Claude shannon is a famous figure in the fields of engineering and mathematics. His work from 1930s to 1940s won him the title of "Father of the Information Age".

At the age of 2 1, Shannon published what is called the most important master's thesis in history. This paper discusses how to use binary switch to carry out logical operation, which lays the foundation for future electronic computers. At the age of 32, the mathematical theory of communication was born. In this book, Shannon puts forward bit data, proves that information can be quantized, and expounds how to compress and transmit information with digital coding on the premise of ensuring accuracy. This book is known as the "Magna Carta of the Information Age".

But Shannon did more than that.

Shannon has not only made many academic achievements, but also her life is very interesting and creative. Although there are many talents who can write excellent papers in engineering and mathematics, few are as good at juggling, unicycle, chess and so on as Shannon. Shannon is even a professional stock picker and amateur poet.

During World War II, he worked on the transatlantic top secret telephone line connecting Roosevelt and Churchill, and made the world's first wearable computer. He learned to fly a plane and jazz clarinet. He made a fake wall in the room, which can be rotated by pressing the button. He once made a gadget whose only function was that when the switch was turned on, a manipulator would appear to turn it off. In addition, his photo was published in vogue magazine.

You can imagine him as a mixture of Einstein and "the most interesting person in the world".

We hope that by studying Shannon, we can answer "What made Shannon?" And "What should we learn from Shannon?" problem After several years of in-depth investigation and study, we have concluded the following 12. Maybe this is not a comprehensive list, but we hope it can help you get some inspiration in your life and work.

Compared with Shannon's life in the mid-20th century, there are more things in our life now, such as social media and smart phones, which constantly distract our attention, thus reducing efficiency (Shannon is also partly responsible).

But no matter what era, how to avoid distraction is the eternal theme of life. Shannon proved to us that to reduce the influence of distraction, it is not enough to concentrate for a short time, but also to shape your life and work habits for a long time.

First of all, Shannon won't let herself spend too much time emptying her inbox. He will put all the emails that he doesn't want to reply into a trash can called "Letters that I have neglected for too long". In fact, when we dug up Shannon's letters from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., we found that there were many more mails sent to him than he did. All the time he saved was spent on research and exploration.

Shannon used the same strategy in his office. His colleagues often see Shannon's office door closed (which is rare in the "open door" culture of Bell Labs). We know that Shannon's colleagues don't find him difficult to get along with, but they also think that Shannon attaches great importance to his privacy and quiet thinking time. One of my colleagues said, "You can knock on his door and he will respond to you, but other than that, he will only talk to himself."

On the other hand, if a colleague visits Shannon with bold new ideas or attractive engineering problems, Shannon usually has an efficient conversation with him for several hours. In fact, Shannon, like everyone else, is concerned about how to use her time effectively: she should be involved in the collision of ideas, not chatting. For those who are more extroverted than Shannon (to be honest, this is almost everyone), you can learn from Shannon how to deliberately keep distracted during work hours.

In mathematics work, Shannon can directly grasp the core of the problem and put other details behind. He once explained: "I think I prefer concretization to symbolization. I will try to feel the problem itself before I talk about the equation. " It's as if he saw the solution first and then explained why it was right.

Bob Gallagher, a student of Shannon, recalled: "He had a magical insight. He seems to see through things themselves. He will say' such a thing should be true', and it is often proved to be right afterwards. If you don't have extraordinary intuition, you can't open up a whole new field out of thin air. "

But this occasionally brings trouble to Shannon-mathematicians in academic circles sometimes accuse him of being lax in his work. But their criticism is usually wrong. "In fact," said mathematician Solomon Golon, "Shannon's intuition about truth almost never fails." Even if the details need to be perfected, the conclusion is almost always correct.

Of course, most people are not geniuses, and they don't have Shannon's divine intuition. So what is worth learning from here? We believe that even if our intuition is not enough to guide us to develop a new topic like information theory, it can often help us decide whether something should be done or not.

We will ignore intuition because we pay attention to details and intermediate links, but it also means that we miss the moment when creativity comes into being. Don't expect good ideas to be logically derived, which is a complete misunderstanding of the role of creativity in practical work. Writer Rita Mae Brown pointed out: "Intuition is an impatient logical pause."

