Shannon was a genius, and I don't disagree with that at all, but I really wish that they had explained why. There was so much more valuable information they could have included he was much more than his interests in juggling and unicycle riding. It seems as if the authors felt they didn't have enough information, so they resort to listing many of his fellow grade school students and writing too much about his parents, with little about Shannon's relationships with these people. I hate to give a book about Claude Shannon an average rating, but it's only because the book is about the interesting genius that I can even muster three stars. I wanted more information about Information Theory With access to Shannon's family and friends, A Mind at Play explores the life and times of this singular innovator and creative genius. It's the story of Shannon's life as an often reclusive, always playful genius. 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 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. Now, Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman bring Claude Shannon's story to life.

His work gave mathematicians and engineers the tools to bring that world to pass. That work allowed scientists to measure and manipulate information as objectively as any physical object. 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.

Claude Shannon was a tinkerer, a playful wunderkind, a groundbreaking polymath, and a digital pioneer whose insights made the Information Age possible.

A Mind at Play by Jimmy Soni