An extraordinary amount of arrogance is present in any claim of having been the first in inventing something.
About Benoit Mandelbrot
Benoit B. Mandelbrotwas a Polish-born French-American mathematician and polymath with broad interests in the practical sciences, especially regarding what he labeled as “the art of roughness” of physical phenomena and “the uncontrolled element in life”. He referred to himself as a “fractalist” and is recognized for his contribution to the field of fractal geometry, which included coining the word “fractal”, as well as developing a theory of “roughness and self-similarity” in nature.
More quotes from Benoit Mandelbrot
I was in an industrial laboratory because academia found me unsuitable.
Polish-born, French and American mathematician
Although computer memory is no longer expensive, there’s always a finite size buffer somewhere. When a big piece of news arrives, everybody sends a message to everybody else, and the buffer fills.
Polish-born, French and American mathematician
There is a joke that your hammer will always find nails to hit. I find that perfectly acceptable.
Polish-born, French and American mathematician
A cloud is made of billows upon billows upon billows that look like clouds. As you come closer to a cloud you don’t get something smooth, but irregularities at a smaller scale.
Polish-born, French and American mathematician
Until a few years ago, the topics in my Ph.D. were unfashionable, but they are very popular today.
Polish-born, French and American mathematician
I don’t seek power and do not run around.
Polish-born, French and American mathematician
The techniques I developed for studying turbulence, like weather, also apply to the stock market.
Polish-born, French and American mathematician
Order doesn’t come by itself.
Polish-born, French and American mathematician
My fate has been that what I undertook was fully understood only after the fact.
Polish-born, French and American mathematician
Most were beginning to feel they had learned enough to last for the rest of their lives. They remained mathematicians, but largely went their own way.
Polish-born, French and American mathematician
An extraordinary amount of arrogance is present in any claim of having been the first in inventing something.
Polish-born, French and American mathematician
There is a saying that every nice piece of work needs the right person in the right place at the right time.
Polish-born, French and American mathematician
Smooth shapes are very rare in the wild but extremely important in the ivory tower and the factory.
Polish-born, French and American mathematician
Now that I near 80, I realize with wistful pleasure that on many occasions I was 10, 20, 40, even 50 years ahead of my time.
Polish-born, French and American mathematician
For much of my life there was no place where the things I wanted to investigate were of interest to anyone.
Polish-born, French and American mathematician
Think of color, pitch, loudness, heaviness, and hotness. Each is the topic of a branch of physics.
Polish-born, French and American mathematician
When the weather changes, nobody believes the laws of physics have changed. Similarly, I don’t believe that when the stock market goes into terrible gyrations its rules have changed.
Polish-born, French and American mathematician
Nobody will deny that there is at least some roughness everywhere.
Polish-born, French and American mathematician