I don’t recommend buying this book, my summary here is to help others understand why I’d spend time elsewhere.
Munger’s biographical sketches and collection of speeches and talks is sold as a coffee table sized hard copy book and no digital version is available. Having written some well received page-by-page, chapter-by-chapter summaries, this seemed like an opportunity to take that format and do the same with a supply constrained book. I lugged this monstrosity around while on vacation so you don’t have to – I wouldn’t buy it, I wouldn’t even recommend it from the library.
I can’t finish out my original goal of summarizing the whole book. I wrote one page-by-page summary of the introduction of the book, and this will be my second and last summary. I’ve read 2/3 of the book and can’t do it anymore. I can’t fathom writing up any more summaries. This is an obviously bright person who has wonderful insights – but they should be in a pamphlet, not this monstrosity of slick pages with margins cluttered by trivia. I even liked the trivia – but the repetitious ‘aww-shucks-isms’ of the author that staple the trivia together are like stale dry bread in a cheap cafeteria.
Munger’s main points – from the whole book – not just this chapter:
Use lots of frameworks.
Invert – try looking at things totally backwards.
Work with good people.
If you want in on a deal, get in it – even if you have to pay up.
Be thrifty and economical.
Let compounding work for you.
Be reliable.
Good personal habits are the foundation for a strong career.
Follow the numbers.
If you don’t have numbers, figure out how to have numbers.
Best Quote
Reliability is essential and can be learned by anyone.
Charlie Munger, Poor Charlie’s Almanack, Page 162
Page by Page Review
Page 150
“Charlie, using the inversion principle he recommends in teh speech, compelling makes the opposite case by setting forth what a graduate may do to reach a state of misery.”
Poor Charlie’s Almanack, page 150
The novelty of the chapter is that Mr. Munger is telling the audience how to be miserable – it’s a good trick. However, by Page 150, it’s probably been mentioned 80 times.
Carson’s prescription for sure misery included:
1. Ingesting chemicals in an effort to alter mood or perception;
2. Envy; and
3. Resentment
Poor Charlie’s Almanack Page 152
Mr. Munger’s novel idea is borrowed from a similar graduation speech given by Johnny Carson.
Envy, of course, joins chemicals in winning some sort of quantity prize for causing misery.
Poor Charlie’s Almanack, Page 153
Munger’s prescriptions for misery:
Be unreliable. (Page 154)
Learn from your own experience – not from that of others. (Page 155)
Give up easily. (Page 157)
Don’t use the inversion principle. (Page 158)
The life of Darwin demonstrates how a turtle may outrun the hares, aided by extreme objectivity, which helps the objective person end up like the only player without a blindfold in a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey
Poor Charlie’s Almanack, Page 158
Munger’s point is that by being consistent and reliable, your activities compound and you can be your generation’s Darwin – seeing reality clearly while others cannot explain the world around them.
Elihu Root’s repeated accounts of how the dog went to Dover, “Leg over leg.”
Gentlemen, may each of you rise by spending each day of a long life aiming low.
Poor Charlie’s Almanack, Page 159
Pages 160 and 161 show; 1/ Charlie’s invitation to the Harvard speaker, and 2/ an exchange of letters with Johnny Carson. It may not show up in my two chapter reviews – but there is real dissonance in how Munger is lauded as a ‘humble and down-to-earth’ person, but that these words are repeated in a museum of his tidbits. (In an age of konmari and de-cluttering, it is humorous to find that I’ve bought a book of someone else’s letters.)
If anything, I now believe even more strongly that (1) reliability is essential for progress in life, and (2) while quantum mechanics is unlearnable for a vast majority, reliability can be learned to great advantage by almost anyone.
Charlie Munger, Poor Charlie’s Almanack, Page 162
This chatty sentence represents Munger’s writing style. It is a bit unfair to critique communication styles based on a collection of speeches put together as a tribute – but for the reader this book is a drag. In the time of Twitter – and since one of my personal goals in writing these summaries was to improve my own communication – each page of this book is a struggle. Munger says in one page what could be said in a sentence, and then he repeats himself for 29 more pages to get to a chapter.
Let’s edit Mr. Munger’s final point – which is a good one – to sum it up more clearly:
Reliability is essential and can be learned by anyone.
Amazon’s ‘Take a Peak Inside’ function, where potential buyers can get a preview of parts of a book is a great tool – it is also quickly an indicator of the quality of a book. A good book isn’t going to lose sales to a free quick peak, and I was immediately concerned when Poor Charlie’s Almanack lacked the feature – especially given its high cost and a recent article stating that it was on long wait lists in California area libraries.
If you love Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett, or are researching these topics – this is a great book. Otherwise, it has been a struggle to read. This is my sixth attempt at a page-by-page review (Goldratt, Moore’s Chasm, Mandelbrot’s autobiography, Sun Tzu, and Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People), and I don’t know if I’ll get all the way through it. Unless you love Munger, Buffett or Berkshire Hathaway, a better use of time would be to read any of the Wiley Investment Classics. This 500 page text would be better off as a 90 page summary – the concepts are not hard to grasp and the endless repetition hurts the good points, rather than helping.
The writing is taken from speeches, and may even be from transcriptions. You can feel the “ums” and other non-verbal pauses, as well as language that was meant to be delivered by the speaker to add extra punch to their delivery.
Poor writing would be fine if it was a vessel that delivered a strong message. There are good messages here, but they are repeated so often that I have begun to resent them. This would make a great 90 page book, but instead it rambles on bringing to mind Mark Twain‘s quote, ““I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”
Best Quote(s):
Kauffman, “As a result his lessons hang together in a coherent “latticework” of knowledge, available for recall and use when needed.”
