Noyce had experienced government-directed R&D while fresh out of graduate school when he worked for Philco, an East Coast radio manufacturer with a big defense unit. “The direction of the research was being determined by people less competent,” Noyce recalled, complaining about the time he wasted writing progress reports for the military. Now that he was running Fairchild, a company seeded by a trust-fund heir, he had flexibility to treat the military as a customer rather than a boss.
