In case you wonder, The Code is a history of Silicon Valley. And it's really good if you're interested in innovation and innovation policy. Of course, it doesn't replace academic work on those topics, but, besides being entertaining, it also /
https://twitter.com/LaurentFranckx/status/1355487916542275584
brings together a lot of important facts that are forgotten. The crucial role of defence spending in kickstarting the Valley is known - what is less obvious, is that defence industry only came there because the American top brass was worried that a Soviet first strike /
might wipe out the defence industry in southern California. Contingency and path dependency matter. Also, the first generations of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs were not exactly hippies, but conservative men in white shirts and ties. And venture capitalists usually had very/
well connected dads. Etc. It also describes vividly the rather unique ecosystem that grew in the Valley, one that is very difficult to replicate elsewhere, as so many governments have figured out at taxpayers' expense.
During the Vietnam War, there were very severe cuts in the defence budgets for R&D. This didn't kill Silicon Valley, though, and one important contributing factor were the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, which created a big demand for pollution monitoring equipment. /
The fun point here is that the monitoring only started after the legislation was voted.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
