The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America

Silicon Valley is both a place and an ideal. What was once a sleepy agricultural region south of San Francisco became the world's hub of innovation. Initially this was in the area of silicon-based microchips. Since then, the Valley has reinvented itself to innovate in many different waves. From chip manufacturing to computers to dot coms to social media, with trips to many others. Hewlett Packard. Intel. Apple. Google. Facebook. Those are just some of the big names that were started there. There have been many other big companies that started there. Even more have long since disappeared. Seattle is the "northern outpost" of Silicon Valley. It has a slightly slower pace, put shares much of the mentality and origins. Of the top 10 most valuable companies, only Berkshire Hathaway and United Healthcare were not from the two west coast areas.

Why does so much innovation happen in the same area? Why is there so much money to be made. The Code traces the history from Hewlett Packard's founding in Palo Alto during the depression to defense technology in World War 2 until today. As the cold war heated up, the government was pumping money into science and technology. Stanford University had valuable expertise in key areas. Many people came out west to study and stayed. Companies such as Lockheed Martin got into the action with a facility in Sunnyvale. At the time, Boston was seen as the more likely hub for innovation. But California had better weather. After coming out for across the country, engineers liked to stay.

Things started to really get going when Shockley Semiconductor was started in Mountain View. Silicon semiconductors ended up being the future. Shockley himself alienated many of the engineers, leading to an exodus and the launch of other semiconductor companies. Thus spawned Fairchild and then Intel and AMD and many other companies. The engineer presence contributed to the homebrew computer culture. Atari in Sunnyvale dominated video games. Apple in Cupertino arose up and helped in the growth of microcomputers. Silicon Graphics provided the tech for Hollywood. Boston gradually became irrelevant.

The internet started out as a defense and academic communication tool. Netscape helped to make it easily accessible to the world. This began the next big wave of tech companies. It seemed all one needed was a heartbeat and some Valley office space to get millions in venture capital. Alas, there was a bust in 2000, followed by the rise of new companies such as Google and Facebook. 

Silicon Valley thinks of itself as the young underdog battling big corporate America. However, the young companies end up either dying or growing up to become the big companies. The ethos was originally very conservative, but gradually shifted to a much more liberal side, reflecting the shift in youth. Today, there is a split personality. There are huge amounts of money, yet a very liberal outlook. Throughout history, the culture was dominated by young white males working crazy hours. There is a desire to be more diverse, but startups tend to focus on people they know with skills they need.

The book helps mix the stories of the "big" leaders as well as lesser known figures. It makes it easy to feel like you could be right there. Luck and timing can play as big a role as skill in differentiating the winners and also-rans.