We often express our ideas to others in a clear way, such as articles, slides and speeches, and others will do the same, but we must know that the process of getting these ideas is complicated and not as orderly as the expression. Waiting for a definite breakthrough is like waiting for a train that will never come.

Many articles have trumpeted the benefits of tutors, so I don't want to go into details in this article. It is true that the tutor is very important, but many articles about the tutorial system like to describe the tutor as a resource you need to acquire: find a smart and successful person to support your career, and then you will be all right.

The fact is not that simple. Just relying on self-confidence to approach a mentor who can play an important role in your development process can't give full play to the full value of the tutorial system. You need to be humble enough to listen to your tutor's advice, even if it sounds uncomfortable, provocative or even counterintuitive. Otherwise, what's the point of the tutor's existence?

Shannon's most important mentor should be Wan Nivard Bush, his graduate tutor at MIT. He later led the American military scientific research program in World War II and became the first presidential scientific adviser. Bush saw Shannon's extraordinary talent, but he also did his duty as a mentor-pulling Shannon out of his comfort zone.

For example, after Shannon's master's thesis was a great success, Bush began to urge Shannon to start preparing his doctoral thesis on theoretical genetics. Theoretical genetics is a field that Shannon has not accumulated, which is far from the engineering and mathematics fields that he has been engaged in for many years. Bush wanted to prove his disciples' ability to overcome challenges, which Shannon admitted made him aware of his plasticity.

At the moment of receiving the instruction, Shannon may have various ideas ("Hehe, heredity?" ), but Bush knew what he was doing, and Shannon chose to trust his mentor's judgment and accept guidance with an open mind.

Accepting guidance with your heart is actually a sign of modesty: you have full trust in your tutor, and you know that he can see what you can't. After all, when you first found him, there must be a reason you were sure of.

Vaneva Bush's influence on Shannon is also reflected in another aspect: he defended generalists more than professionals. As he expressed to MIT professors:

Bush encouraged Shannon not to set limits for herself, and Shannon proved how he deeply understood this truth in his subsequent career.

We know: Bush's suggestion seems a bit out of place now. The pressure in all aspects of our work requires us to try our best to become experts in this field, cultivate a unique skill, and then study hard. Under this concept, that kind of large-scale behavior is just like child's play, and such people are doomed to be defeated by those opponents who are good at concentrating.

Shannon will be angry if he hears this. Shannon deeply agrees with Bush's concept of generalist, which we think coincides with Shannon's natural curiosity. Shannon's success is not only due to his natural intelligence, but also because he spared no effort to safeguard diversified interests.

His most famous master thesis combined his interest in Boolean logic and computers. These two disciplines, which were originally excluded, have been integrated in Shannon's brain. Shannon's information theory thesis absorbed his accumulation in code decoding, linguistics and literature. He once explained to Bush:

Shannon devoted himself to scientific research, but also cultivated some hobbies that can help him keep his mind sharp: jazz, unicycle, juggling, chess, gizmos, poetry and so on. He could have devoted all his talents to continuous research and excavation in a specific field, and spent his whole life. But fortunately, he didn't do it.

Extensive dabbling also means freedom when you want to stop. Even a genius like Shannon can't guarantee that all the work started will bear fruit. This may also violate some modern common sense, but we think it makes sense. Shannon usually works until he is satisfied-then he turns to other things. In some people's eyes, this is a three-minute fever, but we think it is because he already knows clearly how much he will pay in the future.

Even Time Ferris (the prophet of modern productivity movement) will preach the importance of knowing when to stop: "Knowing how to stop in time when there is no result is a necessary condition to become a winner." In the same way, this is why many talented painters keep a large number of unfinished works in the studio.

Ed Thorp visited Shannon's workplace when he was making wearable computers with 196 1. It was a big family workshop where Shannon used to play with all kinds of things. He described it as an "inventor's paradise" ... with hundreds of mechanical and electronic devices, motors, transistors, switches and pulleys. "

The same is true of Shannon in academic research. His attic is full of notes, semi-finished articles and report papers with "good questions" written on them.

On the one hand, we regret Shannon's unpublished works, on the other hand, we realize that it is this confusion that provides conditions for his creation. Shannon didn't spend his time and energy sorting out papers and studios, but devoted himself to studying chess, robots or investment strategies.

