

Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2016

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Lewis has a genuine gift for taking complex concepts (as he did in Moneyball, Boomerang, and Liar's Poker) and breaking it down in a narrative format that manages to convey a maximum amount of meaning into the story. In "The New New Thing" Lewis focuses on Jim Clark's ascent in the world of Silicon Valley entrepreneurship and Clark's persistent pursuit of the titular "new new thing."

Explaining the how's, why's, and differences between the old way of doing things and the new (or new new) way of doing things can be tricky, because it assumes you have some understanding of how the old (or old old) way of doing things works. I'm not a Wall Street investor, but I felt not only capable of understanding Lewis' framework of explanation, but I felt like I could extrapolate deeper meaning from it. He manages to paint fascinating pictures of all the people involved in the pursuit of the new new thing and how their constellation manages to orbit itself as it becomes standard operating practice in the growing tech industry.

I also felt like I could better understand how the minds of billionaire "executives" (as Lewis points out, Jim Clark wasn't exactly sure how to describe exactly what it was he does) and how they anticipate the next new new thing, why it interests them, and how quickly it starts to lose their interest. If you can understand someone like Clark, you can start to understand the industry.

16 people found this helpful

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Marcelo P. Lima

Jim Clark, Hyperion & the Internet Bubble

Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2001

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It's true: this book IS mostly about Hyperion, Jim Clark's huge sailboat, but then again, the book is mostly about Clark himself. If you know how Lewis writes, it's a thread here and there, that weave and become this lively patchwork of ideas and facts, and, in the end, you have a profile of the Valley and one of the main characters that created its allure.
Lewis is a master of engaging character portrayals, with intoxicating and hyperbolic prose. He plays objective narrator throughout, sometimes interfering with the plot, but holds no punches in describing Clark's maniacal quest for wealth.
In the end, there is a wonderful demonstration that wealth doesn't bring happiness with it. From p. 258: "Why do people perpetually create for themselves the condition for their own dissatisfaction?" -- an retort to Clark's statement that "Once I have more money than Larry Ellison, I'll be satisfied". A few years earlier, satisfaction for Clark amounted to a measly $10 million on the bank; that number mushroomed to $1 billion.
Throughout, Lewis conveys the feeling of the Internet bubble of the late 90s; the wealthy, controlling venture capitalists; the insanely-priced IPOs for companies that had no clue how to make money. So yes, that's all a bunch of old old things by now, and if I were looking for a historical account of that period, the book would be worth only 4 stars; yet, I was going for the portrait of Clark, and for those who lived through it, the book is a good behind the scenes look at the creation of Silicon Graphics, Netscape, and Healtheon.

22 people found this helpful

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Susanna Hutcheson

A cool book but too much of JIM!

Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2000

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Michael Lewis knows Silicon Valley and he's an excellent writer. That said, I got a belly full of Jim Clark in this book. Perhaps he is the personification of the creator of the New New Thing in the Valley. But I have to think there are many other people who should have been equally represented in this otherwise wonderful read.
What I think the book did very well was to demonstrate the extreme mind set in the valley of dreams. It shows us how the minds of the power brokers work and how things they create get old quickly --- how disposable everything is. Like my Palm Pilot that I bought at Christmas is old hat now. Hey, we've got color! The new new thing. Gotta have it!
So read this book. It's really pretty great. You'll tire of Jim. But hey, he's an important dude and the only bad part is, you really won't like him at all when you put the book down. But he won't care. He's on to the New New Thing.

6 people found this helpful

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Vikram Sai

Excellent Book about the initial days of Silicon Valley

Reviewed in India on August 11, 2022

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Printing. quality is very poor

Cliente Amazon

An insightful story on an exceptional builder

Reviewed in Italy on May 3, 2023

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From bits on his past life to his genius of the new new thing, Jim Clark and his fellows builders don't cease to amaze and inspire to never stop looking for the future

Ali

I have enjoyed all the Michael Lewis books I have read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 12, 2016

Verified Purchase

I have enjoyed all the Michael Lewis books I have read, enjoying real life events being told in a very readable way. This time I learned about Jim Clark, founder of a number of Silicon Valley companies, making a fortune for himself and for many many employees and investors. As Jim is described having new ideas, convincing others that they will be executable and will make money there is a background story. He has commissioned the building of a boat with the tallest, at that time, mast, to be managed/sailed via on board computers. A good read and Jim an interesting man.

One person found this helpful

Ulysse Kerry

great real life

Reviewed in Canada on April 20, 2017

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Typical Lewis, great real life story

Tangy moose

The elements of genius

Reviewed in Canada on November 26, 2014

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I thoroughly enjoyed and was enlightened by this biography of Jim Clark. Michael Lewis captured the eccentricity that is an integral part of what makes a genius. Often written off as querky and bizzare, Jim Clark is the essence of and founder of the silicon valley spirit that propelled technology into the 21st century.

One person found this helpful

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