The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story
Written by Michael Lewis
Narrated by Bruce Reizen
4/5
()
About this audiobook
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' celebrated storytelling, the listener 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 new 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.
Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis is the host of the podcast Against the Rules. He has published many New York Times bestselling books, including Liar's Poker, The Fifth Risk, Flash Boys, and The Big Short. Movie versions of The Big Short, Moneyball, and The Blind Side were all nominated for Academy Awards. He grew up in New Orleans and remains deeply interested and involved in the city but now lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, Tabitha Soren, and their children.
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Reviews for The New New Thing
359 ratings14 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Computer geeks are pressing buttons, that's about as technical as it gets.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Interesting story of technology, innovation intertwined with boat stories with Jim Clark.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing adventure stories of Jim Clark presented elegantly by Michael Lewis.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was a very fun read. It puts you in the room where many important innovations were made in the time leading up through the internet boom.
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5If only you could skip the booooooooring, loooooong, pointless, endless parts where it tells the story of the boat
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Michael Lewis is a superb writer and anything he writes is entertaining, enlightening and easy to read. This book gave a good insight into the Silicon Valley world of the late 90s. Interestingly somethings have not changed. Back then start ups were taken public based on concept without having to show profit. Fast forward and we are in a world of Uber, Lyft and WeWork, none of which has shown profit. The story of this book is told by focusing on the machinations of Jim Clark, the brains behind Netscape and Silicon Graphics. It is a fun read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Although brilliant, creative and driven, what comes through to me is the absolute emptiness of the new new thing as a vehicle to have all the money and power in the world. The giggling hug of a grandchild is vastly more valuable and clearly so.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A great bio of Jim Clark, the founder of Silicon Graphics and Netscape, and history-as-it-happened of Silicon Valley.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5- Reads like a Silicon Valley script sometimes.
- Michael Lewis is one of the best non-fiction writers I've ever read.
- Much of what makes SV SV comes from this guy. - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I'm not sure if its the subject matter, the fact that its older and what it talks about is so distant / seems irrelevant due to economic changes, the disjointed storytelling of 3-4 major themes, or what - but I found this book incredibly dull and a much much more laborious and slow read; especially compared to the other Lewis books I read (Moneyball and Boomerang).
Parts of the book read like the regular backroom/background life of 'any old' company. For how things are discussed, it has the dull every-day drama of the work-life of say Applebee's or FedEx or a Silicon Valley start-up company. The only difference is that these are people who LATER become important, so we need to hear and know about them early.
I also must say I quickly find myself not caring or being even sympathetic for Jim Clark. His personality, his character, just doesn't inspire much care, sympathy, or interest --- in my opinion. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5After reading this book, I wanted to read everything Michael Lewis every wrote. Then, I found out he loves baseball, or some shit, and wrote a bunch of baseball books. Fuck that shit. Baseball sucks.
But, this book is fucking awesome. Lewis weaves a thrilling tale, with fascinating characters, just like a novel. Of how the west was won. How did all those big start-ups succeed, and why did those epic failures fail. As an entrepreneur, I find this book absolutely thrilling.
If you don't give a fuck about business, or start-ups, or tech in any way, you will probably find this book boring as fuck. But, for the rest of us, there's nothing better. It's a great, fun romp of a book. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Silicon Valley would indeed be a very different place without Jim Clark who, at the time of The New New Thing was founder of at least 4 companies worth a billion dollars, including Silicon Graphics and Netscape. What he did to the internet economy is so astonishing, that aftershocks are still rippling through the world. Jim Clark was the man who convinced investors to start throwing their money into Silicon Valley high tech companies before they turned a profit. Whatever Clark thought up and implemented turned people very rich, and we all wanted a piece of that action. It's still a part of the mythos here that one can get rich if they just pick the right start up and ride it out.The New New Thing follows Clark through construction of his "boat" and consequent sailing of the computerized behemoth from the North Sea to Antigua where the mundanity of a ripped sail forced the trip to a halt. But, of course, it's not truly the story of trying to get the largest boat's programs to work together so that Clark could sail it from anywhere in the world, remotely. It's the story of how this crazed maniac of a visionary turned Silicon Valley into what it is today and how the rules of business were changed forever.I really enjoyed this book and chuckled at how this whole thing got started because Jim Clark wanted a boat bigger than Larry Ellison's Juliet and needed money to build Hyperion.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The New New Thing book by Michael M. Lewis published in 1999 mastermind behind the "interactive TV" up the founding of Netscape, so this book teel you the absurd to let the handful of companies who connect us to the Internet to elaborate on one particular aspect of the the new code may contain the seeds of his next billion-dollar coup,waiting to be developed, deployed, and utilized,probably think you have enough gadgets in your life to balance the needs of their bars, the founder of Silicon Graphics and Netscape offer sellers that lets them store their products and meet talented developers of computers and software like Facebook or Twitter? was too close to the bone to pass up, there are others who have said one thing and now suggest about third party funding over the last few years in the legal and business press it's a fundamental question when shopping for technology. The New New Thing book investigated the booming of Silicon Valley and discussed obsession with innovation. Despite the variety of his achievements of new Technology developed already help you understand how the Internet business environment works.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I liked Moneyball and Next: The Future Just Happened, so I figured I'd try another Michael Lewis book.This one chronicles the founder of SGI and Netscape, but (conviniently) stops just as the tech-stock bubble bursts.I'd kind of like to know what happened...This book also gave me a chance to relive the mid to late 90's.I should find my collection of the first few years of WIRED magazine.