Shannon's most radical insight was that meaning was irrelevant.

Samuelson, however, hedged his personal bets - by putting some of his own money in Berkshire Hathaway.

The engine driving the Kelly system is the "law of large numbers." In a 1713 treatise on probability, Swiss mathematician Jakob Bernoulli propounded a law that has been misunderstood by gamblers (and investors) ever since.

In real conversations, we are always trying to outguess each other.

Bernoulli's real contribution was to coin a word. The word has been translated into English as "utility". It describes this subjective value people place on money.

Samuelson spotted a mistake in Bacheliers work. Bachelier's model had failed to consider that stock prices cannot fall below zero.

The story of the Kelly system is a story of secrets - or if you prefer, a story of entropy.