My guest on this episode is Jimmy Soni—who, with his co-author Rob Goodman, recently wrote the biography of Claude Shannon, titled; A Mind at Play.
Shannon was born in 1916 and became one of the foremost intellects of the twentieth century, before passing away in 2001. He was a mathematician, a scientist, an inventor and also, a stock market investor…
Although he’s widely unknown by the general public, Shannon is responsible for Information Theory—a revolutionary method of measuring information which stands behind much of the technology we use all day everyday.
Shannon’s other achievements, discoveries and inventions range from artificial intelligence to cryptography and fire breathing trumpets to chess playing machines and the world’s first wearable computer, and that’s not all!
Topics of discussion:
- What compelled Jimmy and Rod to write Claude Shannon’s biography, the numerous challenges, and why Shannon shied away from the public spotlight.
- About Shannon’s life growing up in a small town, whether he was a brilliant mind from the outset, and one of the great lessons we can adapt from his character.
- Information Theory; the breakthrough discovery of Shannon’s career, what it means in layman’s terms and how it’s responsible for much of today’s technology.
- How the Shannon’s approached the stock market—without doing anything overly complex, the performance of their portfolio and their best investments.
Claude Shannon: Mathematician, scientist, inventor and investor.
Links and resources mentioned:
- @JimmyASoni [Twitter]
- A Mind at Play [Amazon]
- 10,000 Hours With Claude Shannon [Medium]
- Claude Shannon’s “Creative Thinking” Speech [Medium]
- The Idea Factory [Amazon]
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