The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story
, Biography, 1999
A Silicon Valley portrait that pairs the Internet boom’s larger story with the choices and ambitions of one serial entrepreneur.
About the book
Published in 1999, Lewis's reported portrait follows Clark's restless search for the next company, using his ventures and automated sailing project to examine the culture and capital of the internet boom.
Reading perspective
Michael Lewis follows Jim Clark, the founder behind Silicon Graphics, Netscape, and Healtheon, as a route into Silicon Valley at the end of the millennium. Alongside Clark's ventures, the book includes a voyage on his superyacht, widening the portrait beyond companies to the people and fortunes surrounding the Internet revolution.
What you’ll learn
Replace your own product before someone else does
The book’s technology-business theme is that a successful company may need to cannibalize its own products before competitors force the change.
Imagination can create new sources of wealth
The book discusses new growth theory, which treats human imagination—not simply more of what already exists—as a source of wealth.
Editorial sources
Book guidance draws on these sources; Founders evidence determines the ranking.
Why it ranks here
Reading rank #39. First covered in Episode #23. 18 scored evidence components. 10 Founders episodes. Coverage Score 228. Praise on record: The host says he can't recommend enough reading Michael Lewis and states he would buy this book.
Explore evidence and score breakdownOpen timeline
How the Coverage Score works
Reviewed Founders evidence adds points: a dedicated episode, a qualifying reread, explicit praise, or a reference in a later episode. Repeats of the same kind in one independently recorded discussion count once, including reviewed reused passages. Genuinely new qualifying discussion adds points. The score measures coverage, not quality.
Sources: official Founders episodes — #23, #24, #27, #34, #41, #83, #174, #229, #274, #317
The largest contribution to this Coverage Score is Dedicated episode · Primary coverage (90 points).
Original Founders sources
- The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story — The episode is devoted to Michael Lewis's The New New Thing and uses it as the main source throughout, covering Jim Clark, Netscape, Silicon Graphics, and Healthion/WebMD.
- No Better Time: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, the Genius Who Transformed the Internet — David says Episode 24's events occur at the same time as The New New Thing, the book covered in the previous Founders episode.
- A Truck Full of Money: Coding, Mania, Love, Genius: The Life of an American Entrepreneur — David draws a thematic parallel to a previous Founders episode on The New New Thing by Michael Lewis, about Jim Clark and the new economy.
- Creativity Inc: The Autobiography of the founder of Pixar — David references a prior Founders episode he produced based on The New New Thing, confirming the book received dedicated prior coverage on the show.
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers — Host references a prior Founders episode on Jim Clark based on Michael Lewis's The New New Thing, calling it a great book.
- Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, George Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World — David references his earlier Founders episode on Jim Clark, based on Michael Lewis's The New New Thing, quoting Clark's "pigs vs. chickens" metaphor.