Modern technology owes much to the introduction of the binary digit or "bit", first proposed by Claude Shannon in "A Mathematical Theory of Communication”, a paper published in 1948. The bit would go on to transform analog to digital, making Shannon the father of the information age. His contemporaries (and collaborators) included Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, and other architects of the digital era. In this podcast, moderated by a16z board partner Steven Sinofsky, the authors of the new book about Shannon, A Mind at Play -- Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman -- discuss the life and mind of the mathematician, engineer, and cryptographer from his roots as a precocious tinkerer in Gaylord, Michigan to the halls of MIT and Bell Labs. But this conversation is also, more broadly, about how genius and innovation happens... beginning with play.
Jimmy Soni is an author whose work focuses on people who create and build interesting things—whether theories, carousels, or companies. His books include “The Founders: The Story of PayPal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley”, “A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age”, and more! You can follow Jimmy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jimmyasoni and go through his work on https://jimmysoni.com/ Show Notes: - The joy of curiosity - How memes spread - The Great Reshuffle - How internet changed the publishing industry - Parallels between early days of PayPal and Bitcoin - Money as an information system - Appreciating the micro-level decisions - Three new things about Elon - The Elon Effect - How the PayPal founders brought the best out of people - The unknown names who were critical to PayPal - Claude Shannon’s financial decisions - Wealth is a byproduct of the devotion to the craft **Books Mentioned:** - The Founders; by Jimmy Soni - A Mind at Play; by Jimmy Soni - Virus of the Mind; by Richard Brodie - The Sovereign Individual; by James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg - What Works on Wall Street; Jim O'Shaughnessy