Fairchild, Fairchildren, and the Family Tree of Silicon Valley (2016)
Funny, when I read the headline, my mind instead went to &quot;pollution in Silicon Valley&quot;.   Because that&#x27;s the most concrete thing I currently associate with the legacy of these companies, maybe because I&#x27;m in the process of trying to find a relatively affordable new house to buy on the little remaining land that isn&#x27;t already held on to by the millionaires.<p>You find that the housing that can be built now (usually on north side of El Camino &#x2F; Caltrain tracks) is on land that people previously didn&#x27;t want, which frequently (you also find) has had a history of groundwater contamination, industrial waste leftovers, etc.    Making your $1M+ house instantly devalued &#x2F; hard to buy and eventually hard to sell.<p>Sure, Silicon Valley has all this innovation, growth, rebirth -- but that also comes with failures and the waste (tangible, leftover solid waste) that we have to deal with because companies can&#x27;t be made to pay for it at the time.<p>Maybe when I apply for a job at a Fairchild-child company I&#x27;ll think to the glorious history of their innovation and branching, but right now, I mostly think of why I can&#x27;t find a decent place to live.