HOME (/)
ABOUT (HTTP://CALNEWPORT.COM/ABOUT/)
BOOKS (HTTP://CALNEWPORT.COM/BOOKS/) PROJECTS (HTTP://CALNEWPORT.COM/PROJECTS/)
Study Hacks Blog (/blog/) DECODING PATTERNS OF SUCCESS
On Claude Shannon’s Deliberate Depth July 21st, 2017 · 2 comments (http://calnewport.com/blog/2017/07/21/on-claudeshannons-deliberate-depth/#comments)
A n In s ig h tfu l L ife Claude Shannon is one of my intellectual heroes.
His MIT master’s thesis (https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle /1721.1/11173/34541425-MIT.pdf?sequence=2), submitted in 1936, laid the foundation for digital circuit design. (My MIT master’s thesis (https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/37928/136931064MIT.pdf?sequence=2), submitted 70 years later, has so far proven somewhat less influential.) His insight was simple. The wires, relays and switches that made up the types of complex circuits he encountered at AT&T could be understand as the terms and operators of logic statements expressed in the boolean algebra he encountered as a math major at the University of Michigan. Though simple, this insight had huge impact. It meant that circuits could be designed and optimized in the abstract and precise language of mathematics, and then transformed back to soldered wires and finicky magnetic coils only at the last step — enabling staggering leaps in circuit complexity. But he wasn’t done. A decade later, inspired in part by his wartime research efforts, Shannon developed information theory (http://math.harvard.edu/~ctm/home/text/others/shannon/entropy /entropy.pdf): a mathematical framework that formalizes both techniques and fundamental limits for reliably transmitting information over noisy channels. (For a popular treatment of this theory, see this (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1476766681 /ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=stuhac-20&camp=1789& creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1476766681& linkId=6dde43897bdc91f8fa1d3d89b5631a48) or this (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400096235 /ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=stuhac-20&camp=1789& creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1400096235& linkId=d497abe41666f7bb5b3eb8c85d705925); for a technical introduction, I recommend this guide (https://www.amazon.com /gp/product/0486240614/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8& tag=stuhac-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&
creativeASIN=0486240614& linkId=efaeae25ada47476aeffcd5f1e515457)). Put another way, Shannon’s master’s thesis laid the foundation for digital computers, while his information theory paper laid the foundation for digital communication.
Not a bad legacy. D e c o d i n g S h a n n o n ’s Wo r k H a b i t s This is all to say that I was, quite naturally, excited to learn that my friend Jimmy Soni was co-authoring a big new biography of Shannon. The resulting book came out earlier this week (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1476766681 /ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=stuhac-20&camp=1789& creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1476766681& linkId=6dde43897bdc91f8fa1d3d89b5631a48) (I read a review copy — it’s great). As part of the publicity surrounding the release, Soni wrote an epic article (https://medium.com/the-mission/10-000hours-with-claude-shannon-12-lessons-on-life-and-learningfrom-a-genius-e8b9297bee8f) on the twelve lessons he learned from the years he spent researching Shannon. The title of the first lesson caught my attention: “cull your inputs.” To quote Soni: “[D]istractions are a permanent feature of life, in any era, and Shannon shows us that shutting them out isn’t just a matter of achieving random bursts of focus. It’s about consciously designing one’s life and work habits to minimize them.” Shannon, we learn, often worked with his door shut at Bell Labs to ward off distraction. “None of Shannon’s colleagues, to our knowledge, remembered him
as rude or unfriendly,” Soni writes, “but they do remember him as someone who valued his privacy and quiet time for thinking.” It’s not that Shannon avoided collaboration. If anything, he was known for his ability to maintain stimulating conversation for hours when the topic was right. But he was wary of less fruitful digressions. Shannon also discarded much of his voluminous incoming correspondence and invitations into a box labeled: “Letters I’ve Procrastinated On For Too Long.” When Soni and his co-author studied Shannon’s correspondence at the Library of Congress, they found “far more incoming letters than outgoing ones.” To summarize these observations somewhat flippantly, while it’s absolutely true that Shannon’s breakthroughs ultimately enabled Facebook (which, of course, depends on computers and networks), if he was alive today, he’d almost certainly not use it.
