In the Spotlight
Michael Lewis captured the atmosphere of 1980s Wall Street in his best-selling Liar's Poker. Since then, the center of the economic universe has moved to Silicon Valley. One of the architects of this shift was Jim Clark, the subject of Mr. Lewis' latest book, The New New Thing (Norton, 2000). Mr. Clark is the first technology entrepreneur to start three separate billion-dollar businesses: Silicon Graphics, Netscape, and most recently, Healtheon. While Healtheon was getting off the ground, Mr. Clark allowed Mr. Lewis to come along for the ride. The New New Thing is an American success story and (although the author does not see it this way) an American tragedy. Mr. Clark is a brilliant, restless visionary always looking for the cutting-edge development, but he moves from hands-on leadership (Silicon Graphics) to initial direction only (Netscape) to merely proposing to others that they take advantage of a health industry trend (Healtheon) and use his name to sell stock. Meanwhile, he spends time on his gigantic, fully computerized yacht. Neither money nor success satisfy him, but there's no glimmer of the God-centered alternative. (Caution: contains obscenity and profanity.) | |
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