Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 1999, 288 pages
ISBN: 0-340-76698-0
Keywords: Biography
The book that does for Silicon Valley what Liar's Poker did for Wall Steet.
In the last years of the millenium, bestselling author Michael Lewis sets out 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, the billionaire who is about to create his third, separate, billion-dollar company: first Silicon Graphics; then Netscape, which launched the information age; and now Healtheon, which aims to turn the $1 trillion US health care industry on its head.
Clark is simple the hottest thing in the Valley, so great is his aura and mystique that hordes of the smartest geeks simple drop what they are doing whenever it is rumoured that he may be up to Something New.
Michael Lewis accompanies Clark on the maiden voyage of his vast computerised yacht, the largest single-mast vessel in the world, and experiences Clark at his most inventive, frustrating and amusing. We get the inside story of the battle between Netscape and Microsoft; we hear how Clark tries to persuade the investment bankers that Healtheon is the new Microsoft and we get quesy as Clark pits his boat against the rage of the North Atlantic in winter.
On the wings of Michael Lewis' celebrated story-telling, the reader takes the ride of a lifetime through this strange landscape of netheads and billionaires. Through every brilliant anecdote and funny character sketch, Michael Lewis allows us an inside look at the world of the super-rich, whilst drawing a map of free enterprise in the twenty-first century.
An idolising portrait of Jim Clark. Sigh.
Comments
There are currently no comments
New Comment