CHAPTERS
- 0:00 – 2:34
Why Revisit The New New Thing and Jim Clark
David Senra opens with an excerpt from Michael Lewis's The New New Thing and explains why he is revisiting it. He frames Jim Clark as the first person to found three separate billion-dollar technology companies.
- •Excerpt describes Clark as an adventure-story figure who upended people's lives with change
- •Senra first covered the book on episode 23, about four and a half years ago
- •Clark is an unusual character compared to others Senra studies
- •Senra chooses to start with the book's ending on Clark's early life
- 2:34 – 9:08
Poverty and a Violent Father in Plainview, Texas
Lewis visits Clark's mother Hazel and sister Sue in Plainview. They describe the family's poverty, the father's abuse and sabotage of Hazel's car, and the night a 16-year-old Jim confronted him.
- •Clark's stock options made his mother and sister rich; Sue says they had been poor enough that she was ready to cook the cat
- •Hazel's ex-husband drank, beat her, and later sabotaged her car with steel shavings and sand
- •Jim went to find his father at 16, and afterward the father never bothered Hazel again
- •Senra notes the family lived on $225 a month with $5 for groceries, and Jim played the tuba because it was the only free instrument
- 9:08 – 12:43
Expelled, the Navy, and Discovering a Gift for Math
Clark's school pranks and expulsion lead him into the Navy at 17. There a multiple-choice test mishap and a math test reveal his aptitude, and an instructor steers him toward night classes.
- •Expulsion followed telling the English teacher to go to hell, a bomb on a school bus, a skunk at a dance and firecrackers in a locker
- •He circled every answer on a multiple-choice test, and the Navy assumed he was trying to fool the computer
- •He scored highest in his class on a math test and an instructor suggested night classes at Tulane
- •Within eight years he had a college degree, a physics master's and a computer science PhD
- •Senra names success as a form of revenge as a main theme
- 12:43 – 14:29
Hitting Bottom at 38: The Maniacal Drive
Senra turns to Clark's turbulent early career of marriages, moves and firings. He then reads what he calls the most powerful paragraph in the book, in which Clark describes the dead-end moment that sparked his drive.
- •Senra cites Yvon Chouinard's advice to study the juvenile delinquent to understand the entrepreneur
- •Between 1970 and 1978 Clark married at least twice, changed jobs at least four times and was fired for insubordination
- •At 38, fired and left by his second wife, he thought he would spend his life in a hole
- •He says a maniacal passion to achieve something took hold, and he insists the change happened overnight
- 14:29 – 20:37
Engineers as Wealth Creators: New Growth Theory
Clark and Lewis go up in a helicopter on July 5th and discuss the idea that engineers should hold the power. Lewis draws on Veblen and New Growth Theory's chef metaphor to explain how Clark sees wealth creation.
- •Clark's net worth swung wildly, with Netscape shares tied to the number in the newspaper
- •A 1921 book predicted engineers would seize power from financiers, and Clark said it was happening in the Valley
- •New Growth Theory holds that wealth comes from human imagination, with chefs finding new recipes
- •Part two of Silicon Valley was engineers cooking up new things for computers to do, not building new machines
- •Senra links this to Naval Ravikant's point that the internet broadened the space of careers
- 20:37 – 22:16
Work as Play, Impatience and Groping
Senra reads Lewis's portrait of how Clark lives and works, with no line between work and leisure. Impatience is a commercial virtue, and he gropes toward ideas rather than claiming to see the future.
- •A quote about the master of living who draws no distinction between work and play frames Clark
- •Clark left himself open to accident and moved on if nothing interesting happened
- •Impatience was a social vice but a commercial virtue, since without it there would be no new companies
- •Clark scorned grand talk about seeing the future, and enthusiasm was a physical event for him
- 22:16 – 26:16
Silicon Graphics and the Injustice Against Engineers
Clark founded Silicon Graphics around his geometry engine, and Hollywood figures were the first to see its value. Despite the talent there, he felt financiers took most of the equity, and he resented being exploited by venture capitalist Glenn Mueller.
