The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story - Michael Lewis

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ISBN:0-393-048133
Verdict: 👍👍 👍👍

If like me you grew up during the internet period of the 90’s - a period when ridiculous money was made by a few, who had first mover advantages, taking advantage of new business models using the internet as the channel - you will love this book especially if you were a Netscape Browser user like me hence my 4 thumbs !


The author followed the billionare Jim Clarke for years , observing and capturing key bits of information i.e. the early world of Jim Clark the founder of Silicon Graphics, Netscape and Healtheon (all billion dollar companies) – he shares a lot but not the intricate details e.g. he mentions the Microsoft Monopoly case but doesn’t tell us about the outcomes .

My favourite quote in the book is – “a thousand people don’t build anything, if you need to build something really complicated really fast, you hire fifty of the smartest people you can find” p77 

This made me smile -  Clark had a thing for Indians ✊ lol . ‘The Indian outcast of Silicon Valley’ (p114). However, I did learn something new – a bit about India Institute of Technology (ITT).

Jim is an Interesting chap – he reminds me of so many characters I have come across and is a mix of a history lesson about Silicon Valley and an adventure story of Jim Clark’s computerised sailboat, which sailed across the Atlantic.

The book tells the story of how the companies were ignited and went public with the back drop of how he was building and sailing a boat across the Atlantic
Everyone who worked with Jim – The CEOs, the VCs, the cofounding engineers and even the original guys who sailed and programmed his ship all ended up multi-millionaires (except the guys on the ship who only walked away with a million ) – they all benefited financialy from his wisdom or vision.

This book is a great read & well written. However,  copyrighted approx 20 years ago, so may a bit outdated for some, but hit a pleasant mark with me !

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