In Michael Lewis' "The New New Thing", he describes how Jim Clarke, Netscape co-founder was up at 3AM scribbling math equations on how his mega-yacht could have a convincing CG nautical compass. The book has a picture of this crumpled napkin, which is fascinating.

Jim Clark. Read "The New New Thing"

BTW, the question implies PG is a role model for me. As awesome as he is, he's not.

KPCB, I believe. ("The New New Thing" by Michael Lewis is a great retelling of Jim Clark's adventures)

One of my favourite tech entrepreneurs.

If any of you haven't read Michael Lewis's "The New New Thing" ( http://www.amazon.com/New-Thing-Silicon-Valley-Story/dp/0393... ) its a great book about Jim Clark and the dotcom boom.

The New New Thing, by Michael Lewis, is about Jim Clark and the companies he founded at the time. It's a good read.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_New_Thing

"The New New Thing" by Michael Lewis is great: entertainingly written, and actually quite instructive about SV culture. "Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure" by Jerry Kaplan was also very good.

Looks to be a excerpt from his book "the new new thing". Like most Lewis' work it's good, and especially as a reminder of how really, today's tech scene is nothing like the 1999 peak frenzy.

Michael Lewis' book, The New New Thing, probably offers a good insight to this. Jim Clark is probably the character that all the choreographers of pretty faces seek to emulate.

"The New New Thing" is not fiction, but it reads like it is.. Basically a bio snapshot of Jim Clark written by Michael Lewis (author of Liar's Poker, another good business book about Wall Street)

New Enterprise associates. It's in the New New Thing by Michael Lewis.

I'm not entirely sure now. But it's covered in the book mentioned here and by the other poster.

"The New New Thing" is among his best, and the most directly relevant for the HN crowd -- a really insightful look at Silicon Valley history in the mid 90s and the story behind SGI, Netscape, and Jim Clark.

"The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story" by Michael Lewis. Written not long before the peak of the dot-com bubble, tells the story of James H. Clark, the founder of SGI, Netscape and other companies.

Not comprehensive by any means, but The New New Thing, by Michael Lewis, tells an interesting story about Jim Clark, and his role in founding Silicon Graphics, Netscape, myCFO, and Healtheon (later called WebMD).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_New_Thing

The New New Thing(http://www.wwnorton.com/catalog/fall99/newnewthing.htm)

The New New Thing by Michael Lewis

"The New New Thing" by Michael Lewis

The "engine" in this case refers to Jim Clark, who spent his career searching for the "new thing", and has intimately shaped the Silicon Valley culture along the way.

Not only he has an interesting life story and created a series of legendary companies - SGI, Netscape, Healtheon/WebMD, myCFO - but, more importantly, helped demonstrate the value created by engineers in new companies, and set out to change the way they are rewarded.

Jim Clark's life is covered in detail in Michael Lewis' "The New New Thing" book [1]. Great read if you're interested in computer history and the early days of the web.

One fascinating part is Pavan Nigam's realization - in the 80's! - that "...the difference between a great software guy and an O.K. software guy is huge. A great software guy is worth 10 times an O.K. software guy".

[1] https://smile.amazon.com/New-Thing-Silicon-Valley-Story/dp/0...

It's not that he was a liar, it's that he was granted a unique opportunity to write a book unlike anything anyone else could write and delivered that...turd.

Sure, deadlines, pressure, but honestly, it was 80% junk that had already been written in other books or articles, 10% "why are you asking these dumb questions" and only 10% actual insight.

It was a surprising weak effort is all. People expected something of more substance.

It's a shame someone like Michael Lewis wasn't at bat for that book. He seems more able to dig through the layers and find out the actual story. The New New Thing gets into fantastic detail about Jim Clark even though he's just one of the people in that book.

The local county library, which is quite a large system, doesn't have 3 of 16 books from the NY Times December 5, 1999 non-fiction bestseller list: HAVE A NICE DAY! by Mick Foley, THE NEW NEW THING, by Michael Lewis, and THE CENTURY, by Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster.

All 15 of the fiction bestsellers from 20 years ago are available.

The original story of getting rich off employee equity seems to go back to Netscape, but reading The New New Thing by Michael Lewis, I was struck by how abnormal that situation was. Jim Clark hated the VCs, identified as an engineer, seemed happy to share his winnings with everyone, and had the leverage to dictate VC terms. That story shaped tech for a while, e.g. Google bragged about how even their cooks got rich, but now 24 years after the IPO I think things have largely gone "back to normal", with investors and founders giving away less. The story's momentum still draws hopeful employees, but people are becoming more skeptical, too. Plus not every company is a Netscape or Google. . . .

