Alan Turing's secrets to productivity

And although recently (for some reason) the personal life and the tragic death of a scientist have been more discussed, Turing made a colossal contribution to the development of science. It was he who invented the "great-grandfather" of modern computers - the "Turing Machine", developed an empirical test for assessing the intelligence of machines, and made a number of other striking discoveries.

Let's find out together the secrets of Alan Turing's productivity.

Breaking large tasks into smaller ones

One of the characteristic features of Alan Turing was the ability to break a large problem into smaller ones in order to methodically, step by step, solve them. Of course, the big picture was always in his head, but at the same time, like a true genius, Turing was very attentive to the little things. This allowed him to achieve results.

So, while working on the Turing Bombe, designed to decipher the Nazi military messages, Turing carefully studied the German encryption machine - "Wehrmacht Enigma" (Wehrmacht Enigma). The work of the latter is based on the so-called replacement cipher, when one letter changes to another (for example, instead of the letter "B", "S" is reproduced, etc.). When the keys were pressed, the rotors moved in motion, which led to various cryptographic transformations.

Turing and his team carefully studied messages, the text of which was known to be known (for example, weather reports), as well as errors of German operators who forgot to switch the Enigma settings. This allowed the creation of the Turing Bombe, which iterated over all possible cipher patterns.

Alan Turing was fluent in such principles of a systems approach as hierarchy and structuring. That allowed him to successfully solve major scientific problems.

Creative chaos

The famous business coach Kerry Gleason, who developed the personal effectiveness program, writes in his book “Work less, do more”: “Entropy can be defined as a measure or degree of disorder in a system that leads to its destruction. In physics, entropy is associated with the second law of thermodynamics. There is a law in the Universe according to which all systems move from a state of order to a state of chaos, which leads to an increase in their complexity. Do you want a simple life? Make order an integral part of your daily workflow! If you want to work in an orderly environment, you must be aware of the fact that this environment tends to be chaotic, and you must work to maintain order. Try not to take care of the garden for a while and you will soon see the effect of entropy with your own eyes."

Indeed, many are convinced that effective work is impossible without order in the workplace. However, this position has many opponents who believe that a little mess does not hinder, but helps the creative process.

Alan Turing is a prime example of this. While working in the British cryptanalytic bureau, he even got the nickname - "the mad scientist from Bletchley Park." “Madness” was manifested in the fact that Turing often forgot to put on socks or a tie, was always immersed in deep thoughts, could interrupt the interlocutor in mid-sentence. His desk was always littered with a lot of papers, calculations, notes, he could at any moment rush to the table to write down the thought that came into his head. And, judging by his scientific achievements, the disorder did not interfere with productive work.

Monument to Alan Turing in Blantchley Park

Sports as a way to cleanse the brain

In addition to success in the scientific field, Turing has achieved a lot in sports. He was active in running and competed for the Walton Athletics Club. In addition, in 1945, Alan Turing ran the marathon in 2 hours, 46 minutes and 3 seconds, just 11 minutes more than the 1948 Olympic champion.

As you know, exercise promotes clarity of thought. Alan Turing admitted that he has such a hard work that sports are the only way to put your thoughts in order.

Turing result in a marathon 2 hours, 46 minutes and 3 seconds

It is difficult to objectively assess the scientific heritage of Alan Turing, but one thing is clear - he was able to do a lot in the short 42 years of his life.