Picked up The Quants yesterday at a local used bookstore and have been tearing into it. Fantastic book with TONS of background information, not only explaining the players but also their teachers.

One man in particular caught my attention: Claude Shannon. He was the teacher of Ed Thorpe who is considered to the father of quantitative finance.

Turns out Claude Shannon is a total badass. He is the guy who decided to combine “Boolean Algebra”, aka the binary number system of “on or off”, “true of false”, “one or zero”, with electronic circuits. Of course this is the basis for all computer systems. Its one of those creations that is so monumental that its impossible to imagine a world without it.

Also, he made a machine, called “The Ultimate Machine”, who’s only function is to turn itself off. Simple, beautiful and a bit unnerving…

(speaking of bits, he was involved in coining that phrase too, a portmanteau of “Binary digIT”)