There are two biographies that I think should be required reading for wannabe Silicon Valley entrepreneurs: (1) High St@kes, No Prisoners by Charles H. Ferguson and (2) The New New Thing by Michael Lewis, about Jim Clark

And two that, while light on content (i.e. math), never fail to stimulate the childlike nature of my inner aspiring mathematician: (1) The Man Who Knew Infinity by Robert Kanigel, on Ramanujan and (2) The Man Who Loved Only Numbers by Paul Hoffman, on Paul Erdos.

Computer history is one of my favorite topics, so I've read a lot over the years. Here's my list:

>> Classic computer history:

- "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution", Steven Levy

- "The Innovators", Walter Isaacson

- "Valley of Genius: The Uncensored History of Silicon Valley", Adam Fisher [innovative format, tons of interesting tidbits after you get used to the style. Read only after the other two above]

- "The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story", Michael Lewis

- "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs", Alan Deutschman

- "Revolution in The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made", Andy Hertzfeld

- "Masters of Doom", David Kushner

- "Idea Man", Paul Allen

- "Where Wizards Stay Up Late", Katie Hafner

>> Entertaining stories, but less historical value:

- "Ghost in the Wires", Kevin Mitnick

- "Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley", Antonio Garcia Martinez

- "Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal", Nick Bilton

>> On my to-read queue:

- "How the Internet Happened", Brian McCullough [just started; very promising]

- "Troublemakers: Silicon Valley's Coming of Age", Leslie Berlin

- "Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of WWII", Liza Mundy

- "Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer", Paul Freiberger / Michael Swaine

>> Others worth mentioning (but just read a few chapters):

- "The Supermen: The Story of Seymour Cray", Charles Murray [about Cray Computers]

- "Racing the Beam" [about Atari]

- "Commodore: A Company on the Edge" [about Commodore]

>> Bonus:

- "Art of Atari", Tim Lapetino [great as a coffee table book, particularly if you grew up in the 80's :) ]

If you haven't read "Diamond Age" yet, I highly recommend it. I loved "Snow crash" too, but DA is arguably his best book. Let me know if you ever finish anything he wrote later than that, to be honest I think he is in dire need of a strict editor that cuts his books in at least half.

I see we disagree on "The Unberable Lightness of Being", but that is fine, I guess.

I think Murakami is at his best in "Norwegian Wood" and "South of the Border" -- in different ways. You might also enjoy "Chrome Yellow" by Huxley.

For something a bit different, try: "American Essays" edited by Shaw (http://www.amazon.com/American-Essays-Charles-B-Shaw/dp/B000...).

If you enjoyed the books on Steve Jobs, you might enjoy "The new new thing" by Lewis (on the founder of SGI and Netscape).

I don't know if you've read any William Gibson, if not, at least read "Burning Chrome" (and everything else he's ever written ;-).

Finally, you should read "The Code Book" by Singh.

I actually like SoTM the best out of the list you've posted. More so than the others it's a study of the everyday people of technology, not just the heroes that we've all heard of. Dealers of Lightning, Hackers, and Where Wizards Stay Up Late all do a fine job of telling human stories of technology you use, but SoTM is mainly about the day-to-day life in an industry, the triumphs and failures on a much smaller, more human scale. A similar book could have been written about companies I've worked at, and I'm sure everyone here can say the same. It's less of a history and more of a study of people.

I enjoy this genera though, and I'll add Gertner and Lammers to the list. You may want to try Exploding the Phone by Phil Lapsley (about phone phreaking) and The New New Thing by Michael Lweis.

Here's the best books I've read in the last year or so:

>> Computer History & biographies:

The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story, Michael Lewis

The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, by Alan Deutschman

Machines of Loving Grace, by John Markoff

The Innovators, by Walter Isaacson

Ghost in the Wires, by Kevin Mitnick

Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft, by Paul Allen

Creativity, Inc, by Ed Catmull (reading)

>> Startups:

The Hard Thing About Hard Things, by Ben Horowitz

The Founder's Dilemmas, Noam Wasserman

The Launch Pad, by Randall Stross

>> Other books:

Trilogy: Off to Be the Wizard (series), by Scott Meyer

Search Inside Yourself, Chade-Meng Tan

Joy on Demand, Chade-Meng Tan (reading)

The reason I advocate that approach (other than it is what I do, to varying degrees of success, to support myself) is that it seems to be more straightforward a value prop than trying to sell an idea.

Read "Masters of Doom", read "Soul of a New Machine", read "The New New Thing", read iWoz: we see that products fail all the time, that pioneers take a bath, that the second mouse gets the cheese--but that engineers are always in demand.

A business can fail, but raw material is always being looked for.