Blind Side Author Says Silicon Valley Is “Cold Place”

Michael Lewis is the always engaging author of such era defining books as The Blind Side, Money Ball, Liar’s Poker, The Big Short, Flash Boys, The New New Thing and many others. Lewis immerses himself in the worlds he writes about, expertly finding the emotional parts of stories that might seem cold from the outside. The personal portraits he draws of the people in The Big Short, a highly technical book about the 2008 financial crisis, are particularly astounding for their sharpness and intimacy. Lewis can explain a collateral debt obligation and deep emotional trauma on the same page

Lewis talked on Bloomberg this week and revealed he wouldn’t be writing more books on Silicon Valley. The New New Thing, he said, was the hardest book he ever wrote. Silicon Valley is touch because “there’s a lack of emotional content. It’s a cold place.” That damn, Siri — she’s not human! Lewis might also have said it’s a hard place to figure out. He tells a story about Internet pioneer Jim Clark supposedly getting out of the business after making his fortune in the first Internet bubble. How did Clark know it was time to go? Some VC firm had just given $25 million to a company called Google. Clark — who, remember, is an Internet visionary — thought that was outrageous!