Kauffman on Munger – Introduction
Munger’s main piece of advice is to use, “many mental models” – this is foreshadowed, but not fully covered in the introduction and first chapter. Kauffman sets that up in his introduction.
“Charlie’s redundancy in expressions and examples is purposeful: for the kind of deep “fluency” he advocates, he knows that repetition is the heart of instruction.”
Kauffman on Munger – Introduction
Carnegie was the master of persuasive writing because he repeated themes and people. Munger follows a brute force method – repeating lines again and again. If this book were available on Kindle, a search could easily show how often certain phrases are repeated. I suspect this is one of the reasons it is not to be found digitally.
“Look for someone both smarter and wiser than you are.”
Munger on Partnering with Warren Buffett
This is good advice, clearly given.
“I frankly think I get more credit than I deserve.”
Munger on his Partnership with Buffett
This appears to be sincere candor and humility – kudos to Mr. Munger.
“He wanted more than what a senior law partner would be able to earn.”
Warren Buffett on young Charlie Munger’s ambitions
Buffett gives good advice to a young Charlie Munger. It’s okay to have dreams and goals beyond the scope of where you are. Don’t try to force it with your current organization, realize that it is time to move on.
“Because of his intellect (the Army measured his IQ at the top of the curve), Charlie had a tendency to be abrupt, which was often interpreted as rudeness.” Page 11
Others Reflect on Charlie Munger
It wasn’t interpreted as rudeness – it was rudeness. Smart people can still be assholes. In this introduction and first chapter, there are many points laid out that contradict Mr. Munger’s reflections later in the book.
“Charlie’s Smart, Curious, Focused… and a Little Absentminded.” Page 48
Comments on Charlie Munger
When others are asked to comment on Charlie Munger, they tend to give long quotes, which hold sincere appreciation along with comments that are not very flattering. These comments all appear accurate – and they will often be consistent and contradictory to comments that Charlie makes later in the book.
“Patience is the greatest of all virtues.”
Cato the Elder, Marcus Porcius Cato (234 – 149 BC) Page 35
This is large, heavy, coffee table book. The perimeters of many pages are covered with trivia, illustrations, call-outs and other page-filling activities. The Cato quote above is great, but this book is not the best way to take delivery of such insights. The Munger speeches and topics cover many areas, one of his primary topics is ‘multiple mental models’ which entails breadth of knowledge – making it a natural lead for this type of work. But again, the repetition is extreme and it takes away from the good points that Munger does make. Creating an anthology of other related quotes on the sides is interesting, but not the best way to learn new and interesting quotes.
Page by Page Highlights
Warren Buffett on Munger
‘Life under Ben’s rules began to look positively cushy compared with the rigor demanded by Munger.’
“Instead he opted to become a living lesson in compounding, eschewing frivolous (defined as “any”) expenditures that might sap the power of his example.”
“Because of his intellect (the Army measured his IQ at the top of the curve), Charlie had a tendency to be abrupt, which was often interpreted as rudeness.” Page 11
Munger on Buffett
“Look for someone both smarter and wiser than you are.”
“I frankly think I get more credit than I deserve.”
Kauffman, “As a result his lessons hang together in a coherent “latticework” of knowledge, available for recall and use when needed.”
“Charlie’s redundancy in expressions and examples is purposeful: for the kind of deep “fluency” he advocates, he knows that repetition is the heart of instruction.”
Michael Broggie
“I sometimes tell my friends, ‘I’m doing the best I can. But, I’ve never grown old before. I’m doing it for the first time. And I’m not sure that I’ll do it right.”
“Today, he can’t remember the first time he was exposed to the aphorisms of Ben Franklin, but they fueled and ineffaceable admiration for the electic and eccentric statesman / inventor.”
“Too small to compete in regular high school sports, he joined the rifle team, earned a varsity letter, and eventually became team captain.”
“Thanks to family connections, Charlie landed a boring job counting passersby; it paid forty cents per hour.”
“Charlie learned that, by supporting each other, the Mungers weathered the worst economic collapse in the nation’s history.” Page 9
“He has often stated that anyone who wants to be successful should study physics because its concepts and formulas so beautifully demonstrate the powers of sound theory.”
“Because of his intellect (the Army measured his IQ at the top of the curve), Charlie had a tendency to be abrupt, which was often interpreted as rudeness.” Page 11
“Charlie learned that his adored son, Teddy, was terminally ill with leukemia.”
“He wanted more than what a senior law partner would be able to earn.”
“However, he never forgot the sound principles taught by his grandfather: t concentrate on the task immediately in front of him and to control spending.”
“It’s the work on your desk. Do well with what you already have and more will come in.”
“He said that while law might be a good hobby for Charlie, it was a far less promising business than what Warren was doing. Warren’s logic helped Charlie to decide to quit law practice at the earliest point he could afford to do so.” Page 17
Buffett on Munger, Page 17 – Poor Charlie’s Almanac
“Despite his healthy self-image, Charlie would prefer to be anonymous.” Page 20
“And I think when you’re trying to teach the great concepts that work, it helps to tie them into the lives and personalities of the people who developed them.” Page 23
“Early Charlie Munger is a horrible career model for the young, because not enough was delivered to civilization in return for what was wrested from capitalism.” Page 24
“There was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.” Ben Franklin Page 26
Cicero had written this work, praising old age, in roughly the sixtieth year of his life. Page 27
“As the years have passed, I have encountered more and more criticism from being lost in my own thoughts when others were talking to me.” Page 30
“To him, pride in a job well done is vastly constructive.” Page 31
“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” Archimedes, Page 33
“Patience is the greatest of all virtues.” Cato the Elder, Marcus Porcius Cato (234 – 149 BC) Page 35
“As usual, Ben Franklin improved what he found.” Page 36
Downward Spiral Tale, Morality Tale
“This was a terrible mistake, and we don’t want you ever to make another one like it. But people make mistakes, and we can forgive that. You did the right thing, which was to admit your mistake. If you had tried to hide the mistake, or cover it up for even a short time, you would be out of this company. As it is, we’d like you to stay.”
