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3.51 AVERAGE
3.51 AVERAGE
funny
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
The story is interesting and Michael is a good, non-fiction writer. However, I couldn't finish the book due to the sexist and racist comments casually thrown in. I get that the tech industry is sexist (and possibly racist, I don't know about that), but to allow the "characters" in the book to make sexist and racist remarks without any explanation or push back from the author just perpetuates the problem.
While this book is nominally about Jim Clarke who was the founder of both Silicon Graphics and Netscape, I think it offers a rare look into the how the tech market operates.
adventurous
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
inspiring
medium-paced
While I love everything I've read so far by Michael Lewis, this book had a special appeal for me, as I know several of the people in it. In particular, I worked with Motasim Najeeb at Castlight for three years and he introduced me to Pavan Nigam. I also know 5-10 other people who worked at Healtheon.
The book tracks the winding path of Jim Clark as he goes from founding Silicon Graphics to Netscape to Healtheon, all three exceeding a $1 billion market cap, though all three also ending up in some degree of disarray. SGI was beaten out by Moore's Law with respect to engineering workstations, though not because Clark wasn't trying to respond to the threat. The book doesn't paint a very nice picture of most of the other SGI executives, though it is clear that Clark often didn't make it easy for them.
The book ends with Healtheon still on a high note. I think the WebMD acquisition started them down a path that ended up distracting significantly from their original plan. I spoke with another co-worker who was at Healtheon about why the promising state of the company in 1999 later ended up going off the rails. Healtheon tried to grow through several acquisitions and one of those acquisitions led to the acquired CEO taking over and pushing out a lot of the original Healtheon employees. WebMD is still around and successful but has long since abandoned the Healtheon mission.
The book tracks the winding path of Jim Clark as he goes from founding Silicon Graphics to Netscape to Healtheon, all three exceeding a $1 billion market cap, though all three also ending up in some degree of disarray. SGI was beaten out by Moore's Law with respect to engineering workstations, though not because Clark wasn't trying to respond to the threat. The book doesn't paint a very nice picture of most of the other SGI executives, though it is clear that Clark often didn't make it easy for them.
The book ends with Healtheon still on a high note. I think the WebMD acquisition started them down a path that ended up distracting significantly from their original plan. I spoke with another co-worker who was at Healtheon about why the promising state of the company in 1999 later ended up going off the rails. Healtheon tried to grow through several acquisitions and one of those acquisitions led to the acquired CEO taking over and pushing out a lot of the original Healtheon employees. WebMD is still around and successful but has long since abandoned the Healtheon mission.
It was perfectly OK. But I'm not sure who I would recommend this to. There are far better books about the technology boom that don't really revolve around piloting a ship across the Atlantic.
Lewis is one of the best authors of his generation. Just a great story about the dot com era.
A lot like 'The Soul Of A New Machine' but from the 1990s instead of the 1970s and concerning software instead of hardware; specifically, Jim Clark's jouney from Silicon Graphics to Netscape and Healtheon. My favorite chapter takes place when Clark, the author, and crew are trying to sail across the Atlantic in the (then) world's largest sailboat while the software automating it is still being developed....
A now-super-dated story of Lewis’ following around of Netscape founder Jim Clark. You probably haven’t heard of Jim Clark, popular culture having forgotten all dot-com founding fathers aside from Sean Parker. The excess and larger-than-life personalities of Liar’s Poker are present and the result is a semi-convincing return to form as far as writing style is concerned. However, it’s the worst of Michael Lewis’ in-depth books and needs to be read before any of the others (Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, The Big Short, The Blind Side, The Big Short, Flash Boys). Otherwise, you’ll find it cruelly disappointing. The central points of the story don’t converge in any satisfactory way.