- •The geometry engine let computers process 3D graphics, and Lucas and Spielberg were early customers
- •Silicon Graphics gathered a remarkably talented group of engineers but created few millionaires
- •Clark sold forty percent of the company for $800,000 to Glenn Mueller, whose fund made $400 million
- •Clark never forgave Mueller and vowed not to trust venture capitalists with his inexperience again
- 26:16 – 26:48
Professional Management Pushes Clark Out
The board brings in professional CEO McCracken, who layers on managers able to sell the machines of the present. Clark's argument that the company must cannibalize itself to avoid disruption is rejected, and he drifts away and leaves.
- •Silicon Graphics reflected Clark's personality as a loose collection of brilliant, bullheaded engineers
- •Senra argues founders often value independence and control more than money
- •Revenue grew from millions to billions under McCracken while Clark was dealt out
- •Clark argued a tech company must destroy itself or someone else will, and McCracken disagreed
- •He spent weekdays flying toy helicopters, which Senra compares to Walt Disney's backyard train
- 26:48 – 38:18
Founding Netscape and the Record-Fast IPO
Clark leaves vowing to prove himself and to make $100 million, then hears Marc Andreessen's internet numbers and sees the opportunity. Netscape goes public in 18 months, and this time Clark kept the power and made engineers rich.
- •Clark told friends he would show Ed McCracken and said not making $100 million would make him a failure
- •Andreessen's figures of 25 million internet users doubling yearly reminded Clark of the personal computer in 1985
- •Mueller pleaded to invest in Netscape, was refused, and shot himself the day Netscape was incorporated
- •Shares rose from $12 to $48 on the first day and to $140 three months later, which Clark called people drinking his Kool-Aid
- •After the IPO, Andreessen was worth $80 million and Clark was a billionaire at 51
- 38:18 – 42:22
Recruiting Difficulty and Designing His Own Role
Senra draws on an Andreessen blog post about how hard it was for Clark to recruit, with only one of about a dozen people saying yes. He then covers the transatlantic sailing trip and Clark's design of a role outside large organizations.
- •Andreessen said he was the only one of about a dozen people to say yes, largely because he was 22 and had no reason not to
- •Engineers who declined later took more risks after seeing Netscape's success
- •About 30% of the book covers the sailing trip, which Senra mostly skips
- •Clark concluded he did not belong inside a large organization and kept a chairman role with little involvement
- 42:22 – 48:11
Healtheon, A+ Players and Pigs vs. Chickens
Clark starts Healtheon to use internet software on healthcare. When the IPO stalls, he offers to fund $40 million himself, which brings the financiers in. Senra connects the hiring theme to Steve Jobs on A+ players and ends on Clark's pig-and-chicken metaphor.
- •Healtheon's later market cap and losses show the odd economic data points of the era
- •Kleiner Perkins paid triple the usual rate for Netscape capital yet made 30 times its investment in 18 months
- •Jobs and Clark's co-founder both argued top talent is worth many times the average
- •Clark's offer to supply the $40 million turned the financiers' hesitation into a rush to participate
- •Clark said the chicken is interested and the pig is committed
- 48:11 – 57:13
AOL Windfall and Why It Will Never Be Enough
A calculator scene shows Clark's AOL shares worth over $1 billion after his Atlantic crossing. Senra closes on Clark's moving targets for wealth, his need for motives and resentments, and Lewis's view that unhappiness drives change.
- •AOL agreed to swap .45 of its shares per Netscape share, and Clark's holdings nearly tripled in 10 days at sea
- •Senra stresses vastly more conceivable possibilities than realized outcomes
- •Clark's wealth goal kept shifting from $10 million to $100 million to $1 billion to beating Larry Ellison
- •Lewis suggests unhappy people stay unhappy after changing things, but Clark kept believing in change
