The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story Reprint Edition

Very insightful about Silicon Valley and the inners of the tech industry

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.

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.

There are two reasons why Liar's Poker was such a great book. First, it profiled some of the greatest characters of Wall Street during the 1980's. Secondly, Lewis was very critical of Solomon. Reading "Liar's Poker" makes you think about how ridiculous traders' views of the world were in the late 1980s.The problem with "The New New Thing" is that Michael Lewis is not critical enough of Jim Clark. Jim Clark certainly was generous to Michael Lewis by letting him tag along on so many of his adventures, and it would probably have been inapproriate for Lewis to be more critical of his subject. But, this doesn't make it an interesting book.If you're looking for the "Liar's Poker" of the Internet, try Michael Wolf's "Burn Rate," or Po Bronson's "Nudist on the Late Shift," both of which contain much more interesting people, much more information about the internet revolution, and much more cynicisim.

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.

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.