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

by Michael Lewis (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 2,142 ratings
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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.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    272 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  4. Publication date
    October 1, 1999
  5. Dimensions
    6.5 x 1 x 9.6 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0393048136
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0393048131
  8. See all details
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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.

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 ‏ : ‎ 1.34 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1 x 9.6 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 2,142 ratings

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Michael Lewis

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.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
2,142 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

J. Wright
5.0 out of 5 stars 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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Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Easy read
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2024
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Entertaining and informative. Lewis is a great writer for those who want to read, but never seem to read books. Not his best book, but better than other writers attempts to entertain.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars 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.
15 people found this helpful
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Andy Orrock
3.0 out of 5 stars Lewis' style works, but the boat is tiring
Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2000
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Good writing & definitely worth the read (and it is a quick read), but there's far too much focus on Hyperion, Clark's boat. I see Lewis' point here - the boat is such a glaring example of the outrageous and extreme aspects of Clark's personality that it's hard to ignore. But there are just too many pages dedicated to the subject. The passages on the Altantic crossing are especially numbing. I was tempted to just skip the whole thing.
It is interesting to see what time has already done to this story...by focusing on Healtheon, Lewis has really chosen the weak sister of Clark's three billion-dollar babies. Indeed, the Healtheon / WebMD story looks shakier by the day. Furthermore, Lewis makes the case that Netscape went public without profits simply because Clark wanted to build his boat. If so, he started a tsunami of no-hope companies down the same road, leading to the dramatic April 2000 market correction.
8 people found this helpful
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Jim Wynkoop
4.0 out of 5 stars 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.
One person found this helpful
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P. Schneider
5.0 out of 5 stars madness takes on many forms
Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2023
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This was interesting as a study of how money subverts. You realize that less is more. I hope the boat owner can come to peace.
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Cliente Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars 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
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Vikram Sai
4.0 out of 5 stars 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
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Alexey
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting read on the history of Internet boom
Reviewed in Germany on September 4, 2020
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I like the books of Michael Lewis and his style. This one is on history of Internet Boom and the period in the Valley from mid-eighties to end of 90-ties.
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Wei XING
5.0 out of 5 stars Superbe !
Reviewed in France on November 19, 2019
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Superbe !
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Ali
5.0 out of 5 stars I have enjoyed all the Michael Lewis books I have read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 12, 2016
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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.
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