Jimmy Soni is an award-winning author. His last book, A Mind At Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age, won the 2017 Neumann Prize, awarded by the British Society for the History of Mathematics for the best book on the history of mathematics for a general audience. It also received the Middleton Prize by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, for exceptional scholarship that appeals to a broad public. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his daughter, Venice.
Rob Goodman is a doctoral candidate at Columbia University and a former congressional speechwriter. He has written for Slate, The Atlantic, Politico, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. His scholarly work has appeared in History of Political Thought, the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, and The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. With Jimmy Soni, he is the coauthor of Rome's Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar, and A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age.
"Terrific. A Mind at Play is fluidly written, thoroughly
researched, and important. It brings to our attention the
fascinating life of Claude Shannon, considered by his colleagues to
be the Einstein of our information age. It is a story we should all
know, and it is a read that you all will enjoy."--Martin J.
Sherwin, coauthor (with Kai Bird) of the Pulitzer Prize-winning
biography, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J.
Robert Oppenheimer.
"A Mind at Play takes its readers through the extraordinary life of
someone so deserving of this well-researched and smooth-reading
biography. Read it. Lose yourself in the pages. For just a few
worthwhile hours, you will become a shadow following Shannon's life
and playful mind." --Joseph Mazur, Author of Fluke: The Math and
Myth of Coincidences
"In A Mind at Play, journalist Jimmy Soni and political theorist
Rob Goodman tell Shannon's story engagingly, from the perspective
of a lay reader wrestling with the sophisticated ideas that Shannon
explored with dedication and panache. The book is a boon for those
eager to know more about his incredibly influential life --
whimsical, independent and curiosity-driven....Soni and Goodman
have done their research. [A] vivid portrayal." -- "Nature"
"This is the most comprehensive biography of the man I've come
across." -- "Brain Food"
"To read this book is to take a journey through history and
understanding...Simply put, this will henceforth be one of the
books I can't shut up about when people ask for recommendations. If
you enjoy anything at all about the digital age we live in, go out
and get yourself a copy...You should know how these things that
bring you joy, or money, or allow you to communicate easily have
come into being. And for all of it, you owe a debt of gratitude to
the man who is the subject of this thoroughly well-written book;
Claude Shannon." -- "Agent Palmer"
You know Einstein, but you should know Shannon. A Mind at Play, a
charming account of the life of Claude Shannon, one of the 20th
century's most distinguished scientists, makes that compelling
case. The biography is full of entertaining bits about the
thinker-tinkerer who first divined the significance of the bit (aka
"binary digit," the fundamental unit of information). Readers will
enjoy this portrait of a modern-day Da Vinci from his incredible
early career breakthroughs to the more flippant pursuits of his
later years, like juggling through the halls of Bell Labs on a
unicycle, or engineering a flame-throwing trumpet.-- "FORTUNE"
"A Mind at Play bubbles over with energy and verve and insight.
This is biography as it should be, but seldom is."--Edward Dolnick,
author of The Clockwork Universe
"In this fine biography of Claude Shannon, Soni and Goodman make
accessible the origins of digital communications while revealing
how engineers think deeply not only about things but through
things; it was through tinkering that Shannon was able to bring us
the modern digital world."--W. Bernard Carlson, Professor and
Chair, Engineering & Society Department, University of Virginia
"The fact that there has never been a comprehensive biography of
Claude Shannon, "The Father of Information Theory," has seemed a
particularly egregious oversight as the world has hurtled further
and further into the Information Age. Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman
have finally rectified this injustice. They have woven
comprehensive research into a compelling and personal narrative,
accessible to non-specialists but also of interest to people in the
field for whom Shannon is an almost mythical figure. A Mind at Play
is an insightful and moving portrait of the very original genius
whose work affects nearly every aspect of the modern age."--Dr.
Mark Levinson, Director, Particle Fever
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