"In the Navy, Clark said, he learned that his desire for revenge could lead to success. He was propelled in the classroom by his anger about the humiliation he'd suffered at sea. Thus success, for him, became a form of revenge."
A rather interesting
book, by
Michael Lewis, that is partially a biography of
Jim Clark, founder of
Silicon Graphics,
Netscape, and
Healtheon (better known these days as
WebMD), the man who essentially made the
internet popular. The book is also about the whole
paradigm shift away from the "standard corporate model" of
America and towards the "
new economy" during the
1990s.
The New New Thing was published in 2000, so it chronicles many very recent events as well, including the "dot com apocolypse" and the stock market mini-crash of 1999, as well as the recent government antitrust suit against Microsoft. The whole time the book is detailing Clark's exploits in the tech sector, it's also talking about his endeavor to build a computer-controlled sailboat, the Hyperion, after he got interested in sailing during his hiatus from SGI. It also covers such topics as the importing of Indian programming geniuses educated by the rigorous IT institutes in India, and the whole business of how to do a successful IPO.
All in all, the writing itself isn't really that great, but the subject is interesting and the book isn't all that long, and it's certainly not boring at any point. I would recommend it to anyone who's interested in technology, economics, or sailing. Even so, it's still an interesting read for pretty much anyone who's lived through the past decade or so.