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Summary: A fantastic book about a new way of thinking...
Review: "The New New Thing" isn't so much about industry or even the Internet as it is about a new way of perceiving the world and a new way of thinking, especially in business. The Internet has turned or will turn every part of our lives upside down (like it or not) and will certainly revolutionize our culture. The only question is, how? Jim Clark is not trying to predict the future, he's creating it. His story is told here honestly, warts and all, and it's a fascinating insight into the workings of a mind that has had a profound impact on contemporary business and culture, for better or worse. This is an important book for anyone who wants to get some small insight into how this new mentality is shaping our future. Ignore it at your peril.
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Summary: Jim Clark the Man
Review: This was an insightful book about the workings of the silicon valley and VC firms. It brings to light how the internet and technology is revolutionizing everything we do. It is one of the best books I have read in a long time.
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Summary: Lewis writes with humor and attention to detail
Review: I liked the book. It's one of the better ones in regards to silicon valley. Access to Clarke was interesting, and there were some very good stories to be told. Quite interesting to get such insight to a visionary billionaire like Clarke. Book wasn't perfect, but I'd recommend it.
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Summary: Entertaining, but not just flash
Review: This is an entertaining, readable book that manages to convey a surprisingly clear-eyed picture of today's Silicon Valley. I don't feel that the author overrated his subject, as Clark's achievements would be notable in any context: he started out as a solid technical expert, and subsequently combined a good "nose" for the New New Thing with a Pied-Piper-like ability to attract talented people and build a phenomenal work team. I also think he deserves considerable credit for his habit of sharing the wealth with the engineers who designed a product; in the past, the only people who got rich from an invention were the executives who marketed it and the investors who backed it! On the other hand, the author unsparingly chronicles Clark's less admirable behavior -- his temper tantrums, whims, failed relationships, and years-long grudges -- so I felt that overall the picture was a balanced one. Much of wealth creation today consists, not of coming up with a better mousetrap, but of convincing investors to buy into your "vision," and the stories of how Clark did this were very instructive.
I also found the book rather scary in its depiction of how our educational system fails to "connect" with the brightest students: Clark was bored in school, became a prankster, and eventually was expelled; if he hadn't chanced to meet a teacher who recognized his great talents in math, it's likely that his ingenuity and his desire for wealth would have led him into a life of crime. I felt that the author's attempts to explain Clark's behavior in terms of his unhappy family history and trying to "prove something" to the folks back in Plainview were rather weak: he's a typical "gifted" person in that he has an all-consuming interest in technology and will subordinate everything else to his pursuit of that. (If he were motivated only by a desire for wealth, he wouldn't be so willing to risk his own!) Our schools are still designed to turn out well-behaved "organization men," following the 1950's model that Lewis succinctly describes, and their failure to recognize real talent and teach its possessors how to use it well are, I feel, a major national failing.
All in all, this is a book that makes you think, as well as being amusing, and I feel everyone with an interest in high technology should read it.
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Summary: A Deification of Jim Clark
Review: I just put this book down, and I'm somewhat dissapointed that I put aside other books to devote time to this one. For the most part this book, in a long drawn out way, deifies Jim Clark and his bold, brash personality, an undertaking I don't feel the need to observe. The book offers only a superficial view of the workings of Silicon Valley and its response to new products, and offers no insight into the specific workings of any of the nascent corporations. All in all I walked away from this book disappointed, and with little to no increase in my Internet education.
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Summary: Highlights the new workings in Silicon Valley
Review: In high risk information based businesses people use names and reputations to make decisions. Fashion and Movies are two examples where the name "Aramani" or "Julia Roberts" will make a product or company a success.In the "New New Thing" Lewis shows that this process has happened in the buying and selling of High Tech companies (if not their products) and he shows how Jim Clark got rich based upon his reputation. The book gives a good and fairly candid view of Clark. I felt that Lewis kept his distance from the subject and avoided being swept up in the hype of Clark driven companys. Lewis's writing is fresh and enjoyable. The stories about how High Tech companies get started and how VC's and engineers work together to create companies were interesting and informative. Lewis focuses entirely on Clark, so it is difficult to tell if Clark's ability to make money based on his name is limited to him, or if there are others who are achieving the Rock Star status he has. Overall well worth reading.
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Summary: New New Investment Criteria
Review: This book illustrates the huge supply of capital and resultant cavalier venture funding of late. One doesn't need a product, or even a business model: just an image and contacts. After the IPO, and the VCs and entrepreneurs have gotten their money out, the public is left with what? Let the buyer (investor) beware. Another disturbing characteristic of this book was the seemingly complete lack of concern for healthcare in the United States. To these folks, it's just another business. I like Michael Lewis' writing and the reminiscence of Tom Wolfe's style, although it's prone to hyperbole, and this can draw attention from more important themes. For example, the most unusual thing about Jim Clarke is not that he plays with model helicopters: It's that he seems to be totally driven by money and power (perhaps not accomplishment?) and that this is considered normal in today's society.
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Summary: An engrossing read
Review: I must have liked this book because I finished it in 3 days. It was very interesting and difficult to put down. The only parts I disliked were the examinations of the boat, especially the Atlantic crossing. I understand that a totally computer controlled enviornment is in near future (and this might be the new new thing), but going into detail about the expressions on the programmers as they looked for bugs was a bit much for me. But don't get me wrong, it's a great book!
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Summary: Needs a New New Editor !
Review: There are so many editing errors in this book! Misused words (p. 29), confused and grammatically incorrect sentences (pp. 70, 73), stray parentheses (p. 84), to name a few. Ok, these are more a distraction than anything else. What's worse is the lack of substance in this book. The New New Thing is nowhere near as entertaining or enlightening as Liar's Poker. Just page after page of haphazard wonderment at Jim Clark's personality. Not nearly enough depth about the companies he created.
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Summary: A Shift of Power
Review: In the beginning of the book Lewis chronicles the business practices of the Fifties and Sixties. In one telling passage, he writes about the ideal respectable working man, and how psychological profiles were used at that time to push rigid conformity throughout the corporate hierachy ( read: IBM white collar hell). Then he gives an unsanitized version of how the 'suits' on Wall Street and Main Street deservedly lost the power and money to the much more deserved 'non-suit' computer engineers and techies. In many ways this is one of the central theme of the book. Later, a similar theme surfaces as he illuminates on the Microsoft Wars. Whether you are a first time user or a technodork, this is a breezy read and fascinting look into the inner workings of the business world.
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