As told by Charles T. Munger Jr., about his father, Page 40
“Charlie’s Smart, Curious, Focused… and a Little Absentminded.” Page 48
“This book capturing Charlie’s wisdom is long overdue.” Page 51
The real star of the Hourigan – MAAW review are the 18 different earlier reviews of other Goldratt and similar throughput accounting work. Those reviews, also all part of the University of South Florida’s accounting department, go back as early as 1990, and are all part of the Management And Accounting Web.
My web site http://maaw.info represents an ongoing project to systematically categorize management and accounting literature from the past 100+ years. The site is freely accessible to anyone on the web and particularly useful to students, researchers, and practitioners interested in accounting.
Dr. Hourigan’s LinkedIn Description of MAAW
Dr. Hourigan has spent hours cataloging and organizing information around management and accounting. The site has many internal references, each going back to a source document on important topics for anyone new to Theory of Constraints and the accounting implications.
Finding these kinds of organized, self-built, treasure troves of expertise is always a pleasant surprise. It is a tribute to Dr. Hourigan’s persistence that he has built out such a deep catalog on such an important subject.
About MAAW
From Dr. Hourigan:
“MAAW is designed around 135 main topics (some fairly broad) that can be accessed from the home page, the main topics page, or the table of contents. At a minimum, each topic includes a main page and bibliography. Many topics also include several other pages of summary information, illustrations, links to other web sites, and a list of questions related to that topic. The site can be used to supplement any course of study in accounting, most accounting research projects, and perhaps most courses and research projects in business and economics as well. For example, broad topics such as Behavioral Issues, Deming, Economics, Ethics, Theories, Research Methodology, Strategy, and Quantitative methods are applicable to a wide audience.”
“There are thousands of entries on the Main Bibliography and topics pages and hundreds of article and book summaries. In addition, thousands of articles from The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Administrative Science Quarterly, The Academy of Management Journal, The Accounting Historians Journal, and Management Science are available via links to the JSTOR database. MAAW also includes bibliographies for many other Journals. These pages include a complete or extensive listing of each journal’s published articles. In addition, the Index of Accounting Systems for Business is a relatively new section that includes articles by type of activity as well as by type of business.”
Related Summaries (All from MAAW):
Corbett, T. 2000. Throughput accounting and activity-based costing: The driving factors behind each methodology. Journal of Cost Management (January/February): 37-45. (Summary).
Goldratt, E. M. 1990. What is this thing called Theory of Constraints. New York: North River Press. (Summary).
Goldratt, E. M. 1990. The Haystack Syndrome: Sifting Information Out of the Data Ocean. New York: North River Press. (Summary).
Goldratt, E. M. 1992. From Cost world to throughput world. Advances In Management Accounting (1): 35-53. (Summary).
Goldratt, E. M., E. Schragenheim and C. A. Ptak. 2000. Necessary But Not Sufficient. New York: North River Press. (Summary).
Hall, R., N. P. Galambos, and M. Karlsson. 1997. Constraint-based profitability analysis: Stepping beyond the Theory of Constraints. Journal of Cost Management (July/August): 6-10. (Summary).
Huff, P. 2001. Using drum-buffer-rope scheduling rather than just-in-time production. Management Accounting Quarterly (Winter): 36-40. (Summary).
Louderback, J. And J. W. Patterson. 1996. Theory of constraints versus traditional management accounting. Accounting Education 1(2): 189-196. (Summary).
Luther, R. and B. O’Donovan. 1998. Cost-volume-profit analysis and the theory of constraints. Journal of Cost Management (September/October): 16-21. (Summary).
Martin, J. R. Not dated. Comparing Dupont’s ROI with Goldratt’s ROI. Management And Accounting Web. ComparingDupontGoldrattROI
Martin, J. R. Not dated. Comparing Traditional Costing, ABC, JIT, and TOC. Management And Accounting Web. TradABCJITTOC
Martin, J. R. Not dated. Drum-Buffer-Rope System. Management And Accounting Web. DrumBufferRope
Martin, J. R. Not dated. Global measurements of the theory of constraints. Management And Accounting Web. TOCMeasurements
Martin, J. R. Not dated. Goldratt’s dice game or match bowl experiment. Management And Accounting Web. MatchBowlExperiment
Martin, J. R. Not dated. TOC problems and introduction to linear programming. Management And Accounting Web. TOCProblemsIntroToLP
Rezaee, Z. and R. C. Elmore. 1997. Synchronous manufacturing: Putting the goal to work. Journal of Cost Management (March/April): 6-15. (Summary).
Ruhl, J. M. 1996. An introduction to the theory of constraints. Journal of Cost Management (Summer): 43-48. (Summary).
Westra, D., M. L. Srikanth and M. Kane. 1996. Measuring operational performance in a throughput world. Management Accounting (April): 41-47. (Summary).
Mandelbrot’s breadth of work, language skills, and clarity make his autobiography a pleasure to read. Highlighting my favorite sentence on a page was my first step in an effort to improve my own writing. This led to page by page, and then chapter by chapter summaries – Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist has been my favorite so far.
Mandelbrot’s life is full of challenge and urgency. He is born into World War 2 on November 20, 1924, demonstrating academic prowess from an early age while fleeing a wave of Nazi persecution from Poland to Vichy France in Part 1. With Part 2, the eminent threat of death is removed, but the threat of distraction and a lack of clarity in the value of the new field he was developing – previously unconnected study of roughness which he would brand as ‘fractals’. Part 3 establishes a cadence of success, as Mandelbrot achieves and extends his ‘Keplerian Dream’ with the broad success of fractals. He ties together multiple fields of study, creates unique insights, creates an educational culture around his new field of study, achieves penetration in the popular press with his ideas, and is widely recognized for his contributions before his death. Several rules, habits and talents are used through his life, chronologically they are:
Discuss risks and odds.
