There is a lesser-known but still insightful book by Bernstein. https://www.amazon.com/Three-Degrees-Above-Zero-Information/dp/0451625293 https://www.amazon.co

There is a lesser-known but still insightful book by Bernstein. https://www.amazon.com/Three-Degrees-Above-Zero-Information/dp/0451625293 https://www.amazon.com/Three-Degrees-Above-Zero-Information/... Backstory: https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2019/october/three-degrees-above-zero https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2019/october/three-degrees-above-... My takeaway from that one is that Bell Labs' success relied on the common feeling that they were all contributing to the nation's survival and flourishing by supporting the core infrastructure role of the Bell System. (Compare with the cynicism of Googlers/Eric Schmidt)