Fritterin' Away Genius (Classic)
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
Pushkin Industries
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 January 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Claude Shannon was brilliant. He was the Einstein of computer science... only he loved "fritterin' away" his time building machines to play chess, solve Rubik's cubes and beat the house at roulette.
If Shannon had worked more diligently - instead of juggling, riding a unicycle and abandoning project after project - would he have made an even greater contribution to human knowledge? Maybe... and maybe not. Are restlessness and "fritterin'" important parts of a rich and creative life?
Read more about Tim's work at http://timharford.com/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed human. |
| 0:12.5 | Pushkin. |
| 0:15.7 | Hello, everyone. |
| 0:17.5 | Happy New Year. |
| 0:18.6 | The Cautionary Tales team is busy putting together a set of brand new cautionary tales for the year ahead. |
| 0:25.6 | Happiness cults, a race around the world, and some lessons from the front lines of finding love. |
| 0:31.9 | And much more, all on its way. In the meantime, don't forget, we've got a cautionary club over on Patreon, |
| 0:39.6 | where you can find loads of bonus content, extra cautionary tales, interviews with me and the team, |
| 0:44.6 | and an exclusive newsletter. Now, while you're setting your sights on what 2026 could look like, |
| 0:52.4 | here's a cautionary tale from the archives which might help. |
| 0:56.7 | Enjoy. |
| 1:01.2 | It would be hard to think of a better example of a game of chance than roulette. |
| 1:07.8 | Beneath the romantic French terminology and the myriad rules of etiquette, |
| 1:12.3 | each spin of the roulette wheel is utterly random. |
| 1:16.0 | The casino's advantage is small, but it cannot be overcome. |
| 1:21.5 | The game is remorseless. |
| 1:24.2 | Over the long haul, the only way to win is not to play. |
| 1:29.4 | Or is it? |
| 1:30.9 | One day in August 1961, Claude and Betty Shannon |
| 1:35.7 | stroll up to a roulette table in Las Vegas, |
| 1:38.8 | pretending not to know their companions, Ed and Vivian Thorpe. |
... |
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