Survive. Flee when you must.
Split up to survive.
Build on your strengths.
Have a big dream.
If it isn’t going to work, don’t force it.
If your capability is broad, be broad.
Connect – Tie things together.
Look for talent.
Use deadlines.
Write clearly.
Brand.
Note the missing items.
Measure, math, numbers.
Enjoy it.
These rules for life are simple, and they are supported many times throughout Mandelbrot’s life as he highlights in the book:
Discuss risks and odds, Mandelbrot on his parents, “They never shouted at each other but argued constantly about strategy, and they taught me very early that before taking big risks, one must carefully figure the odds.” The family discussed risk at a ‘War Council’ when it was time to choose Benoit’s schooling.
Survive. Flee when you must. When other families worried about the silverware or where to go – the Mandelbrots got out.
Split up to survive. Benoit and his brother split from his parents, probably saving their lives.
Build on your strengths. Benoit knew math. Then he knew Zipf. Then he built a career on both.
Have a big dream. Benoit was determined to find his Keplerian dream – unifying and describing some integral form of how the world works. He brought order to roughness.
If it isn’t going to work, don’t force it. In Chapter 22, when fractals change the understanding of finance, Benoit notes, “I was acutely aware that my findings would have devastating consequences for the accepted standard theory of speculation.” Benoit misses several academic appointments, but he moves on – he does not dwell on the missed opportunities. Onward.
If your capability is broad, be broad. Because of his perspective seeing many problems at IBM, he was able to develop the early work with Zipf to explain how a broad array of problems had a common underlying explanation – fractals.
Connect – Tie things together. The patterns from Zipf followed the patterns in finance, followed the patterns of the early Internet. Rather than learning anew with each problem, he looked for ways to apply a common set of tools.
Look for talent, “The Revolution succeeded because Carnot hired men such as the Corsican Napoléon Bonaparte.” IBM was undergoing change. The French academy was not. Mandelbrot sought out areas of study and entities that would appreciate who he was.
Use deadlines. Mandelbrot did not shy away from the opportunity to present a summary of his findings in France in Chapter 24, “It forced me to gather all I had achieved and fit it into an hour. This effort started me on my 1975 book.”
Write clearly (Chapter 26): “Many scientific articles are completely flat because they are written for people who do not have to be convinced.” “… one must know how to enter into a subject quickly ….”
Brand. Mandelbrot’s breadth was a liability, until he used his strength in linguistics to coin a neologism – FRACTAL, “I had not a single identifying brand name for my activity. Ten more years went by until I gave up and coined the word “fractal.””
Note the missing items. “A fractal is defined as well by what has been removed as it is by what remains.”
Measure, math, numbers. Mandelbrot embraces the math and numeracy of every situation he encountered.
Enjoy it. Mandelbrot loves his wife, Aliette, his sons, his grandchildren. He finds fractals in music and artwork. His French appreciation for the finer things in life is clear in the way that he built friendships that spanned the globe.
Part by Part, Chapter by Chapter, Page by Page Review – 91 Benoit Mandelbrot Quotes
Mandelbrot’s book tells the story in a fractal nature – bouncing big and small and returning to reinforce important topics. From this first family photo Mandelbrot introduces us to the adults that shaped his young life, helped him survive World War II, and put him in position to excel when life provided him with options. What a family!
Best Quote(s)
“As observed by a writer native to that part of Europe, Woe to the poet born in an interesting piece of geography in a violent time.”
Mandelbrot’s fractals visual replication of geographic features – coast lines and elevations, was one of the first clear victories of the new field. Mandelbrot’s life would move about the globe, making big leaps and small.
“Other war survivors describe being in a herd on the way to the death camps, noticing a way out, and taking it instantly. That is the kind of man Father was.”
Little opportunities lead to big changes. Mandelbrot’s family would face many opportunities where following the herd would have led to a very different life – or even death. Instead, they found the way out.
“They never shouted at each other but argued constantly about strategy, and they taught me very early that before taking big risks, one must carefully figure the odds.”
Discussion of risks helps mitigate risks. Identify risks, then address them.
“Like many social customs, it could be defied, but at a cost: not being part of a system of patronage that is pervasive in intellectual and professional groups.”
Mandelbrot’s career would lack the rudder of mentorship – but he made up for it by staying focused on finding a larger calling and harnessing his intellectual capabilities and breadth of interests with hard work.
Warsaw shaped Mandelbrot as his first home, site of his early education and as a way of life that would be completely erased. His family focused on staying alive and ahead of the Nazi advance at a time when others who were less urgent were murdered.
Best Quote(s)
“For these and other truly unavoidable reasons, Polish history from 1919 to 1939 was rough.”
Rough – just like the fractals that Mandelbrot invented.
“Since diversity cannot be avoided, one may as well like it (as I came to) or at least learn to live with it.”
This is a delightfully modern approach to diversity that is all too common in more integrated, international cultures.
“Before everything they had dreaded became horribly concrete in Poland, my parents’ bold scheme had worked.” Chapter 2, Location 659
His parents craft successful strategies again and again, allowing their family to survive and innovate on behalf of mankind.
“Of the people we knew, we alone moved to France and survived. Most procrastinated—until times turned awful. Only two Warsaw friends survived:…” Chapter 2, Location 663
The eradication of this world is frightening and it pervades Mandelbrot’s view of the world for the rest of his life. How could it not?
