Rating: Summary: Repackaged Netscape Time Review: If you have already read Netscape Time, don't bother with this one. Unless you want to hear about the rich man's boat and more Clark whinning about big bad Microsoft you will be disappointed.Read Netscape Time and skip this poorly written mini-biography of Jim Clark.
Rating: Summary: Inspiring at times, slow at others Review: At times I couldn't put this book down. The business stories are exceptional. Unfortunately, too much time was spent documenting his sailing/computer obsession. I'm sure Lewis felt he needed to document that side based upon his time on the boat. That aside, the business stories and history of Clark's accomplishments are exceptional. As an investment banker, no offense taken by his dislike of financial people. This book allows the reader enough information to personally decide how he feels about Internet valuations. A required first reading of many to come on the history of Internet investing.
Rating: Summary: canned phrases - rethorical Review: Heard this book on tape while driving hundreds of miles towards a broiling turkey of a Thanksgiving dinner. I enjoyed very much the author's earier writings, and was surprised how much I disliked this book. What really irked me were the canned phrases and espressions that are more typical of an inexperienced business writer of a consumer magazine like Business Week. Should I consider this a technology book, I learned very little about the Internet. Should I consider this a character book, the style and caracterization was really really weak.
Rating: Summary: If you like boats, you will love this book. Review: The book is approximately a 60% discussion of a rich man's boat. If you like boats, and I do, then you will love this book. If you are looking for Silcion Valley insight, then you will get a LITTLE of that too. The book should be titled "A Rich Man's Boat".
Rating: Summary: Jim Clark gets a bit old Review: An interesting look into the world of Silicon Valley, but very one-sided toward Jim Clark. Although, ater a while, you just don't care about Clark's fantasy of his computer controlled boat, Hyperion. That said, Lewis is a good writer and the book flows well. The discussions of how VCs operate and the culture of Sand Hill Road is fairly interesting. You can read it in a weekend.
Rating: Summary: Sailing Lessons for Silicon Valley Review: As someone who does management consulting for Silcion Valley companies, I always enjoy reading what authors have to say about the visionary people from the Valley. Being unused to the immense value of new ideas, outsiders tend to write about the excesses. I think that this is because they do not understand the core of how new ideas are generated and disseminated. Of course, the doers in the Valley have little time to write books so the out-of-towners will continue to chronicle the saga. Although much of this book is about the "wrong" new new thing -- Clark's interest in toys and gadgets -- there is still plenty to appeal to a non-Valley audience. If all of this encourages the reader to want to move to the Valley, and get in on the action of dreaming dreams that will be built . . . then the book will have served its purpose. If you have followed Jim Clark's career, then this book will not add much, so you should skip it.
Rating: Summary: Fine book, and interesting read, but highly anecdotal Review: Good examples, not to be confused with usable strategie
Rating: Summary: a book about sailing .. Review: I heard the audio book and was disappointed, because the author says more about sailing than bussines. Also the books shows only a small piece of silicon valley stories but the cover promises more. The Netscape story is intresting.
Rating: Summary: Very well-written revelation of Silicon Valley ambition Review: I have never read Liar's Poker but knew of Lewis' reputation as an investigative maverick who writes with humor and verve. This reputation in all its facets was met. The one thing that I didn't like, however, is that even though Lewis attempted to avoid being overly judgemental about Clark in an apparent attempt to leave such criticism to the reader, his overt awe for Clark is evident in the tone of his prose. This, I think, stultifies the reader's ability to objectively judge the subject.
Rating: Summary: Needs Cynicism Review: 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.
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