Business
What I learned from reading A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman [0:25] Claude Shannon trained a powerful intellect on topics of deep interest, and continued to do so beyond the point of short term practicality[3:10] Upgrade to the Misfit feed[9:35] Insulated from opinion of all kinds[13:09] A simple way to describe the impact of information theory[14:39] Resourceful at a young age[15:50] An ordinary childhood[16:41] Follow your natural drift[18:40] Too many facts; too few principles[20:10] His indecisive nature inadvertently helps him[21:00] An important turning point in Shannon’s life[22:30] Vannevar Bush: The first person to see Claude Shannon for who he was[25:00] The results of Claude Shannon’s thesis[27:20] How Claude Shannon worked in his 20s[29:30] The main takeaway from the book: The world isn’t there to be used, but to be played with, manipulated by hand and mind[34:00] Succeeding with no prior knowledge in the specific field[35:20] Working on what naturally interests you is time well spent[36:45] Working at Bell Labs / The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation [40:49] Fire Control / What he worked on during the war[42:15] Claude Shannon’s work on cryptography[44:05] Take many different ideas from unrelated fields[47:35] Leaving Bell Labs for MIT[52:52] Claude Shannon on investing[1:05:15] Shannon’s design for his own funeralBecome a Misfit today for access to the entire back catalogue of premium episodes, two extra podcasts a month available no where else, and lifetime access to my Evernote notebook containing notes from 265+ podcasts and lectures on entrepreneurship.A list of all the books featured on Founders Podcast.