The combination of the new technology of the Internet, the new freedom of movement of workers and capital, or ease of access to both by someone such as Jim Clark gives people like him the ability to turn whole industries on their head. This is a really unusual period in the history of capitalism, and Clark seemed to embody a lot of what was unusual about it.”Lewis and his wife are spending a year in France with their new baby. Only after they moved to Paris did he realise how valuable it is to be there “I feel inclined to write about America,” he says “It’s very useful to get out of it. “What they don’t have is willing, supremely talented, egomaniacal employees who’ll do whatever the boss says without proof that it’s going to work out for them – it gives him an incredible power.”We’re sort of at the beginning of it. Artists don’t have to be unhappy, but they have to be dissatisfied.”And, he adds, “Clark illustrated beautifully that this is the age of the individual entrepreneur. I couldn’t think of a time in history, with the possible exception of the late 19th century, where a guy on his own had such power to compete with large institutions.”This applies even to companies that could command the resources Clark does, says Lewis. And he won’t dispute that.”The artistic metaphor of creativity, of creation, doesn’t apply to most business activity Clark is an exception.

I think he is like an artist, temperamentally, the way he structures his life But he’s unhappy, always uncomfortable It’s the grain of sand in the oyster. Clark was this huge exception; he’s basically like an adolescent in that he’s able to adapt.”You might think, then, that Clark leads not only a good life, but the best life Lewis disagrees “I don’t think he’s happy I think he’s really unhappy. He’s in some ways not typical at all.”Most people in Silicon Valley have one act in them They have their moment of glory, and then they disappear They get eaten up by the new, young ones that come along. There were things about his personality, character, that sort of echoed larger things – like this need for constant change, this capacity for self-reinvention. That he was that close to total despair, and no one knew it, I thought was a great story.”Having been told that the Mueller story had never seen print, “I called Clark up and said, ‘Can I come talk to you about this?’ He said, ‘Sure, come on over.’” Thus Clark took over the book.Clark, Lewis says, is very like Silicon Valley – the place, not the people “He rhymed with the environment.

“The guy who committed suicide when Clark didn’t let him into the Netscape deal He puts the phone down and blows his brains out This was a guy who everyone said had the perfect life. “They give you nothing to grab on to – there’s this sort of chirpy, surface, up-with-people stuff. It doesn’t ring true with how human beings really are.”What got me going into Clark was this story about Glenn Mueller,” Lewis explains. It took seven years to build; he’s had it for two months.”After more than six months in Silicon Valley, Lewis began to focus his book on Clark, who provided the glimpses of real human interest he found lacking in others. He’s sitting freezing in a little hotel room in Amsterdam, because he’s decided he doesn’t like his boat anymore and he’s building this other boat.

They won’t admit it – ‘I’ve got my $80 million, how could I not be happy?’ – but there’s very little real joy.”Even Jim Clark, with his delight in expensive toys – his computerized yacht, Hyperion, for instance? “He has the kind of satisfaction from those things that you would get from a prostitute,” says Lewis “That kind of brief gratification, and then he’s off again I talked to him two days ago. ‘We have sunshine; it never rains; no stress; we’ve got all this money; we have every material thing.’ But that isn’t what makes people happy.”I have not met a happy person in Silicon Valley,” he says, “a person that I would describe as happy Their lives are all screwed up. People can persuade other people that they must be happy because they have it all. Why have rich friendships, since the friendship is only going to last as long as this business deal?”No one will believe me when I say Silicon Valley life is a kind of dystopia,” Lewis says ruefully “It really does masquerade as this utopia. Everything we’re going to build we’re going to tear down, so why build it well? This includes human interaction. The illusion is impermanence; it’s that nothing about the past ever matters. So I moved out to see if I could do it as a big story.” He found it ugly and joyless.”Here was the most successful place on the planet, by the way we measure success: more money being made there than anywhere in the history of the world And it was an absolutely miserable place to live Oh, it’s horrible There’s nothing to please the senses It’s sterile.”Everything is built to be torn down…