CHAPTERS
- 0:00 – 2:41
Introducing Tom Wolfe's 1983 Essay on Bob Noyce
David Senra introduces Tom Wolfe's 1983 Esquire piece on Robert Noyce and explains why it merits its own episode. He gives background on Noyce as founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel and quotes Steve Jobs's tribute.
- •The piece is a long-form Esquire article from 1983, not a book
- •Senra read it as supplemental research for another Noyce biography
- •Noyce founded Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel and mentored Steve Jobs
- •Steve Jobs called him the ultimate inventor, rebel and entrepreneur
- 2:41 – 7:03
Grinnell, Iowa and Grant Gale's Transistors
The story begins in 1948 in Grinnell, Iowa, where physics professor Grant Gale read about the transistor and wrote to Bell Labs. Senra connects this to Paul Graham's idea of making yourself a big target for luck.
- •Gale read a small newspaper item about Bardeen and Brattain's transistor
- •He wrote to Bardeen and to Bell Labs president Oliver Buckley, a Grinnell graduate
- •Gale obtained two of the first transistors for his eighteen physics students
- •Paul Graham's essay stresses curiosity as a way to attract luck
- 7:03 – 10:04
A Young Noyce: Tinkerer, Rebel and the Luau Pig
Noyce was a gifted, well-rounded student and a lifelong tinkerer, as shown by the box kite he built at thirteen. His stolen luau pig nearly got him expelled and charged with a felony until Gale intervened.
- •Noyce excelled in science and in swimming, diving, choir and acting
- •At thirteen he built a rideable box kite from Popular Science plans
- •He stole a pig for a luau, which was a felony in Iowa
- •Gale got the charges dropped and the punishment reduced to a one-semester suspension
- 10:04 – 12:11
Noyce's Confidence, the Halo Effect and a Fortuitous Chain
Wolfe describes Noyce's baffling self-confidence and the halo effect that made people admire him. Senra then reflects on the chain of events that put Noyce in front of the transistor.
- •Noyce never blinked and made people feel they were the most important person in the room
- •The halo effect makes people seem to know exactly what they're doing
- •The chain of events included Gale's classmates and the pig incident
- •Without Grinnell, Noyce would never have encountered the transistor or attended MIT
- 12:11 – 14:40
From Philco to Shockley Semiconductor
After MIT, Noyce picked small Philco over Bell Labs and IBM because it offered rapid advancement. In 1956 he moved to California to join William Shockley and secured a house and a job within hours.
- •Noyce graduated from MIT in 1953 and chose Philco over larger firms
- •He preferred the early-startup stage of small teams
- •Shockley left Bell Labs in 1955 to start Shockley Semiconductor in Mountain View
- •Noyce flew to Palo Alto, bought a house and got the job in one day
- 14:40 – 19:11
William Shockley: Brilliant Physicist, Terrible Boss
Senra draws on the Shockley biography to portray him as brilliant but lacking people skills, threatened by others' achievements and deeply unhappy. His paranoia, including lie detector tests, drove his talented engineers to leave.
- •Shockley's personality was described as reverse charisma, the opposite of Noyce's
- •He was threatened by others' achievements, and Senra invokes Munger on envy and self-pity
- •He grew obsessed with credit and made employees take lie detector tests
- •Senra says he squandered talent that went on to build Silicon Valley
- 19:11 – 22:44
The Traitorous Eight and the Founding of Fairchild Semiconductor
Seven defectors sought startup money and recruited the charismatic twenty-nine-year-old Noyce as administrator. Arthur Rock arranged funding from Fairchild Camera, which held an option to buy the company for three million dollars.
- •The eight defectors became known as the Traitorous Eight
- •Noyce was chosen as administrator because of his halo
- •Arthur Rock later invested in Intel, Apple and Teledyne
- •Fairchild Camera could buy the company for three million dollars within eight years
- 22:44 – 27:51
Sputnik, Early Fabrication and the Integrated Circuit
Sputnik and the space race raised the value of miniaturized electronics. At Fairchild, transistor production had a fifty to ninety percent failure rate, which led Noyce to the idea of the integrated circuit, developed alongside Jack Kilby.
