What I learned from rereading The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story by Michael Lewis.
As it turned out, the main character of this story had a structure to his life.
He might not care to acknowledge it, but it was there all the same.
It was the structure of an old fashioned adventure story.
His mere presence on a scene inspired the question that propels every adventure story forward.
What will happen next?
I had no idea, and neither did he.
Why Jim Clark was so worthy of study was another matter.
For now, I'll just say that the quirks in the man's character sent the most fantastic ripples through the world around him, often starting with the best intentions or no intentions at all.
He turned people's lives upside down and subjected them to the most vicious force a human being can be subjected to change.
Oddly enough, he was forever claiming that what he really wanted to do was put up his feet and relax.
He could not do this for more than a minute.
Once he put up his feet, his mind would spin and his face would turn red and he would be disturbed all over again.
He thought of something or someone in the world that needed to be changed.
For all I knew, Clark would be remembered chiefly as the guy who created Netscape and triggered the Internet boom, which in turn triggered one of the most astonishing grab fests in the history of capitalism.
Maybe somewhere in a footnote it would be mentioned that he came from nothing, grew up poor, dropped out of high school, and made himself three or $4 billion.
That is an excerpt from the book that I reread and the one I'm going to talk to you about today, which is the new new thing, a Silicon Valley story, and is written by Michael Lewis.
I first read the book for episode 23, which came out four and a half years ago.
And the reason I wanted to revisit this book is one.
It's a fantastic book.
Michael Lewis is an amazing writer, but Jim Clark is also a very unusual character.