#165 William Shockley (Creator of the Electronic Age)

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one-time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer. But if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets. They're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high. So I will have at least four shots of espresso or four energy drinks before or during the show so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today. And I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th. I believe that William Shockley was one of the most important scientists of the 20th century. He led the group at Bell Labs that created the seminal invention of the modern world, the transistor.
Every home has thousands or even millions of transistors. World commerce totally depends on them, as do healthcare, culture, defense, transportation, and civilization in general.
He was a key player in the development of the modern science of operations research. During the Second World War, he used statistics to show the Air Corps how to maximize its bombing efficiency and the Navy how to destroy more U-boats.
His efforts won the National Medal of Merit, the highest possible civilian decoration. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He put to Silicon in Silicon Valley, and his failed company was the grandfather of all Silicon Valley companies.
He was a tenured professor at Stanford University, was happily married, and had all the money he needed to live happily, quietly, and well.
He chose not to. He instead set himself up for public ridicule and squandered his public reputation. He lost all of his friends. His oldest friend became his most potent enemy.
He became a notorious scientific pariah.
I wanted to know how that could happen.
Why would a man as unquestionably brilliant as he, knowingly and deliberately destroy himself?
That was an excerpt from the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is Broken Genius, The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, the creator of the Electronic Age, and is written by Joel Shurkin. So the name William Shockley is not going to be new for a long time listeners.
Most recently, I'm back on Founders 157 in the book The Innovators. He's in that book quite a bit, and I talked about him in the podcast. After that podcast came out, a listener sent me a message that said, hey, if you want to learn more about Shockley, there's actually a good biography on him, and he recommended reading this book. So that's how Shockley fits into, that's how I found the book, and that's how he fits into everything else that we're studying on the podcast. This is going to be, I think, different from every other episode that I've ever done, though, because there's a lot, the reason so many great historical figures read biographies and chose to learn from biographies is because you pick up a lot of good ideas, but you also pick up a lot of bad ideas. So good ideas to emulate and unwise ideas to avoid, right? This is going to be all about things that you want to avoid. So Shockley, a lot of people call him smart, but no one would call him wise. And so before I jump into the book, I want to read two quotes to you from another biography nut, self-booking biography nut, Charlie Munger, who is not only smart, but indeed wise. And it's going to set up, I think why learning from other people's mistakes is so important. So Charlie says, when people tell me that they learn from experience, I tell them the trick is to learn from other people's experience. And the second quote I have for you, it comes, it's his response to the question of why isn't Berkshire easier to emulate? And we see Charlie's thinking here. He says, we're talking about very simple ideas of just figuring out the standard stupidities and avoiding them. And I actually collect them. Some people collect stamps. I collect insanities and absurdities. This book that I hold in my hand is full of insanities and absurdities.