Claude Shannon is the founder of Information Theory
His essay on creative thinking is criminally underrated
I've unpacked 2 of Shannon's ideas below
THREAD...
His essay on creative thinking is criminally underrated
I've unpacked 2 of Shannon's ideas below
THREAD...
Shannon was the original theorist behind digitally storing and communicating information.
Without his work, I wouldn't be able to write this tweet you are reading.
Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, etc are all standing on Shannons giant shoulders.
Genius is an understatement.
Without his work, I wouldn't be able to write this tweet you are reading.
Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, etc are all standing on Shannons giant shoulders.
Genius is an understatement.
SHANNON IDEA 1 - APPLIED OCCAMS RAZOR
"Eliminate everything from the problem except the essentials; that is, cut it down to size." - Shannon
"Almost every problem that you come across is befuddled with extraneous data." - Shannon
"Eliminate everything from the problem except the essentials; that is, cut it down to size." - Shannon
"Almost every problem that you come across is befuddled with extraneous data." - Shannon
His idea is that complexity is almost a form of laziness.
It's our inability to remove the extraneous data from the problem.
It's our inability to remove the extraneous data from the problem.
Complexity is the noise and the signal blurred together.
Simplification is the signal by itself.
Once you have simplified the problem, it's easy to find simple solutions.
Simplification is the signal by itself.
Once you have simplified the problem, it's easy to find simple solutions.
Elon Musk is a world-class problem solver. (Regardless of your opinion on him)
His employees say he makes every decision through one simple question:
"Will this get us nearer to having a self-sustaining colony on Mars?"
His employees say he makes every decision through one simple question:
"Will this get us nearer to having a self-sustaining colony on Mars?"
The criticism of this simplification is that you can oversimplify.
But Shannon argues it's better to first solve the simplified version.
And then build your way up.
Keep adding complexity until you solve the actual problem.
But Shannon argues it's better to first solve the simplified version.
And then build your way up.
Keep adding complexity until you solve the actual problem.
SHANNON IDEA 2 - COPY & PASTE
"It seems much easier to make two small jumps than one big jump in any kind of mental thinking." - Shannon
If you want to create a groundbreaking idea in your domain:
1. Look for groundbreaking ideas in other domains.
2. Copy & paste em over.
"It seems much easier to make two small jumps than one big jump in any kind of mental thinking." - Shannon
If you want to create a groundbreaking idea in your domain:
1. Look for groundbreaking ideas in other domains.
2. Copy & paste em over.
My favorite recent example of this is plant-based chicken nugget company - NUGGS
They update their recipes like software companies update their products
They started at 1.0
When they made iterative improvements on their recipe - they shipped 1.1.
They are now on Nuggs 2.0
They update their recipes like software companies update their products
They started at 1.0
When they made iterative improvements on their recipe - they shipped 1.1.
They are now on Nuggs 2.0
👆
The founder of Nuggs previously ran tech startups
Nuggs took a well-known concept from one domain - Software
They copy & pasted it to nutrition
The creativity wasn't a lightbulb moment.
It was just moving the lightbulb from one domain to another.
The founder of Nuggs previously ran tech startups
Nuggs took a well-known concept from one domain - Software
They copy & pasted it to nutrition
The creativity wasn't a lightbulb moment.
It was just moving the lightbulb from one domain to another.
Shannon argues this is the advantage of having expertise in a domain
You have a toolkit of answers
Expertise deconstructed is just knowing the answers to 100+ problems in a field
Creativity can be achieved by extracting those answers to another domain
You have a toolkit of answers
Expertise deconstructed is just knowing the answers to 100+ problems in a field
Creativity can be achieved by extracting those answers to another domain
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