2 thoughts on “On Claude Shannon’s Deliberate Depth” 1. J O E says: JULY 21, 2017 AT 2:29 PM (HTTP://CALNEWPORT.COM/BLOG/2017/07/21 /ON-CLAUDE-SHANNONS-DELIBERATE-DEPTH/#COMMENT-373314)
This reminds me of a speech by Richard Hamming who worked with Shannon. It can be found here http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins /YouAndYourResearch.html (http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins /YouAndYourResearch.html) and is worth the read. Hamming talks a lot about “deep work” (albeit in different terms) and there are a bunch of gems in this speech. Interestingly, he talks about doors being open/closed at Bell Labs and seems to lean towards preferring leaving doors open. “I noticed the following facts about people who work with the door open or the door closed. I notice that if you have the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years later somehow you don’t know quite know what problems are worth working on; all the hard work you do is sort of tangential in importance.” “I think people with closed doors fail to do this so they fail to get their ideas sharpened”
I personally tend to think talk about doors being open or closed is a bit simplistic and it seems like it is just a false dichotomy. REPLY (HTTP://CALNEWPORT.COM/BLOG/2017/07/21/ON-CLAUDE-SHANNONS-DELIBERATEDEPTH/?REPLYTOCOM=373314#RESPOND)
2. M I C H A E L says: JULY 21, 2017 AT 2:49 PM (HTTP://CALNEWPORT.COM/BLOG/2017/07/21 /ON-CLAUDE-SHANNONS-DELIBERATE-DEPTH/#COMMENT-373315)
Interesting. My mind immediately leapt to Hamming’s “You and Your Research” as a counterpoint. For those who haven’t read it, Hamming noticed that researchers who worked with the door open were less productive but after several years, were still working on important problems instead of slipping into tangential research. Elsewhere, he noted that Shannon was unable to let small observations and research trails germinate after information theory and his fame and ceased to become productive. I write this not to argue against deep work but to suggest that a sort of “deep play” or “deep communicating” may be as important as closed-door completion of the most promising new ideas. REPLY (HTTP://CALNEWPORT.COM/BLOG/2017/07/21/ON-CLAUDE-SHANNONS-DELIBERATEDEPTH/?REPLYTOCOM=373315#RESPOND)
L E AV E A R E P LY Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
COMMENT
NAME *
EMAIL *
WEBSITE
POST COMMENT CONFIRM YOU ARE NOT A SPAMMER
A b o ut th e Stud y Ha cks Blo g I'm a computer science professor (http://people.cs.georgetown.edu/~cnewport/) who writes about how to perform productive, valuable, and meaningful work in an increasingly distracted digital age. If you're new to Study Hacks, a good place to start is the blog archive (/blog/archive/) or my new book (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1455586692 /ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325& creativeASIN=1455509124&linkCode=as2&tag=stuhac-20) on the power of deep work.
GET THE LATEST FROM THE
STUDY HACKS BLOG IN YOUR INBOX:
YOUR NAME EMAIL ADDRESS SIGN UP YOU'LL RECEIVE THE BLOG POSTS VIA EMAIL. YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IS NEVER SOLD OR SHARED.
MY W E B H O S T
(http://www.a2hosting.com
MY B O O K S F O R P R O F E S S I O N A L S
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1455586692
/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325& creativeASIN=1455509124&linkCode=as2&tag=stuhac-20)
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1455509124
/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325& creativeASIN=1455509124&linkCode=as2&tag=stuhac-20)
MY B O O K S F O R S T U D E N T S
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product
/0767932587?ie=UTF8&tag=stuhac-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&
creative=9325&creativeASIN=0767932587)
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0767922719?ie=UTF8& tag=stuhac-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&
creativeASIN=0767922719)
(http://www.amazon.com
/gp/product/0767917871?ie=UTF8&tag=stuhac-20&linkCode=as2& camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0767917871)
SOME THI NGS I LI KE
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00015YORE /ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325& creativeASIN=B00015YORE&linkCode=as2&tag=stuhac-20) (The notebook I use to create my daily plans.)
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ITUDA0K /ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325& creativeASIN=B00ITUDA0K&linkCode=as2&tag=stuhac-20) (The definitive academic treatment of deliberate practice.)
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307389979 /ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325& creativeASIN=0307389979&linkCode=as2&tag=stuhac-20) (A crazy but brilliant book. An important influence.)
NOTE: THIS SITE IS A PARTICIPANT IN THE AMAZON SERVICES LLC ASSOCIATES PROGRAM, AN AFFILIATE ADVERTISING PROGRAM DESIGNED TO PROVIDE A MEANS FOR SITES TO EARN ADVERTISING FEES BY ADVERTISING AND LINKING TO AMAZON.COM.
© 2017 CAL NEWPORT • HOME (/) | ABOUT (HTTP://CALNEWPORT.COM/ABOUT/) | BOOKS (HTTP://CALNEWPORT.COM/BOOKS/) | PROJECTS (HTTP://CALNEWPORT.COM/PROJECTS/) | BLOG (HTTP://CALNEWPORT.COM/BLOG/) | CONTACT (HTTP://CALNEWPORT.COM/CONTACT/) site design: Juxta prose (http://juxtaprose.com/)