Shannon's extensive interests make him need enough time to turn his ideas into reality. Unfortunately, he usually doesn't publish his findings. He always follows his curiosity. Although it sometimes seems inefficient, he may come back to study his best ideas in a few years.

His paper on information theory published in 1948 took nearly ten years to complete. 1939 when he graduated from graduate school, he began to have the idea of studying the basic properties of information transmission systems, including telephone, radio, television, telegraph and so on. During the period from having an idea to publishing a paper, which coincided with the Second World War, he participated in the research of anti-aircraft gun theory and cryptography, so that he could only study information theory in his spare time.

Later, when reviewing the past, he picked up the previous inspiration and began to study. Research work is not linear, and ideas always come at any time. "I remember waking up in the middle of the night and suddenly having an idea, and then I studied this idea all night." A colleague of Shannon's said that when his information theory paper was published, it was "like a bomb". This is the result of ten years' research, and Shannon's patience makes his theory very mature.

This is probably the most difficult one for us to understand. Living in the era of "timely satisfaction", it has become strange to wait for more than ten minutes at work, let alone 10 years. But perhaps this is the best lesson for those who are engaged in innovation, entrepreneurship and creative work. All elites regard time as a friend.

Remember: Shannon didn't devote all his energy to the study of information theory for ten years. In fact, he is very busy and has no time at all. Learning information theory is only his spare time, but it is his persistence and patience that enable him to complete this important work.

What will we do in our spare time if we can persist for a long time?

Shannon doesn't have many friends. His colleagues at Bell Labs said that Shannon was not "unfriendly", but he was never a social species.

Brockway McMillan, a colleague of Shannon's, said Shannon "has always been impatient with the debate on mathematical problems, and his way of solving problems is different from that of most people". Shannon's outstanding IQ made him cold or impatient. As McMillan said, "He never argues for his ideas. If people don't believe it, he will ignore those people. "

There is a thin line between arrogance and self-confidence, but Shannon is generally right because he has intellectual resources to support his self-confidence. But equally important, he spent a lot of time accumulating these intellectual resources, because he never participated in the struggle for power and status, did not play with office politics, and did not try to satisfy every critic. The pleasure of solving problems is more important to him than anything else, so when he chooses friends, he will choose like-minded people and those who help him the most. This also makes his friends very few.

Alan turing is one of his few friends. During World War II, Turing came to the United States on behalf of the British government to study cryptography. They had an in-depth exchange. At Bell Labs, Shannon also keeps in touch with engineers Barney Oliver and john pierce, both pioneers in the history of information technology.

Shannon also benefits from making friends. Because he chose smart people he admired and creative people as friends, he also became smarter and more creative. He is more cautious than most of us in running his own friendship. He only chooses those who can inspire his potential.

Shannon's treatment of friendship focuses on the content, not just the relationship. Of course, Shannon and his friends have some fun, but they also spend more time discussing serious and headache things than most people. Turing and Shannon didn't spend time talking about the weather. They just talk about artificial intelligence, which only two pioneers can do.

What does this mean for us other non-geniuses? This doesn't mean giving up all your current friends and getting a new one. This means that we must ask ourselves who your friends are and what you do together. Think more about the value of your time together. If you think it should be changed, then change it.

Legend has it that Shannon's office is full of checks, such as his royalties and income from stock investment, but he doesn't seem to care about the money. Like other legends, this is an exaggeration, but there is no smoke without fire. One of Shannon's colleagues said that he did see a lot of unpaid checks on his desk, and his friends always mentioned that he seemed indifferent to money in his memories.

Making money has never been Shannon's main concern, but he did make a lot of money. He successfully invested in many early Silicon Valley companies, such as Teledyne and Harrison? Lab (acquired by HP). One of Shannon's many hobbies is stock picking, and he often shares his investment experience with you. By the time he died, his family was already very rich.

So, how did he coordinate making money and pursuing science wholeheartedly?

Seneca, a Stoic philosopher, has a great famous saying: "He who can regard pottery as silverware is great, and he who regards silverware as pottery is equally great. Without a strong heart, you can't stand the test of wealth. " It sounds strange, why should wealth "endure"? Seneca added: The pursuit of money will hinder our pursuit of what is really important. Money is neither the root of all evil nor the solution to all our problems: the question is whether it will hinder us from pursuing what is really important.

