The Search Engine (1999) | Hacker News Reader

The Search Engine (1999)

nytimes.com

44 pointsguiambros12 comments

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...

> Not only he has an interesting life story and created a series of legendary companies - [...] WebMD, [...]

So he's the reason everyone thinks that they have cancer! :)

Fyi... the Michael Lewis' phrase "search engine" as used in this 1999 article would be what we today might call a "serial entrepreneur searching for the next unicorn".

It's about Jim Clark of Netscape/Healtheon and not about Excite/AltaVista/Google. Since the timing of the article happened after the Netscape sale to AOL, it focuses on Healtheon which imo is not as interesting as the wild Netscape period with Marc Andreesen.

>Fyi... the Michael Lewis' phrase "search engine" as used in this 1999 article would be what we today might call a "serial entrepreneur searching for the next unicorn".

Apt, only "unicorns" those days were actually important socially and technologically ventures, not BS like Instagram and co.

Yeah, Instagram was a tragic flop that no-one noticed. Oh wait.

The commenter isnt suggesting that. They're suggesting that the highly and rapidly valued companies from that era were doing more social good than current ones are.

My comment was about value (in the societal sense) not exit success.

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.

Yes, I think 1999 was driven more by unbounded optimism and today is driven more by unbounded hubris. Neither are good, or better than the other, but are different versions of myopia.

My take is more: 1999 was driven by the promise of future profits. Today we're driven by real revenue and the promise of future profits.

This was written before Healtheon tanked. The original plan was to computerize medical records. That's finally happening, but Healtheon didn't do it. What's left of Healtheon is a billing service for doctors.

@Home was a famous spectacular failure in Silicon Valley. They're remembered for building a really spectacular headquarters complex [1] and never moving in. The campus was vacant for most of a decade.

[1] https://goo.gl/maps/7yyNnJoLXAS2

Jesus this 3D stuff has gotten really good.

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