A Mind at Play Audiobook By Rob Goodman, Jimmy Soni cover art

A Mind at Play

How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age

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A Mind at Play

By: Rob Goodman, Jimmy Soni
Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
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Claude Shannon was a tinkerer, a playful wunderkind, a groundbreaking polymath, and a digital pioneer whose insights made the Information Age possible. He constructed fire-breathing trumpets and customized unicycles, outfoxed Vegas casinos, and built juggling robots, but he also wrote the seminal text of the Digital Revolution. That work allowed scientists to measure and manipulate information as objectively as any physical object. His work gave mathematicians and engineers the tools to bring that world to pass.

Now, Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman bring Claude Shannon's story to life. It's the story of a small-town boy from Michigan whose career stretched from the age of room-sized computers powered by gears and string to the age of the Apple desktop. It's the story of the origins of information in the tunnels of MIT and the "idea factory" of Bell Labs, in the "scientists' war" with Nazi Germany, and in the work of Shannon's collaborators and rivals. It's the story of Shannon's life as an often reclusive, always playful genius. With access to Shannon's family and friends, A Mind at Play explores the life and times of this singular innovator and creative genius.

©2017 Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman (P)2017 Tantor Computer Science Engineering History History & Culture Professionals & Academics Science & Technology Technology Data Science Mathematics Machine Learning Inspiring Thought-Provoking Information Theory

Critic reviews

"Lucid and fascinating...Soni and Goodman open an engrossing window onto what a mind hard at work can do." ( Publishers Weekly)
Interesting Biography • Well-researched Book • Nuanced Performance • Engaging Story • Inspirational Tale
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Such an interesting and very humble man - we were very lucky he came to be.

A very interesting story

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It blows me away that a man with this intelligence and foresight can be only a couple miles away from me growing up near cambridge Massachusetts . A mind opening experience...

Amazing insight!!!

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No offense to the guy that read this book, but I hated everything about his voice and the way he read it. It made an otherwise engaging story incredibly difficult to stomach. I wish I'd bought the hard copy.

The book is great, but I hated the reader

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Wait for it.

Interesting life, well presented. As the authors write at the end, nothing near the name recognition of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, but those guys weren't going anywhere without Claude Shannon.

Soo-ey generous?

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entertaining, Informative read. well narrated, good flow. the book has a good balance of history and theory

great bio of a great man

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Not sure why this narrator was chosen. His style fits the telling of a fairy tale or fantasy novel. Book wasn't as compelling as it could have been.

Wrong narrator.

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I enjoyed every minute. If you think about digital age, maybe you would think about Gates, Jobs or Zuckerberg... but long before them there was Claude Shannon, a brilliant and modest genius whose curiosity and thirst for knowledge made this and all other audiobooks possible.

Educational, inspiring and entertaining

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Their explanations of the math and engineering were lucid and interesting. I learned a lot about Shannon’s life and the context around and people within it. But I was hoping for more lessons I could apply to my own life besides to be curious.

Well researched & clear

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I was interested in this biography primarily because of the ubiquity of Shannon's theories in my field, and found that this book mostly satisfied that curiosity with the more mundane biographical elements serving as entertaining asides. I wouldn't say the biography is particularly deep in either the personal or professional domains, but it was an easy listen that was deep enough for the casually interested person. The story goes off the deep end a little towards the end, but is still enjoyable.

An interesting biography that also explains theory

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Fascinating person so few know anything about. We all need to learn to be more playful with topics in life.

More should Claude Shannon

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