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Article: Celebrity Profiles: Michael Lewis, author - Liar's Poker

Article Group List / College and Internships / Celebrity Profiles: Michael Lewis, author - Liar's Poker

Celebrity Profiles: Michael Lewis, author - Liar's Poker

MICHAEL LEWIS, AUTHOR OF LIAR'S POKER, THE MONEY CULTURE, AND THE NEW, NEW THING, DISCUSSES THE STATES OF SILICON VALLEY, THE MEANING OF LIFE, AND VAULT.COM'S MESSAGE BOARDS

Hello and thanks for agreeing to interview with us.  As we begin, do you have any questions about Vault?

You guys were the ones who created the company message boards, right?  I remember that the Morgan Stanley board drew a lot of attention.  (See "Morgan Stanley Exposes Itself Over Fired Analyst" by Michael Lewis, Bloomberg News, June 8, 1999.)

It did.  The message boards continue to cause a stir.  They're a great forum for candid talk.  I'm curious about your background.  What was it like growing up in New Orleans?

Growing up in New Orleans, I had a happy childhood - which is not a good thing for a writer.  It's easy to be happy in New Orleans because it's such a closed community.  I grew up in neighborhood with lots of kids.  New Orleans was effectively segregated where I was there.  The way the neighborhoods were laid out made the city a checkerboard, divided up into [squares of] rich and poor people.  The schools were segregated, but the playgrounds were very mixed.  All the kids played together.  The girls played tackle football with the boys.  I wailed on my little brother as a matter of principle.  I was a normal kid. 

And now you have a child.  How has your life changed?

[For me] being a dad - for the first three months - entailed 90 percent self pity and 10 percent joy.  My daughter was very difficult for the first three months-she didn't sleep; she was colicky.  There was stress in the air.  Now that she's older, [being a dad] is more like 70 percent joy and 30 percent self pity. 

You've said that your baby daughter resembles the comedian Don Rickles.  Does she still?

(Laughs) She used to look like Don Rickles-her smile was like Don Rickles' laugh.  She has teeth now, but she still has a Rickles-esque persona sometimes.

~ In other interviews, you've mentioned that one of the biggest problems about Silicon Valley is that there is no sense of tradition: "Everything in Silicon Valley is built to be torn down.  Even the people.  There is a complete lack of interest in old things." What are the social and psychological implications of this phenomenon?

Well, psychologically and socially speaking, an environment where things are constantly changing is stressful for people.  In periods of very rapid technological change, such as now, you see signs of unrest everywhere: the big independent movement in politics; more therapy; paranoia, which is a natural consequence of speeded-up capitalism; greater insecurity.  Of course, all of these problems are arising in the context of great prosperity. 

Jim Clark, main character in The New, New Thing, created the Hyperion so that he could sail away into unknown waters - or at least control the boat as it sails away into unknown waters.  Similarly, you recently married a celebrity and fled to Paris.  Is the new, new thing actually escapism from an increasingly materialistic society - a society that is so easily satirized?

I don't think the new, new thing is an escape from materialism as much as it is an escape from the here and now.  There is a large element of fantasy involved in the concept.  A person like Jim Clark is always dreaming of a different world, of something else.  He has no capacity for satisfaction.  He is the definition of the unsatisfied man. 

What would Jim Clark's utopia be?

I don't think Jim Clark is capable of finding utopia.  The minute you present him what he said he wanted - he would want something else.

Many of the people you've written about - including Wall Street players and Venture Capitalists - are part of the Old Boys' Club.  Yet many critics regard the Internet as a "great equalizer" because it is faceless.  How do you think women and minority professionals are faring in this industry?

~ Well, Jim Clark is not a member of any club - he's an outsider: socially, temperamentally, in every sense.  As for the state of the Internet industry, there is a greater tolerance for nonconformity.  People are not being evaluated from a single list of criteria.  I think everyone has opportunity if they strive hard enough. 

In an interview with Bryan Gumbel, you said that "in Silicon Valley, they're structuring the companies like-like they're Hollywood movies . . . . the entrepreneurs are like Hollywood stars." I'll name a Valley entrepreneur and you tell me which star he or she most resembles.

Jim Clark?
Warren Beatty - because he can do this kind of abstracted thinking very well.

Larry Ellison of Oracle?
Jack Nicholson. 

Meg Whitman of eBay?
Annette Bening.  I saw American Beauty recently.

Steve Jobs from Apple?
Emilio Estevez.

Jerry Yang of Yahoo?
That guy from Anna and the King.  What's his name? Chow Yun-Fat.

The Vault.com entrepreneurs?
I'm not sure.

They're in Silicon Alley anyway.  Tell me - do you think society's obsession with immortality has expanded as technology has progressed?

As technology has progressed, it has opened up hope that immortality is realistic.  Someone will start live www.forever.com.  It's possible to replace all of our body parts-our hearts, our livers, everything.  Technology distracts us from the fact that we are human beings [and thus mortal].  Every problem has a solution - everything can be fixed, even the body.  In Silicon Valley, there is a preponderance of cryonic suspension [the technique of freezing the body in order to suspend life].  It's a curious phenomenon.  I think these people [cryonicists] should be careful about what they wish for.  Eternal life would be a mixed blessing.  Life loses its meaning when there isn't death. 

~ Following the last question, what do you think about the youthful culture that permeates the Valley?

[As an author] I found the youth permeating Silicon Valley quite frustrating.  It's impossible to write a book about a 24-year-old.  They haven't been scarred.  They don't know what it is to be scarred.  [But] is it a bad thing that so many Valley entrepreneurs are so young?  The kind of society that exists in the Valley requires a different kind of manager anyway.  I don't see any reason why a 24-year-old shouldn't run a company.  So many people have very miserable first jobs.  But the Internet industry doesn't ask young professionals "to pay their dues." I think that's a positive change. 

Interviewer: Chandra Prasad, Editor, Vault.com