Rating: 
Summary: Interesting book about a strange man
Review: For the last 5 years I've been programming the SGI workstations that Jim Clark helped to invent. Until reading this book, my view of Dr. Clark has been skewed by his role as businessman, not as engineer, in starting Netscape. To learn from this book that he is, or was, a great engineer is a surprise. I greatly admire Clark's invention of the graphics engine, but his life after that appears to be a rather empty pursuit of wealth. But as empty pursuits go he could do worse. Unfortunately, the author seems out of his depth with respect to the science and technology, resulting in unsatisfying discussions of technical issues. Then again, it sounds like Jim Clark does not understand the subject matter behind his rather unexciting, but spectacularly profitable, ventures in making accountancy and business administration Internet-friendly.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: It sounds like Lewis wants to make sure he pleases Clark with this book and will let him get shares in his next venture at a pre IPO price...
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing treatment of a fascinating subject
Review: The writer has a very annoying way of not describing the people and places he's talking about very well. You come away not really knowing what the main character looks like, what the house or boat look like, etc. And the author makes a lot of "cute" comments which fall flat.
Rating: 
Summary: Toy Story for High Tech Billionaires
Review: This book is the potboiler version of how to create new industries, and advance the world for everyone. Like the Victorian writers who detailed lovingly how royalty employed personal plumbing, Lewis focuses on Clark's obsession with gadgets. Many technically-strong, wealthy men like gadgets, so this is the Walter Mitty look for everyone who shares that fascination. On the other hand, Lewis has little idea why people like Clark are successful,and what the lessons are for the rest of us. If you like the People Magazine approach to financial journalism, you've found your book. If you want to learn how to be a high tech entrepreneur, I see little that will help you. This is a soap opera tale, and if read as such you will feel totally rewarded. A larger-than-life character like Jim Clark makes a wonderful subject for a Lewis book. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Good Not Great
Review: After reading Liars Poker and Trail Fever, I had huge expectations for The New New Thing. I was, however, a bit dissapointed. For one thing, Mr. Lewis spent too much time giving detail of Mr. Clark's boat. Although I found it slightly amusing in the beginning, it became annoying very quickly, and unfortunately as the book droned on, the boat discussion became more and more frequent. Could have done without it. On the other hand, while there was too much boat talk, there was not enough discussion about Mr. Clark's ventures. I mean, he spent nary a chapter discussing the entire Netscape saga from beginning to end. There is almost no mention of the sale of Netscape to AOL, other than it occured. Tsssk Tsssk Mr. Lewis. Finally, there is no great conclusion to this mediocre work. We are told that Mr. Clark is an 'revolutionary idea man', and his boundless energy and optimism is simply a microcosm of Americas place in the world. While that may be the case, Mr. Lewis could have filled in the gaps a little bit and delved into what, exactly, makes Jim Clark the person who is he. Ultimately, this book failed to do that.
Rating:
Summary: What is Jim Clark's Problem?
Review: The book gets less stars only because of the main character. The book is an enjoyable read, but Jim Clark does nothing except whine, complain, whine, and then complain some more, and it's usually because of his attention span which is that of an infant. The man is a tremendous success matched only by his constant whining of how life has screwed him. He builds a $50 million dollar boat, hangs $30 million of art in it, and 2 hours into the maiden crossing complains about the porthole trim and announces he's bored. We never even see a drawing of the boat that is a central character, but there is a reason. Clark is barely on dry ground when he is looking at plans for "the boat" even though the one he got off is 10 times more dysfunctional than everything/everyone he complains about. This man is either extremely unhappy, or delights in making others miserable because his money allows him that option. The writer should find a worthier topic, Jim Clark is an arrested adolescent, and an obnoxious one at that.
Rating:
Summary: Non-Fiction Page Turner Finally Explains Silicon Valley
Review: As a consultant I have to read documents and white papers all week long. Therefore, when I read on my own time it has to be entertaining. Nonetheless, like many of my peers I have been baffled by the phenomenonal growth of Silicon Valley. Lewis has finally put a nail in the coffin of the boring business book. Hopefully other authors will follow his lead. I was laughing and learning all the way through, and I now possess a new way of thinking about american business.
