Tom Wolfe wrote “The Tinkering’s of Robert Noyce” http://web.stanford.edu/class/e140/e140a/content/noyce.html (discussion at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8133479 ) about the founding and early culture at Fairchild and Intel for Esquire in December of 1983 and updated it for Forbes ASAP fourteen years later as “Robert Noyce and his Congregation.” (Aug-25-1997) The updated version makes a much stronger connection between the flat hierarchy of the Dissenting Protestant churches and the egalitarian nature of many Silicon Valley startups.
Interestingly, Robert Noyce thought this article was a bit of a tall tale by Tom Wolfe. Here's a quote by him from 1984:
> It's interesting to me to see what an enormous amount of publicity the microchip has gotten recently including that article of Tom Wolfe's. Incidentally, on that article of Tom Wolfe's, I do want to point out that Tom Wolfe is first of all a novelist. And only secondarily is he a historian but everything that appears in print of course is true as you've all learned. Particularly if you ever read something that you know something about.
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[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 33.5 ms ] threadThe Tinkerings of Robert Noyce (1983) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24102414 - Aug 2020 (9 comments)
The Tinkerings of Robert Noyce (1983) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17212210 - June 2018 (18 comments)
The Tinkerings of Robert Noyce (1983) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14650795 - June 2017 (1 comment)
The Tinkerings of Robert Noyce (1983) [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10092652 - Aug 2015 (1 comment)
Robert Noyce and His Congregation (1997) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8135553 - Aug 2014 (3 comments)
The Tinkerings of Robert Noyce (1983) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8133479 - Aug 2014 (5 comments)
The Tinkerings Of Robert Noyce - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5183164 - Feb 2013 (1 comment)
Robert Noyce and His Congregation - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=190524 - May 2008 (2 comments)
The Tinkerings of Robert Noyce. - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=60385 - Sept 2007 (1 comment)
> It's interesting to me to see what an enormous amount of publicity the microchip has gotten recently including that article of Tom Wolfe's. Incidentally, on that article of Tom Wolfe's, I do want to point out that Tom Wolfe is first of all a novelist. And only secondarily is he a historian but everything that appears in print of course is true as you've all learned. Particularly if you ever read something that you know something about.
Source: https://youtu.be/AfxUq_QrpyY?t=2m20s