IP: a comment from Poor Richard re Jim Clark Astride Silicon Valley

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> From: Poor Richard
> To: <farber () cis upenn edu>
>
> poor richard enjoyed "The New New Thing" very much; however, as with every
> hero-worship tome, a large grain of salt is recommended.
>
> while dr. clark has made many positive, indeed glorious, contributions to
> the commercial respectability of the internet, a disinterested observer
> might also note that the closer one gets to ground-zero the fewer things one
> finds of lasting value (viz., the near-defunct SGI, the submerged NSCP, the
> full-circle valuation of HLTH, etc).
>
> put more simply, messr. lewis does a great amount of lionizing over the
> stratospheric take-offs of dr. clark's visions without dwelling very much on
> the catastrophic landings. (poor richard is informed by his colleagues in
> the aviation community, that if take-offs != landings, then there's a rather
> severe problem lurking about...)
>
> of course, this doesn't make the book any less fun to read -- although poor
> richard enjoys a cordial relationship with several large VCs, he too enjoys
> watching them panicked by their larger-than-Internet perception of dr. clark
> (with the exception, of course, of the unfortunate ending of dr. clark's
> first vc).
>
> s/ poor richard
>
> ps: as quasi-disclosure is all the rage, poor richard feels compelled to
> admit that: 1) he's never met dr. clark, nor any of the "major" players in
> the book, 2) he's never had any business relationships with any of dr.
> clark's companies, although he does know a few of the engineers working at
> them, and 3) he has no relationship to the evil empire, other than running
> some of their software (he also runs NetBSD, so in addition to being a
> pragmatist, poor richard also admires the purist).