- •Sputnik coupled the transistor and the computer and made miniaturization vital
- •The room-sized ENIAC needed eighteen thousand vacuum tubes
- •Early Fairchild work was tedious hand labor with fifty to ninety percent defects
- •Noyce's integrated circuit proved easier to mass-produce than Kilby's
- •The invention opened fields from Moon voyages to robots
- 27:51 – 30:46
Sudden Wealth and Fairchild's Explosive Growth
Fairchild Camera exercised its option and bought the company, making each of the eight wealthy. NASA's adoption of the chip drove sales from a few thousand dollars to 130 million a year and employees from twelve to twelve thousand.
- •Each of the eight received about $250,000 in stock, roughly $2.6 million today
- •Noyce was thirty-one and unsure what to make of the wealth
- •NASA chose Noyce's chip for astronaut computers
- •Sales rose to $130 million in ten years
- 30:46 – 35:22
Noyce's Hands-Off Management and the Fair Children
Noyce gave young engineers major responsibility and expected them to decide for themselves. As Fairchild grew, defectors known as the Fair Children started more than fifty companies and turned the Santa Clara Valley into Silicon Valley, and chip density rose rapidly.
- •Noyce hired engineers straight from school and gave them responsibility
- •Young engineers responded with exhilaration rather than fear
- •The Fair Children started more than fifty chip-related companies
- •Senra compares Silicon Valley to early Detroit and its automobile pioneers
- •Circuits per chip grew from one to ten to a thousand to thirty-two thousand
- 35:22 – 40:26
Leaving Fairchild: Founding Intel and the Hogan Raid
Noyce and Gordon Moore left to found Intel, funded by their own money, Arthur Rock and Grinnell College. Fairchild responded by hiring away Motorola's C. Lester Hogan and his whole team.
- •Noyce and Moore each put in $250,000, and Rock raised about $2.5 million more
- •Grinnell College contributed $300,000
- •Competitors raided Fairchild's workforce after Noyce left
- •Hogan's pay became the valley's unit of wealth, the Hogan
- •Intel targeted memory and developed the 1103 chip
- 40:26 – 46:17
Intel's Culture: Stock Options, Flat Structure and Andy Grove
Noyce built Intel around stock options, few layers of management and ideas beating hierarchy, including his old desk and open-room offices. Andy Grove taught the culture sessions and introduced performance ratings, which Noyce backed because ambitious people want honest feedback.
- •Stock options motivated research better than profit sharing
- •Executives sat in one big room and employees could challenge Noyce in meetings
- •Wolfe described Intel as a congregation, with culture sessions taught by Grove
- •Performance ratings gave honest grades, which Senra links to a Nick Saban quote
- 46:17 – 49:02
The Microprocessor, Noyce's Retreat and Legacy
Ted Hoff's microprocessor gave Intel a second act, illustrating Noyce's belief that innovation belongs to the young. In 1974 Noyce became chairman, collected honors, and died at 62 of a heart attack.
- •Hoff invented the microprocessor, a computer on a chip
- •Noyce believed great flashes of invention come to the young
- •He handed Intel to Moore and Grove in 1974
- •Intel's sales grew from $64 million to nearly a billion by 1983
- •Grinnell's $300,000 investment doubled its endowment
- 49:02 – 52:07
Educating the Market: The Intel Trinity and Akio Morita
Senra announces he will read Michael Malone's The Intel Trinity and invites listeners to read along. He draws out its lesson that radical innovations require educating the market, comparing it to Akio Morita's nemawashi.
- •Senra plans to read The Intel Trinity and encourages listeners to join
- •Intel's founders ran seminars and workshops to teach people about the microprocessor
- •The market was confused and even frightened by the concept
- •Morita described nemawashi as preparing customers over time
- •Senra closes with 356 books down and a thousand to go