Shannon is a good example. He is rich and unaffected by the pursuit of wealth. He never accumulated wealth to live a luxurious life. His wealth enables him to spend more time on his favorite gadgets. He used the money from his investment to study the physics of juggling, made juggling robots, and invented wearable computers with Ed Thorpe.

We don't need to know that the pursuit of money will cover up what is really important. However, we need to remind ourselves that wealth is earned by hard work, but not the goal pursued by hard work. Paul graham, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, said, "I got a lot of criticism because I told the founders to focus on making good things first, instead of worrying about how to make money. But this is how Google and Apple succeed. "

More importantly, Shannon didn't just ignore wealth. He ignores wealth, but he is also good at acquiring it. I think ignoring wealth enables you to concentrate on doing valuable things, and these valuable things enable you to acquire wealth. This is a truth that we should all deeply understand.

Shannon has never been moved by his colleagues who published large books, nor by the most fancy theories. What he likes is extreme simplicity (which reminds us of Jobs again).

In 1952, Shannon introduced a very effective problem-solving strategy used by himself in the dialogue with Bell Laboratories engineers. The first one is that you should solve your problem by simplification first. Shannon said, "Almost every problem you encounter will be confused by all kinds of irrelevant data. If we can simplify the problem, it will be easier to see the essence of the problem. "

Simplification is an art: you need to peel off the surface of the problem a little bit, not make it more interesting. Shannon admits that step-by-step decomposition will gradually turn problems into problems-but this is the solution: "Usually, if you can solve this simple problem, you can add improvements to this solution until you can solve the original problem."

Bob Gallagher, a graduate student of Shannon, became the leader of information theory research. He saw with his own eyes how Shannon simplified the problem. One day, he came to Shannon's office with a complicated new research idea. However, for Shannon, these are just "fantasies":

We have been educated since childhood, and the more we can master complex concepts, the more we prove our high IQ. The more complicated the problem, the more intelligent people are needed to solve it. However, Shannon showed us the opposite side, that is, the more we pursue simplicity, the more we need higher IQ.

After all, as the author Ben Si Nuo wrote, "Simplifying a complex problem does not mean ignoring its complexity." Shannon can use the most complicated mathematical formulas like his best colleagues, but he is remembered today because he can clearly disassemble things, not make them more complicated.

Don't confuse simplicity with simple thinking. It is difficult to simplify it and extract the essence of things. If you think "this question is too simple" at the meeting and don't want to say anything, then you may need to think about whether it is true, because this may be your most important goal.

When Shannon was in his thirties, he was one of the brightest stars in American science, surrounded by media and honor. His "information theory" quickly became popular, and he himself was often touted as one of the best scientists of our time.

Shannon's information theory became a fashionable word at that time. From geology to politics to musicology, all disciplines want to use it to explain everything. However, at the peak of Xiang's popularity, he published a four-paragraph article, calling on everyone to reduce his "flattery".

He wrote: "(information theory) may be a bit overestimated. Some of our scientists and colleagues in various fields were attracted by the appreciation of the outside world and the new methods of scientific analysis, and began to use it to solve problems in their fields ... Information theory became a bit like a panacea. "

Admittedly, such a situation will make people feel "happy and excited", but Shannon suggested that his engineers and mathematicians should pay attention to the research itself. "Information theory, if it is a commodity, it is sold now-whether it is oversold or not. We should continue to pay attention to the highest possible level of research and development. "

This is not because Shannon wants to monopolize the results. On the contrary, he welcomes the results of the effective application of information theory, but he is only worried that these theories he has developed have been given too much meaning beyond their intrinsic value.

This statement has caused some repercussions in the scientific community. This is of far-reaching significance to those inexperienced young people and those who advocate information theory with practical actions. But for him, the most important thing is to return to the truth-this is his commitment to sincere and serious scientific research, which will eventually bring him reputation.

In other words: Shannon didn't actively promote his ideas, and we don't think he is good at it. But he really doesn't need to do this, because his ideas are so outstanding and unique that people will naturally be attracted.