“Others had been detained by their precious china, or inability to sell their Bösendorfer concert grand piano, or unwillingness to abandon the park view from their windows. Mother was horrified by their stories but listened stone-faced.” Chapter 2, Location 668
When the Mandelbrot family needed to act, they did so – unencumbered by the weight of their past. They moved with focus to achieve their goal, survival.
Mandelbrot’s youth is about promise and his family’s focus on survival. In Chapter 3 we find our young student in France with a need to exceed in education, but with the reader knowing that war and atrocity lie in his future.
Best Quote(s)
“By pulling up their deep roots in a community that only a few years later vanished in smoke, my lucid and decisive parents saved us all and earned the utmost gratitude.” Chapter 3, Location 681
Chapter two told us of the wonderful upbringing, education and life lessons that Mandelbrot experienced in Poland – all of which were wiped away with the Nazi invasion and Holocaust. The lessons of his parents’ focus on survival is repeated throughout the book.
“Each time I recall that successful exam, my heart rejoices. Lady Luck is blind and needs assistance. In 1936, my parents assisted by moving out of Poland. In 1937, I was called to assist—and I did.” Chapter 3, Location 795
From Mandelbrot’s mind, “My parents kept us alive – and to make the most of it I had to nail that test. What fortune!”
“A belated benefit from my years of Latin is that they helped me correctly coin new words—like “fractal.”” Chapter 3, Location 833
Mandelbrot’s writing follows his study of roughness – we know where the story is going, and still the book plays out like a mystery. We know the ending – otherwise who would read this autobiography? Throughout he foreshadows his contribution to science and math.
Mandelbrot’s family continues to survive as the violence of World War II escalates. Hard work provides a way out. Luck breaks for the family again.
Best Quote(s)
“Xenophobia lost, meritocracy won, and she deliberately misplaced my family’s files.” Chapter 4, Location 879
The family survived many challenging times in WW2 – and they did so with some lucky breaks and a commitment to hard work.
“When I was nearing forty, my work became devoted to the phenomenon called intermittence, present in both nature and the financial markets.” Chapter 4, Location 885
Again, we see Mandelbrot foreshadowing his focus on fractals and the study of roughness.
“The final examination included two very easy problems, which I saw instantly to be a single problem stated in two different ways. Apparently, few students noticed.” Chapter 4, Location 1030
Mandelbrot manages to describe his academic and scientific prowess directly without boasting – that is a communication skill to envy.
Mandelbrot continued to excel in his studies despite the oppression of the Nazi occupation of France. He studied shapes, and used the basic of geometry in novel ways to solve problems more fitting for older students.
Best Quote(s)
“True to our antiherding instinct, our family decided it was best to split up: the boys on their own, and the parents on theirs.” Chapter 5, Location 1068
It is remarkable that parents would make this decision – it had to have been agonizing. And it was the right one.
“Not unlike sports, the bulk of training consisted of mastering a single but extremely arcane gesture.” Chapter 5, Location 1079
When brilliant minds comment on sport and athletics, the observations are always fascinating.
“Oradour-sur-Glane is a little town where the Waffen SS committed a horrible massacre in 1944, herding 642 villagers into a church and setting it on fire.” Chapter 5, Location 1118
Referring back to the family decision by the Mandelbrot’s to split up – the acts of violence by the Nazis defy the civility of modern life. As we will see in a later chapter, the Mandelbrot decision saved the lives of their children.
“In a way, I was learning to cheat.” Chapter 5, Location 1197
By learning to think in shapes, Mandelbrot would teach himself ways to think that even he considered cheating. His life’s great accomplishment is taking that way of thinking, using it to study roughness and sharing it with the rest of humanity.
Mandelbrot deploys his genius in order to help an aristocrat maintain the family horse farm while a war rages in the background. Carnegie uses animals to endear the reader to people – and the olfactory descriptions of a young Dr. Mandelbrot amidst equestrians is powerful imagery.
Best Quote(s)
“Nobody ever listens to me, but you did. And you remembered everything. You can’t be altogether bad.” Chapter 6, Location 1242
“Horse owning Gentry thought Germany would win, “I cajoled them, first to listen to Swiss radio in French, then to France Libre in London.”” Chapter 6, Location 1298
From a persuasion standpoint, Mandelbrot was pacing his gentrified hosts to understand there were more possibilities about what might happen with the war.
We wrap up the first part of Mandelbrot’s life – with a wonderful preview of the 2nd and third parts. The family made a bold bet to split up, and it was truly necessary based on the gruesome description of French resistance youths meeting their death hanging from street lamps.
Best Quote(s)
“The bold plan our parents had devised—bless their hard-won survivor skills—had let them and their sons cope with events separately. This bet, the riskiest of our complicated lives, worked better than any realist could have hoped.” Chapter 7, Location 1335
The plan had worked, all four were alive – while other families in similar situations were never to meet again.
“During this second, twelve-year stage of my life, I was not going to manage elegantly—as will be seen. So, in time, I deliberately provoked a belated third stage.” Chapter 7, Location 1347
In Part 1, we watched Mandelbrot’s family survived World War 2 intact. They had a strategy – splitting when others stayed together. Tough decisions were made and they stayed ahead as a wave of Nazi persecution washed over Europe. Strengths were developed, hardships endured.
Part 2 is an incubation period for Mandelbrot. His stories are full of consistent life strategies and goals, but all throughout he feels unfulfilled. There are several components to Mandelbrot’s life strategy that lead to the crescendo that is Part 3, when fractals are a field of study and his Keplerian dream is realized. The accomplishments of Part 3 are built on the foundation laid here in Part 2.
The Habits of Mandelbrot
Having a goal and continually re-affirming what he does want to do. He names his goal – The Keplerian Dream.
Small activities are consistent with his larger ambition.
Associating with the best and brightest – and being open about his ambitions
Building on his strengths in mathematics.
