The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story

The New New Thing follows Jim Clark, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who founded three billion-dollar companies in the 1990s tech boom. The book chronicles Clark's restless drive for innovation and wealth during a transformative period in technology and business history. Lewis takes readers inside the deals, personalities, and culture of Silicon Valley during its most explosive period of growth. Through detailed reporting and unprecedented access to Clark, the narrative captures the creation of Netscape, the rise of the internet economy, and the birth of modern venture capital. The book uses Clark's obsession with building the world's largest computer-controlled sailboat as a parallel story to his business ventures. His complex relationship with both technology and money emerges through his constant pursuit of the next breakthrough innovation. At its core, this is an examination of ambition, disruption and the forces that drove the 1990s tech revolution. The book reveals fundamental truths about innovation, power, and the peculiar intersection of technology and human nature.

Readers describe the book as an engaging character study of entrepreneur Jim Clark and a snapshot of 1990s Silicon Valley culture. Many note that Lewis captures both Clark's brilliance and his restless, competitive personality. Liked: - Clear explanations of complex technical concepts - Inside glimpse of startup fundraising and venture capital - Lewis's reporting style and attention to detail - Stories about Clark's yacht building project Disliked: - Too much focus on sailing/yachting segments - Dated feel of late-90s tech industry coverage - Lack of broader Silicon Valley context - Some found Clark an unsympathetic subject Ratings: Goodreads: 3.9/5 (15,000+ ratings) Amazon: 4.2/5 (300+ reviews) One reader noted: "Lewis excels at explaining why Clark kept pushing for the next big thing rather than being content with his success." Another wrote: "The yacht sections dragged and took away from the more interesting startup stories."

Bad Blood by John Carreyrou This investigation into Theranos chronicles a Silicon Valley startup's meteoric rise and catastrophic fall through lies, deception, and the cult of personality surrounding Elizabeth Holmes.

Zero to One by Peter Thiel A PayPal co-founder shares insights from Silicon Valley's startup ecosystem and presents his framework for building breakthrough technology companies.

The Everything Store by Brad Stone The birth and evolution of Amazon unfolds through Jeff Bezos's relentless drive to build an empire that transformed commerce and technology.

In the Plex by Steven Levy This deep dive into Google's history reveals how two Stanford students created a company that revolutionized information access and digital advertising.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson The life story of Apple's co-founder illustrates the intersection of technology, design, and business through Silicon Valley's evolution from garage startups to global corporations.

🔹 The book's main subject, Jim Clark, founded three separate billion-dollar companies: Silicon Graphics, Netscape, and Healtheon (now WebMD), making him the first person in history to create three billion-dollar enterprises. 🔹 Author Michael Lewis wrote this book while living aboard Jim Clark's 157-foot computerized yacht, Hyperion, which at the time was the world's largest single-masted sailboat and could be operated by just one person using computer controls. 🔹 The phrase "new new thing" refers to Clark's uncanny ability to spot the next breakthrough technology before anyone else, often abandoning successful ventures to pursue his next vision. 🔹 Despite becoming a tech titan, Clark grew up in poverty in Plainview, Texas, dropped out of high school, and initially worked as a physics professor before entering the tech world. 🔹 The book was published in 1999, perfectly capturing Silicon Valley during the height of the dot-com bubble, just months before the massive market crash that would reshape the industry.