The New New Thing: Summary and book reviews of The New New Thing by Michael Lewis, plus links to an excerpt from The New New Thing and a biography of Michael Lewis.

In the weird glow of the dying millennium, Michael Lewis sets out on a safari through Silicon Valley to find the world's most important technology entrepreneur, the man who embodies the spirit of the coming age. He finds him in Jim Clark, who is about to create his third, separate, billion-dollar company: first Silicon Graphics, then Netscape-which launched the Information Age - and now Healtheon, a startup that may turn the $1 trillion healthcare industry on its head. Despite the variety of his achievements, Clark thinks of himself mainly as the creator of Hyperion, which happens to be a sailboat . . . not just an ordinary yacht, but the world's largest single-mast vessel, a machine more complex than a 747. Clark claims he will be able to sail it via computer from his desk in San Francisco, and the new code may contain the seeds of his next billion-dollar coup. On the wings of Lewis's celebrated storytelling, the reader takes the ride of a lifetime through this strange landscape of geeks and billionaires. We get the inside story of the battle between Netscape and Microsoft; we sit in the room as Clark tries to persuade the investment bankers that Healtheon is the next Microsoft; we get queasy as Clark pits his boat against the rage of the North Atlantic in winter. And in every brilliant anecdote and character sketch, Lewis is drawing us a map of markets and free enterprise in the twenty-first century.

Media Reviews

Fortune Magazine Lewis is a gifted storyteller...[he] makes his case through a series of beautifully rendered set-pieces....While many writers will try to bring this fantasyland to life, few will do so as vividly as Michael Lewis.   Business Week [Lewis's] incisive and entertaining volume largely succeeds in getting past the glitter of money to identify the real key to the Valley's vibrancy: new ideas....Lewis provides a look that is penetrating as anything written so far.   Los Angeles Times Book Review Lewis brilliantly describes Clark's intensity and passion, his genius for technology and leadership and his impatience with convention. He also faithfully chronicles Clark's ruthlessness, willingness to exact revenge on opponents and ability to casually upset people's lives. The fact that these last qualities are described in almost complimentary terms reflects a Silicon Valley sensibility that they're laudable.   The New York Times - Michiko Kakutan Lewis does for the late 1990s world of techno-geeks and software cowboys what he did in Liar's Poker for the 1980s Wall Street world of traders and arbitrageurs.   Kirkus Reviews [R]ip-roaring . . . .Michael Lewis, the petulant sprite whose Liar's Poker hilariously exposed the venalities of Wall Street investment bankers, vies for Tom Wolfe's ice cream suit with an effortlessly glib account . . . . Funny, feverishly romantic . . . the American lust for wealth becomes a Byronic quest for the next dream that will change the world.

Recent Reader Reviews

Readalikes

If you liked The New New Thing, try these:

---

---

These are 2 of the 4 readalike suggestions for The New New Thing. Members have full access to all readalikes. If you are a member, please login. To find out more about membership, click here.

Books with similar themes

• Biographies & Memoirs
  
• History, Current Affairs & Science
  
• USA 
  
• West 
  
• California 
  
• 1980s & '90s