Enjoying life – Mandelbrot exhaults in the bureacratic interludes, he finds love with Aliette, rejoices in music.
Figuring out what he doesn’t want to do. Reversing bad decisions.
Mandelbrot has now survived World War II, but with survival he is now quickly forced into major life decisions. Which school to attend? His decision to attend Normal – which he does for 1 day before realizing he has made a mistake – is met with a quick reversal. He attends Polytechnique. Uncle Szolem is embarassed, but what courageous behavior for a young man to exhibit at a hectic time of life.
Best Quote(s)
“The high stakes terrified us all, and my parents did not trust my teachers. So a family “war council” was called to help:…” Location 1430
This is more of a statement about me – as the writer of this chapter summary and blog, than it is about Mandelbrot. I’d never heard of a family doing such a formal review before helping a young member make a major life decision. The examples that Mandelbrot shares of the other great scientists – who went on to win Noble prizes and more, shows the wisdom of such a process.
“Good wine or cheese must not be rushed. So why rush good humans by pressing a cookie cutter on a malleable young mind?” Location 1536
By attending Polytechnique, Mandelbrot would enter into a French bureaucratic educational system that would force him to pause his scientific career several times to follow the rules of the state. Rather than seeing this idle time as a waste, he embraced it and believed it to help his ultimate achievements in developing a theory of roughness and fractals.
As noted in his quote below, Mandelbrot enters Polytechnique literally in rags and is one of the few international students. He devours the opportunities in front of him, while also realizing that the degree will provide him golden handcuffs that tie him to France – which may not be the best geography for someone with his Keplerian dream.
Best Quote(s)
“… my whole life’s orbit was to show that professional authority did not awe me either.” Chapter 9, Location 1645
Mandelbrot listens to authority – and is politely interested in its guidance. However, he does not blindly obey.
“Plus, all generally valid rules suffer from deviant exceptions, and I went on to prove that a person profoundly rooted in classics may very well be a successful, yet troublemaking, maverick.” Chapter 9, Location 1746
Mandelbrot was classically trained at Polytechnique, and he had a deep education in geometry – albeit learned in nontraditional ways. It was this domain expertise in these fields that led him to create the study of fractals.
This chapter documents the many remarkable minds and concepts that Mandelbrot encountered in his studies, all while he was searching for a remarkable topic to develop fully as his own. His self reflection while wandering in a field of geniuses makes for great reading.
Best Quote(s)
“But freedom of choice was a negative asset; it set me on a wide sea without sufficient guidance.” Location 1762
Mandlebrot has succeeded and is at the top of the pecking order in France with his success at Polytechnique – and that success has brought freedom. Freedom after the travails of WW2 is paralyzing and gives too much freedom to operate.
“I wanted to feel the excitement of being the first to find a degree of order in some real, concrete, and complex area where everyone else saw a lawless mess.” Location 1767
Mandlebrot curtails his immense freedoms by teasing out a personal and professional goal – and an audacious one at that. This ‘Keplerian’ dream that he has outlined is bold and big. In his autobiography, written later in life, he starts to see visions of this goal early. As the reader, I wonder how much he felt early in life, and how much he portrayed backwards as he enjoyed success in later years. Mandelbrot allows us to feel this mystery along with him without forcing the development of fractals as predetermined.
Chapter 11 could serve as an excerpt from Heller’s masterpiece, Catch-22. Mandelbrot attempts to conform to his military service requirements while the military bureaucracy struggles to make use of a loyal, but atypical, young man.
Best Quote(s)
“A BLESSING THROUGHOUT LIFE: I never wonder who I am. To the contrary, many successive bureaucracies wondered endlessly.” Location 1995
Mandelbroth may have had uncertainty in life as he wandered in pursuit of his ‘Keplerian Dream’ which he would find in his study of roughness, but he knew who he was. He knew he was in pursuit of that goal – even as he knew that the precise goal was not known.
Mandelbrot could tolerate that lack of clarity – and as we’ll see in the chapters about his early family, his wife and children could too. He created a life that let him search for it. Bureaucracies – here the French Air Force, but later IBM – served as stewards of his income, but were themselves confused.
It took a lot of commitment for a young graduate, and later a young father to:
Admit he did not know the goal with precision.
Harness the bureaucratic energy of these organizations while it was clear that they were confused about who he was.
Opera and classical music becomes a passion for some – but it has never been so for me. Synthetic, computer generated music on its own has never sounded good to me – but I do like how it can be used to augment the beat or rhythm in dance or techno music. My favorite artist, Bob Dylan, made a legendary transition to the electric guitar and took folk music with him. Perhaps someone is using that with fractal or other digital music now.
Best Quote:
“What brought the three of us together was a special development—the observation that music has a fractal aspect.”
“Unlike Szolem, I enjoy intellectual fencing and occasionally showing off. Otherwise—like Szolem—I absolutely stopped having patience for their games.”
Mandelbrot, Chapter 13
Like Tversky and Kahneman – there had to be a base rate. Mandelbrot needed to engage with his peers and barb with them in order to realize that the games they were playing were silly. Without the base rate – what it was those peers were going to accomplish – then the prodigy was unable to see that he wanted more. Mandelbrot couldn’t articulate a clear destination, but he could put himself among an exceptional group of peers, hold his own intellectually, and while evaluating their goals say, “More than that!”
Mandelbrot recognized he did not fit, and he developed a system – albeit a loose one – to help refine what he wanted to do to truly excel. He knew what not to do. He trained himself to find the things he should do.
