There were many at Bell Labs and MIT who compared Shannon's insight to Einstein's. Others found that comparison unfair - unfair to Shannon.

At a bare minimum, understanding entails being able to detect an internal contradiction: a paradox.

The assumption that anything true is knowable is the grandfather of paradoxes.

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.

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

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.

The ultimate compound return rate is acutely sensitive to fat tails.