Rating:
Summary: Great read; accurate window into time, pace, people & psyche
Review: Living in Silicon Valley, and knowing most of the players in the book, (including in the spirit of full disclosure, Michael Lewis, who I spent some time with as he did research), I found The New New Thing a great read and an accurate window into the time, the pace and the people in this wacky area. It captures the volatility, the adolescent personalities, the changing of the pecking order, and the sky's the limit attitude. I knew many of the stories and still learned a lot from the book. It is easy to say entertaining and informative, but most newspaper reviews have missed the most important element of the book, which is to flush out the bizarre psyche of the players, and try to figure out what makes them do what they do. Others question of the accuracy of numbers is misguided if not irrelevant, stock values are out of date as soon as ink hits paper, and stock splits reek havoc on recollections. As I mentioned above, this is a somewhat biased review, so take it at face value. But if you want numbers, watch CNBC, if you want to try to LIVE what is going on in Silicon Valley, then you should read this book. My only disappointment is that it ended too quickly.
Rating:
Summary: A book about JC (The New Messiah)
Review: The swashbuckling, boat-owning enterpreneurs of the 1970s were oil sheiks and arms dealers like Adnan Khasoggi. These wheeler dealers understood the rules of geo-politics and statecraft. They were superceded in the 1980s by the property tycoons (a la Donald Trump) and Wall Street arbitrageurs and financial engineers (Ivan Boesky and Mike Milliken). These new breed did not just succeed by greasing the right palm (which in retrospect they sometimes did) but also by taking risks in backing new ideas and pioneering new ways of doing things. If those old style enterpreneurs in hindsight look meretricious, the 1990's are the age of meritocracy. Wealth is no longer created by manipulating governments and markets. It is created by ignoring government and letting markets value the power of an idea. The swashbuckling, boatowning billionaire that Michael Lewis shadows is portrayed as a quasi- religous figure who resurrects himself periodically into newer and larger avatars. Besides sharing the initials of the Messiah who preceded him two milleniums ago he also shares His ability to gather followers and acolytes. As Jim Clark's (JC) strength grows so does his power over engineers and venture capitalists. The Israelites of Silicon Valley are JC's "hordes of Indians" - the desi geeks who jump at the chance to join his creations. His apostles are the venture capitalists who fight each other to throw money at His pronouncements. JC starts of as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Stanford who designs a microchip that enables the viewing of three dimensional graphics. He is successful but frustrated by the inability of those around him to realise where the future is heading. He leaves the company he founded (Silicon Graphics) and sets up an Internet browser company, Netscape. Although loss making, the company pioneers in bringing Internet comapnies to market and JC's reputation is clinched. His subsequent ventures are more ambitious and easily funded. After Netscape goes public JC is seriously rich and commissions the largest sailboat in the world. It is also computerised and JC is among those who writes the code to run the boat. There is a page in the book where Michael Lewis demonsrates a scrap of paper he picked up from JC's trash can. There are some highly complex physics equations that JC has written on them which he later converts to computer code. For the reader this is a defining moment. If The New New Thing involves highly skilled and intelligent people pushing the frontiers and making the world a fairer and more efficient place then people like JC deserve every cent of the billions they crave.
Rating:
Summary: far more freightening than Stephen King!
Review: A well written adventure story, but a very, very disturbing collection of insights into how quietly ill our economy has become. For decades we have read and admired how men of substance have built businesses that made real contributions to our lives. Henry Ford, Alfred Sloan, John Rockefeller, Bill Gates, Sam Walton, Jack Welch, Ray Kroc, Carl Djerassi, Jobs & Wozniak and countless others dedicated their lives to creating great enterprises that created wonderful products that benefited mankind. And in turn they received vast well-earned rewards for their contributions. Now suddenly we have a system that bestows even greater rewards on the subject of this book, a man variously defined in the book as a psychopath, a maniac and dysfunctional, and in fact someone who has literally shot himself through all the toes of his left foot! He is described as shallow, childish and destructively implusive, when for example he forces the premature IPO of Netscape in order to finance his $60 million sailboat or drives his sportscar at 100 mph. More disturbing is the legion of people who follow him proclaiming what wonderful clothes this new emperor wears. This reminds me of the fake Howard Hughes last will & testiment in which forger names himself along with a hundred people actually close to Hughes as beneficiaries, knowing that the inclusion of their names will induce each of them to vet the entire will as genuine. They all know the will is fake, but by becoming accomplices to the fraud they all benefit. Michael Lewis paints a picture of how empty so many internet companies are and how very unlikely it is that most of them will ever achieve profitability or even survive. And seems to indicate that the present market cap of those internet companies, on the order of over $400 billion, is destined to collapse, devastating tens of millions of investors. All in all, a very scary book
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