Best Quote(s)
The role of a mentor who has done what you want to do is highlighted by Kastler’s advice in Mandelbrot’s choice of thesis;
“This man was attuned to nuance and comfortable with living between two cultures.” Mandelbrot, Chapter 13 – Location 2324
As Mandelbrot reflects on the lives of his parents following the 1951 passing of his father;
“Their explanation was that less fortunate persons would have perished early in one of the catastrophes that they had managed to sail through.” Mandelbrot, Chapter 13 – Location 2331
Our scientist-hero has identified a goal – creating a ‘Keplerian’ field of study which he can pioneer. Mandelbrot has found a mentor, Kastler, who understood the need to drift between worlds and excelled at it. He has a method to pursue this need – surrounding himself with brilliant peers, and then finding out how to outshine them and realizing that their bureaucratic games of hierarchy hold no attraction for him.
Best Quote(s)
Path dependency matters. Many had noted the trends and methods that Mandelbrot would make into a formal field, but under ‘Important’ areas of study, it was hard to take the intellectual risks necessary to openly discuss their use. Failure would be too painful. By starting in an atypical area that threatened no one, he was allowed room to develop and grow. (On a personal note – this feels like my time in nanofibers.)
“My luck was to begin with the distribution of word frequencies—a thoroughly atypical example without any important consequences, and uniquely easy to handle.” Mandelbrot, Chapter 14, Location 2387
Mandelbrot, Chapter 14, Location 2387
Scaling – ‘being fractal’ – in your activities is one of my personal big take aways from reading this book. Mandelbrot declares that if something is not smooth, then it is rough – and things that are rough have common traits in how they behave. Apply this to life – if things are not smooth, then they must be rough. Do things that scale up and scale down. Much in business is focused on ‘can it scale up’ – but in many ways this avoids the hard challenges of finding ways for activities to be worthwhile if they must scale down. To win in a world of roughness, scaling – both up and down – must be part of the strategy.
“The language—English, French, Latin, whatever—does not matter. Neither—quite oddly—does the writer’s degree of literacy. This is an example of what physicists were soon to call a universal relationship. Another notion in physics, called scaling, is one that underlies fractals.”
Mandelbrot, Chapter 14, Location 2408
If ever a movie is made of Mandelbrot’s life – then the scene where he reads this paper, a gift from Uncle Szolem, and hits this Eureka moment would be a highlight.
“In one of the very few clear-cut eureka moments of my life, I saw that it might be deeply linked to information theory and hence to statistical thermodynamics—and became hooked on power law distributions for life.”
Mandelbrot, Chapter 14, Location 2425
Zipf’s paper was not new – it had first been published 16 years earlier. Mandelbrot would be in a tenuous position – he believed that his mathematical capabilities provided him a unique perspective, but he was alone with this view point. Only as he was able to add to this perspective with advances in topics far afield from word theory would the strength of Mandelbrot’s position improve.
“My good fortune resided in an unfair advantage. I was to be the first—and for an interminable time, the only—trained mathematical scientist to take Zipf’s law seriously.” Mandelbrot, Chapter 14, Location 2425
Mandelbrot heads to MIT (images above from this MIT group), studies under a pioneer and namer of ‘cybernetics’ and continues on his quest to uncover and master a Keplerian field of study.
Best Quote(s)
“Cybernetics” was a word Wiener had just coined…”
Mandelbrot, Chapter 15 Location 2493
Mandelbrot’s definition of fractal and creation of the word as the systematic study of roughness is important to him, and it was something he explored diligently.
“… grammar is like the chemistry or algebra of language.”
Mandelbrot, Chapter 15 Location 2575
This is slipped in as a throw away line about language and Zipf, but it is an elegant way to think of how words are used.
“These two men were the only living proof that my Keplerian dream was not an idle one—that it was possible to put together and develop a new mathematical approach to a very old, very concrete problem that overlapped several disciplines.”
Mandelbrot, Chapter 15 Location 2499
In using Mandelbrot to explore good habits for achieving a goal – here he has set a Goal and identified two living benchmarks. It may be only two – but at least there is someone who has completed his objective!
The Chapter starts with the tale of a public lecture where Mandelbrot is excoriated – but then experiences a classic ‘Oppenheimer’ explanation. Following a fractal pattern, we then find Von Neumann providing another level of explanation on top of Oppenheimer. It is amazing how Mandelbrot’s career was so closely entwined with these brilliant titans of discovery.
Best Quote(s)
“No major turn in my entire life proceeded more smoothly.
Mandelbrot, Chapter 16 Loc 2664
If things are not smooth – then they are rough. Mandelbrot hints here at a ‘Fractal Strategy’ for life. If things are going smooth – then there are a certain set of rules. But when things are rough, be sure that your actions can scale up – and that they can also scale down. Big things build from small patterns repeated with consistency.
“As soon as he heard a field had become hot, he made himself an expert with a competitive edge and identified several key issues he could solve.”
Mandelbrot, Chapter 16, Loc 2631
In Finance this would be a convex strategy, where you follow the winners and keep winning provided they continue to be the winners in the next period.
Young Mandelbrot has completed his PhD and looking for employment, mentors and other problems that will all work towards his goal of a Keplerian type view of a major problem. Zipf put him on the path to Fractals, but Fractals have not yet come to his life.
Best Quote(s)
“…. the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences.”
Mandelbrot, quoting Wigner in Chapter 17
“… his fear of being a mere survivor of the last century, and his feeling of being a mathematician unlike all the others.”
Mandelbrot, describing Levy’s autobiography in Chapter 17
Mandelbrot pursues love and family life – and does it with the usual cast of exceptional and brilliant people.
Best Quote(s)
“Without her willingness to let me gamble my life—and hers and our children’s—the odd career I undertook would have been unthinkable.”
Mandelbrot, Chapter 19
Mandelbrot’s approach to risk, and his life’s dream, is linked. He knows that his family took this risk with him, and that without their involvement, he could not have succeeded.
