# Bell Labs Gave You Freedom to Follow Your Own Ideas by Claude Shannon > "They gave you great freedom. To begin with you could work on what you wanted, your own ideas; they didn't come and say, 'work on this!'" > **— Claude Shannon**, *Anthony Liversidge interview, Omni, August 1987* ## Sources and Context - **Primary interview transcript:** [Anthony Liversidge, ‘Profile of Claude Shannon’](https://gwern.net/doc/cs/algorithm/information/1987-liversidge.pdf), *Omni*, August 1987, reprinted in *Claude Elwood Shannon: Collected Papers*, p. xxiv. ‘They’ refers to Bell Labs, named in the immediately preceding sentence and preserved in the Reminder title. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/Bell Labs and the Distributed Architecture of American Power|Bell Labs and the Distributed Architecture of American Power]] - **Article:** [[articles/A History of Machine Intelligence|A History of Machine Intelligence]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Bell Labs|Bell Labs]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Claude Shannon|Claude Shannon]] - [[wiki/Bell Labs|Bell Labs]] - [[wiki/Information Theory|Information Theory]] - [[wiki/Machine Intelligence Intentionality|Machine Intelligence Intentionality]] - [[wiki/Distributed Intention|Distributed Intention]] ## Share on Social Media ``` "They gave you great freedom. To begin with you could work on what you wanted, your own ideas; they didn't come and say, 'work on this!'" — Claude Shannon, Anthony Liversidge interview, Omni, August 1987 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-claude-shannon-bell-labs-freedom-own-ideas ```