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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Classic Michael Lewis on Silicon Valley , October 18, 2006
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
How Silicon Valley Was Built and the Next Gen Entrepreneur!, July 30, 2006
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
A Fascinating Insight into Silicon Valley, January 27, 2006
This book tells how one man, Jim Clark, starting out as a thirty-eight year old unsuccessful college professor and whose second wife just left him, went on to create, in succession, three billion-dollar corporations. These creations were Silicon Graphics, Netscape, and Healtheon. In the process of achieving this hat trick, he also reinvented the social order. The "Organization Man" and conformity have been replaced by brilliant engineers and nonconformity. Bitter at how little the actual creators of Silicon Graphics received and how much the venture capitalists profited, Jim Clark made sure in his next two ventures that, by such means as stock options, his creative people prospered very well indeed. One of Clark's great strengths has been to rapidly change directions. As the book notes, "A stunning ignorance of mass tastes was a common problem in high technology." For example, Honeywell, in the 1960's, created The Kitchen Computer and assumed housewives would welcome the monster size computer in their kitchens and would know how to program it. "Neiman Marcus failed to sell a single unit." When Marc Andreesen mentioned 25 million people were then using the Internet, Jim Clark saw the potential of Marc's Mosaic code and formed Mosaic Communications (which became Netscape). This time around, Clark cut a deal with venture capitalists that was unprecedented. When the initial public stock offering was made, "It was one of the most successful share offerings in the history of U.S. stock markets and possibly the most famous." In the past, shares were not sold to the investing public until four consecutive quarters were profitable. Now it was the future potential, the rapid growth, that lured investors. Also, the young engineers profited. Inventor Marc Andreesen, at twenty-four, was now worth eighty million dollars! Stock options were now the name of the game for engineers. The author compares the changes in the Silicon Valley value system to the changes that have taken place in Hollywood's value system. He notes "The stars seized power and once they'd seized power they raised their price and demanded the right to direct their own picture." He compares Jim Clark to Marlon Brando. A fascinating insight into Silicon Valley is that almost half of the companies there have been founded by Indian entrepreneurs. The book tells how Nehru set up an educational system that found the very best young minds among 900 million people and brought them to the Indian Institute of Technology. They all spoke English and America offered the highest pay and the most opportunity. Another informative bit in the book is the origin of the word "debug." It turns out that back in the 1960's a computer problem was found to be literally due to a large moth trapped inside. The word become the standard term for removing errors from programs. This book is so up to date you may feel you are reading your daily newspaper. How Microsoft attempted to achieve complete domination over the world's 500 million computers is explained. Netscape informed the U.S. Department of Justice of Microsoft's threats. Together with information furnished by other firms, this led to the Justice Department's antitrust action. The author observes that, generally speaking, stock market investors now fall into two categories: Those who follow the Graham and Dodd's system of careful analysis and those who are "kamikaze investors." It will be interesting to see which of these two opposing financial philosophies has the last laugh. Considerable book space is devoted to Jim Clark's obsession with building his completely computer controlled world's largest sailboat. A sad observation made by sailors is that when approaching an island a land bird, such as a hawk, may appear, but it may be too far out and it will perish in the sea. The author notes how this is "The first bird, like a man ahead of his time, a tragic figure." It is a reminder that all inventors and entrepreneurs are not Jim Clarks. A highly readable book and, if you delight it) the thought that bankers and venture capitalists should not rule the business world; you will enjoy Jim Clark's triumphs. |
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2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Good reading for a internet buff for history, January 15, 2006
This is similar to Mr. Michel Millcan during 80's the junk bond era how you can create corporations with minimum money. But Netscape showed that people can persue dreams with out owning land and real estate like the old west era during 1700's. |
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Dot Com Flashback, December 19, 2005
Lewis' "Liar's Poker" was extremely enjoyable, particularly because of the flash and personality of the central players. In this book, Lewis seems to have lost his way as he tries to wring interest from a much less compelling or likable chief character. The tone of the book is further weakened by the constant labels applied to Clark's disciples as the "smartest," "best," "greatest," and "most ingenious," individuals in their various fields. What strains credibility, however, is the attribution of all Clark's successes to his incredible intelligence and foresight, while the fault of his failures is cast on the incompetent actions and short-sighted beliefs of others. History will probably not judge Clark as charitably as Lewis -- especially since most of the Clark's companies have either failed outright or remain but shells of their Dot Com era glory (most notably SGI, Netscape, and Healtheon). Throughout the book, Jim Clark is touted for wealth that amounts to between $3 and $4 billion. The list of 2004 Forbes 400 Richest in America shows Jim Clark with an approximated net worth of $700 million. For a man who brags he will quit making money when his fortune eclipses that of Oracle's Larry Ellison, today Clark probably most regrets the loss of his favorite designation: billionaire. |
GREAT AUDIO BOOK!, December 4, 2005
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Want to work in Silicon Valley now, October 25, 2005
His name is Jim Clark, a billionaire, who went on to start three successful companies in Silicon Valley. Jim Clark is probably most well known for igniting the Internet craze with Netscape Corporation during 90s. The book does a good job of describing all consuming culture of Silicon Valley where engineers, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs run amok in pursuit of enormous wealth that are often given in the style of 'Winner takes all.' The stake is high. For winners, it means becoming multi millionaire. In fact, 30 of starting employees in Heatlhon, a company Jim Clark started, are millionaires today. Michale Lewis describes the world opposite of east where person might work for gigantic grey American corporation like IBM, GE, Coca-Cola until their retirement. There is an another book that does good job of describing life as an engineer in Silicon Valley called 'Microserf.' I think new new thing is more fun reading, however, and you'll also get a glimpse of what it takes to become billionaire in the valley. |
Not Lewis's best, but still a great book about Silicon Valley, October 15, 2005
If we were rating Lewis books on a scale of 1-5, this would only rate a 3. But since other authors have to also fit into the scale, this gets a 4... |
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Probing the mind of an intellectual nomad, September 27, 2005
Unlike other tech moguls, Jim Clark is more innovator than businessman as he never sticks around quite long enough to reap the results of his foresight. Though his startups have made him a very rich man, it is the businessman who ends up running the company that has always reaped more (Wozniak vis-a-vis Jobs, Allen vis-a-vis Gates). In retrospect Clark's attempt to induce an inflection point onto the old economy was a good one no matter how short lived. To this day, marketing people have always had their way with engineers. In reality, engineering genius may not always scale well in the market economy. As always, Lewis' free flowing narrative is very successful in painting quite a complete picture not only of Clark but of the New Economy as well. This author has the knack for providing the reader insights not only on the subject itself but extends it to a far broader social context. Indeed, any subject that perks up this author's interests may it be baseball or Wall Street has always been a worthwhile read. |
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Tech Entreprenuer Inspiration, August 5, 2005
Once again I am re-reading the book because I am throwing my fate into a tech start up. I need remind myself about the challenges, the hardships, the andrenalin rush, the elation when you "get it" and have a winning marketing strategy. The hardest part will be to relate to the headier days of the 90s where silicon valley were the gods, and VCs and wall street couldn't do wrong. The tech industry has been taken a notch down to a more realistic level. A more sustainable level. But we can all hope that there will come a time that the hunt is on again. With you hopefully with the hunters. Only a few books can seriously say it captures the thrill of the dot com boom. This is one of them. Read and enjoy |
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