Betty Shannon, Unsung Mathematical Genius (2017)

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/betty-shannon-unsung-mathematical-genius/

by diodorus • 6 years ago

86 11 6 years ago

blogs.scientificamerican.com

adriantam• 6 years ago

This is a story of the women behind a successful man. But no. Gender doesn't matter. Look at some successful start-ups. You need a founder like Claude Shannon to come up with a successful idea and another founder like Betty to fill in all the gaps and implement it. Such partnership is, IMHO, the essential formula for success. It is rare to have both traits in the same person.

pjmorris• 6 years ago

"Thinkers are rare; doers are rarer; and thinker-doers are rarest." - Fred Brooks, 'The Mythical Man Month'

ngcc_hk• 6 years ago

Whilst your late part is great, the problem is the first sentence. It is not behind. It should not be. Woman are human too.

matthiasl• 6 years ago

I think you misunderstood the parent. In this context, 'behind' means less visible, as in a person working in the background.

Example: 'Behind every “big break” is a lot of blood sweat and tears.'

Example: Giorgio Moroder was behind many smash hits of the 80s.

Isamu• 6 years ago

As Betty put it, “Some of his early papers and even later papers are in my handwriting...and not in his, which confused people at first.” And not just his papers: Betty was a full partner in the gadgeteering, too. In fact, it was Betty—not Claude—who completed the wiring for Theseus the mouse.

I am a long-time Claude Shannon fan, and now his story makes a lot more sense. This is a great article to see.

notacoward• 6 years ago

I've seen enough stories like this to wonder how many more there are. How many of the "great men" of scientific and technological history were great in part due to "hidden partnerships" with spouses or others who aren't listed as co-authors on papers and such? Seems like a book collecting a dozen or so such stories would be a great read.

Note: this is not to deny any scientist or inventor any credit. Most of those we celebrate deserve it. I'm just thinking there are even more great people we should know about.

OzzyB• 6 years ago

If you want to see this dynamic play out in dramatic form I highly recommend The Wife w/ Glenn Close.

BurningFrog• 6 years ago

I suspect the "Edison Syndrome", to coin a term, where the head of a lab takes credit for all inventions is fairly common.

Though what the Shannons did doesn't really sound unethical to me. This is just how they liked to do things.

caycep• 6 years ago

Granted, I have seen other forms of this in creative partnerships, both marriage and also non-marriage, where there is a creative dreamer and an organizational genius.

n/naka, one of the best restaurants in LA here, is like that - the chef is a totally disorganized "Dreamer" and her partner makes it happen

Greene and Greene, the architecture firm that designed the landmark Gamble house, also appeared to operate like this, one brother was the creative dreamer and the other was the business guru.

gjm11• 6 years ago

The title doesn't seem to match the actual article content: it's clear that Betty Shannon was very smart and an important collaborator with Claude, but "mathematical genius" is very strong language and I'm not seeing anything in the article to suggest it's justified.

(Which isn't to put her down; almost everyone is not-a-mathematical-genius, including the great majority of super-impressive people.)

User23• 6 years ago

I observed the same and the gist of the article is: "Two very smart people have healthy, happy, and productive marriage." For some reason the headline (but not the content) appears to be designed to elicit the belief that Betty was somehow unappreciated and forgotten. My understanding is that authors don't generally pick the titles their pieces are published under, so I would guess the editor wanted a punchier title for whatever reason.

It's a good piece though and I'm glad I read it.

Betty Shannon, Unsung Mathematical Genius (2017)

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