Secret History of Silicon Valley Part VI: Every World War II Movie was Wrong

http://steveblank.com/2009/04/27/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-part-vi-the-secret-life-of-fred-terman-and-stanford/

by wyday • 17 years ago

81 21 17 years ago

steveblank.com

ssn• 17 years ago

Just posted online: http://videolectures.net/cikm08_blank_tshosv/

peregrine• 17 years ago

So what he's saying is that startup mentality won world war two.

Rod3• 17 years ago

I think it would be more accurate to say that what won WWII (in Europe, at least) was the Red Army. The best thing that happened to occupied Western Europe was the Nazi invasion of the USSR. Let us show some respect for the millions of Russians who died fighting the Nazis...

madh2• 17 years ago

The USSR lost 23 million people, ~13% of its 1939 population. The US lost 1 million people, ~0.3% of its 1939 population.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties

stcredzero2• 17 years ago

Stalingrad was just pure hell on earth, to a mind-boggling degree that matches any horror of trench warfare from WWI.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad

Disease, constant stress and fear of instant death, numbing cold, malfunctioning machinery, starvation... That so much dehumanizing cruelty could be concentrated on a place for so long is mind boggling.

philwelch2• 17 years ago

To be fair, all three major allies were essential:

1. The US kept Britain and Russia going with aid throughout the war, including food. Khrushchev's memoirs supposedly credited SPAM (the processed canned pork) with keeping the Soviet army alive in WWII.

2. Russia absorbed most of Germany's military might and destroyed it, at great cost to themselves. Their contribution was not that they suffered more than the others (though they did), but that they killed more Germans than the others (though by the time they turned around and invaded Germany,

3. Britain brought much of the Empire's forces to bear on the western front, kept the northern sea lanes open for American supply convoys, and halted German expansion on the Western front by denying them entry to Britain itself. It's quite remarkable--Russia defended its territory with costly, genocidal scorched earth policies and millions of deaths, while Britain was protected from the first German bootstep by the English Channel, radar, and the Royal Air Force.

Oh, I forgot to mention--Britain also broke Enigma.

Furthermore, Russia and Britain only gave salutary support in the Pacific War, for entirely understandable reasons.

It should also be noted that while all the allies engaged in some degree of war crimes, the Soviets were the worst offenders in that category as well. I am loath to show respect for Red Army pilots who strafed columns of evacuating German civilians, or Red Army soldiers who raped and murdered whatever Germans they could find. Likewise, many of the Soviets' own civilian losses were their own fault (through scorched earth policies).

stcredzero2• 17 years ago

Actually, a subtext of what he's saying is, "Beware the Military Industrial Complex!"

pavel_lishin• 17 years ago

I'd say that hackers helped win WWII. Jamming radar, breaking codes, etc.

javanix• 17 years ago

These articles are fascinating - does anyone know of a good book that goes into more depth?

sblank• 17 years ago

Reading list for the Secret History series is here: http://steveblank.com/secret-history/

zandorg• 17 years ago

No mention of Turing and Bletchley park cracking the Enigma code?

Retric• 17 years ago

My understanding was the original Enigma code was cracked because we received photographs of it's inner workings from 2 polish mathematicians. Who showed up in England having worked out how to decode the messages. Alan Turing refined their work, designed a system to do the math, and helped keep up with the Germans who changed the Enigma's design, but I don't think he really deserves the credit for "cracking the code."

rjurney• 17 years ago

There wouldn't be, since that relates to submarines and not air defense, and he is talking about the allied bombing campaigns and microwave device manufacturing as a catalyst to silicon valley's development.

Enigma was a naval code and is unrelated to silicon valley's history.

yef• 17 years ago

So it took more than just a first rate university and rich people to create Silicon Valley.

Secret History of Silicon Valley Part VI: Every World War II Movie was Wrong

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