[tomblomfield]

Famously, the Traitorous Eight left Shockley to found Fairchild Semiconductor. This was essentially the origin story of Silicon Valley.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traitorous_eight

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Power-Law-Venture-Capital-Disruptio...

[Aloha]

Shockley inadvertently by being an asshole created more wealth for more people possibly than any other single person.

[davidkuennen]

"At the time of his death, he was estranged from most of his friends and family, except his second wife, the former Emmy Lanning (1913–2007). His children reportedly learned of his death by reading his obituary in the newspaper."

Well, that says a lot.

[hackernewds]

That is like attributing the Big Bang to why inflation is at 8.6% currently.

[justinjlynn]

Shockley deserves as much credit for the creation of that wealth as the wind deserves credit for an amazing photograph of a beautiful summer sky.

[spaceprison]

PBS has a great documentary about silicon valley that goes into some of this.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/silicon...

[BurningFrog]

Did Shockley die though?

[reportingsjr]

Shockley Semiconductor, the company? Yes, it eventually closed because of this. It took a decade of them floundering, but it did happen.