What does this inspire us? Don't we all think our work is outstanding and unique? Maybe our idea is really that good, but the example of Shannon's rapid explosion of research work has no reference significance for our really good idea. On the contrary, when our idea is not very good and has not received much attention, it is more useful, because maybe our research is just not ready enough, and we need to continue to work hard.

As the great philosopher regine George said in the movie mean girls, "What we pursue wholeheartedly will never happen". Let it be.

When reflecting on the detours in his career, Shannon said frankly: "I feel that my goal has never been to win prizes, although I have won dozens of prizes. My motivation stems more from curiosity than from the desire for wealth. I just want to know the composition principle of things, or the algorithm, or whether there is any theory that can decide whether things are right or wrong. I mainly want to know this. "

He didn't exaggerate. Shannon often refuses to accept the prize after winning it. Those letters inviting him to give a speech were put into the mailbox mentioned above by him.

His indifference is also manifested in another aspect: he was awarded many honorary degrees, so he hung those doctoral vests on a device similar to a rotating tie rack (which he made himself). Although I don't know if those award agencies will be unhappy, it shows that Xiangnan is praised lightly.

Of course, indifferent to fame and fortune also has certain benefits. For Shannon, he can devote himself to the fields that "famous" scientists disdain to set foot in: toy robots, chess, juggling and unicycle. He also built a machine that can play juggling balls, and a consumer that can breathe fire when playing.

Mathematicians generally don't want to spend time on problems that are not high enough-they call them "childish problems" but Shannon is willing to do those really "childish" things. But also repeatedly find breakthroughs in these things that may make people feel embarrassed and involve trivial matters.

If Shannon aimed at the Nobel Prize or the national medal from the beginning, would he still have the heart to do these things? Maybe it will. But in fact, his indifferent attitude towards external achievements has made him do more and go further.

We admit that these truths are easier said than done. None of us will ignore our social status, especially those ambitious elites, how difficult it is to be indifferent to fame and fortune. Shannon's example tells us that behind this indifferent fame and fortune, there are equally valuable things hidden: fun and freedom.

Compared with "achievement", "fun" may seem too casual. But "freedom" is different. Shannon doesn't care, even if it may damage his social status. He gives himself the freedom to explore any subject he is interested in, which to some extent comes from his never caring about what others think of him.

When we are on the road of fame and fortune, we often ignore the price of freedom. Let go of these so-called glories and live and study easily.

How many of us want to find a breakthrough like Shannon, but are waiting for inspiration? Is it possible to wait?

Chuck Close, a famous painter, holds the same view. He said, "Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and start working. I believe that the results will sprout in the work itself. Through hard work, you will meet other possibilities and open other unexpected doors. If you just sit and wait for a great artistic idea to appear, it will never appear.

Shannon has the same view, but Shannon is looking for a great "scientific idea". The idea may come from a high-quality conversation, tinkering in the workshop, or aimless tossing for most of his life-most importantly, the idea comes from doing, not waiting.

Shannon told his engineers in Bell Laboratories that the symbol of a great scientific mind is not a kind of generate of thought, but a kind of "motivation" and "a desire to find answers and the essence of things". This fundamental driving force is essential: "if you don't have these, you may have all the skills and wisdom in the world, but (but) if you don't have questions, you can't find the answer."

Where does this fundamental driving force come from? Shannon's expression of this elusive quality is unforgettable. It goes like this: when something seems wrong, there will be "slight anger" or "constructive dissatisfaction". Finally, Shannon's description of genius is refreshing: genius is just a person who vents his anger in useful places. And that kind of useful stimulation will never come until you accidentally find something that bothers you at work, which looks strange and makes you entangled.

Don't run from those moments. Stick to it at all costs.

People who have worked with Shannon himself should feel lucky to know him. Although we can only know him through books, we are also lucky.

My last thought is: Internet, digital age and all basic technologies-these are extraordinary human achievements. But we may easily forget their history, what they are, what problems they solved, why they solved these problems, why they existed and who created them. We should learn from these histories, because there is no future without history.

We should not only learn what has been created, but also understand the spiritual power behind the creation of these things. Curiosity and creativity have produced a huge spark of innovation, thus constantly pushing the world forward. This comes from people like Shannon, who get pleasure from their work.

This is a spirit worth remembering. More importantly, we should practice and carry forward this spirit.

A course of living with claude shannon and learning from genius