I loved this book. The most surprising thing to me was the answer that people who were there in the heyday give when asked what made Bell Labs so successful: They always say it was the problem, i.e. having an entire organization oriented towards the goal of “make communication reliable and practical between any two places on earth”. When Shannon left the Labs for MIT, people who were there immediately predicted he wouldn’t do anything of the same significance because he’d lose that “compass”. Shannon was obviously a genius, and he did much more after than most people ever accomplish, but still nothing as significant as what he did when at at the Labs.
I loved this book. The most surprising thing to me was the answer that people who were there in the heyday give when asked what made Bell Labs so successful: They always say it was the problem, i.e. having an entire organization oriented towards the goal of “make communication reliable and practical between any two places on earth”. When Shannon left the Labs for MIT, people who were there immediately predicted he wouldn’t do anything of the same significance because he’d lose that “compass”. Shannon was obviously a genius, and he did much more after than most people ever accomplish, but still nothing as significant as what he did when at at the Labs.