On Citroen, “He tamed front-wheel drive for mass production, and his brilliant engineers rethought every part from scratch so that even some key parts could be duplicated, if needed, in a home garage.”
Mandelbrot, Chapter 19
In a way Citroen was fractal in its approach to manufacturing. The parts were assembled into a vehicle, but then the parts themselves could be easily assembled with ordinary tools.
Mandelbrot was able to assist Piaget’s early work to transform the study of human behavior and human development and also learn from him how to take his own ideas farther.
Best Quote(s)
“… Jean Piaget (1896–1980). He was pleased to hear that I was aware of his fame in trying to bring rationality to child psychology.”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist Chapter 19
The number of brilliant minds that Mandelbrot was able to connect with was staggering. Piaget is one of many who was the founder of a major modern field of science.
Piaget, “He promptly changed fields and set out on a lifelong effort to extend proper scientific principles to human behavior.”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 19
Before Piaget, the use of data, analytics and rigor was weak in human development. Mandelbrot was to take this same approach to a theory of roughness.
“… telling me that, instead of more papers that looked unrelated, I must write a book.”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 19
Mandelbrot put himself near so many people with great skill and was able to position them as coaches and make use of their advice.
In this final chapter before heading into Book 3, we read how an older Mandelbrot looks back on his decisions to pursue his goal and the risks that were required to succeed.
Best Quote(s)
Mandelbrot has a dream – he has a goal. He sees that his life to this point is not getting him to this goal. Without this goal – the Keplerian dream – Mandelbrot has no guiding vision. It is the yardstick by which he measures success.
“Unfortunately, my various enterprises up to 1957 had not gone very far to further my aging but still vibrant Keplerian dream.”
Mandelbrot, Chapter 20
Mandelbrot isn’t sure what he should do – but he is increasingly sure that what he is doing is not a fit for his goals in life. Pursuing a career in French academia will block his goal.
“I saw no compatibility between a university position in France and my still-burning wild ambition and dreams.”
Mandelbrot, Chapter 20
Mandelbrot may not know what to do – but he does know clearly what not to do. Such simple steps as having a goal and avoiding bad decisions keep the dream alive and his pursuit a rationale one.
There is a grace and tact to Mandelbrot’s writing instilled from his upbringing – he has not written a ‘final’ part, simply ‘Part 3.’
Fractals For When Things Are Not Smooth
“What I’m asserting, very strongly, is that when some real thing is found to be unsmooth, the next mathematical model to try is fractal or multifractal. Since roughness is everywhere, fractals are present everywhere.” Location 4460
Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot, Chapter 29, Location 4460
Before Mandelbrot, mathematics and models dealt with a world that was smooth. Interest rates compounded continuously, and graphs were full of straight lines, slopes and curves. But this did not fit the world as it was seen. Mandelbrot’s creation of fractals allowed models and graphics that created images that reflected the roughness shown in nature, finance, and so many other fields.
For a ‘Fractal Life Strategy’, we could say:
You know how things behave if the world is smooth.
When the world is not smooth, it is rough. And when it is rough, we anticipate things using our knowledge of fractals.
Wild, Mild and Slow
“The three states of chance—wild, mild, and slow—can be compared to the three states of matter. Are not solid and gas separated by liquid? Absolutely. In my view, the same is true of chance—the counterpart of liquid being “slow” randomness.”
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 22
Any form of enumeration is enlightening – Mandelbrot’s study of fractals established that probabilities can shift between three states – mild, wild and slow.
Branding
“I had not a single identifying brand name for my activity. Ten more years went by until I gave up and coined the word “fractal.””
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 23
Mandelbrot contributed to many different fields, all building from his first work with Zipf’s Law. As he matured, he realized that he needed a name for this field of study – he needed to market his accomplishments. ‘Fractals’ were born.
Writing
“Many scientific articles are completely flat because they are written for people who do not have to be convinced.” 4189
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 24
Mandelbrot succeeded in his Keplerian dream because he was outside of the academic establishment; by being with IBM he could see many problems, and by having a broad focus for his work, he was forced to make his writing more accessible than his peers who had a narrower, more learned, target audience.
Team Building
“The Revolution succeeded because Carnot hired men such as the Corsican Napoléon Bonaparte.”
Mandelbrot, Chapter 21
Mandelbrot joins IBM at a time when the business is going through a massive post World War 2 hiring binge to promote a much needed culture changes. They hire for brilliance, ignoring quirks, and in so doing develop a world class research center. The camaraderie and stability of IBM enable the birth of fractals and fulfillment of Mandelbrot’s Keplerian dream.
Opportunity, Impact
“I had often demonstrated the capacity to formulate big dreams that everyone else held to be odd and unreachable—but that I managed to fulfill.” 4253
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 27
Mandelbrot had a grand dream – to impact to humanity along the lines of what Kepler brought by studying, calculating, and predicting the structure of the universe. His dreams were big. Others though them unattainable, but he continued to work and was successful in reaching them.
Mandelbrot would spend the next 35 years employed by an associated with IBM Research. He would serve as a professor at times, but there was always a tie back to industry, giving him flexibility in his pursuits.
Best Quote(s)
IBM was going through a change, and with it they needed to change the kind of people that they were hiring.
“For one thing, relaxed hiring rules brought in many individuals for whom other institutions did not compete: “oddballs,” “wild geese,” scientists whose high-class record was marred by some fault or another or by disputes with faculty advisers.”
Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 21
IBM had to change. It had to go through a step change in personnel to create a step change in its own business. It had need of a fractal ‘big change’, which could only occur if it made a series of correct ‘small change’ decisions with its hiring. Mandelbrot again shows examples of fractal activity in his life; if things are smooth – we know how they will behave, but when things are rough, there is a different set of rules.
“The Revolution succeeded because Carnot hired men such as the Corsican Napoléon Bonaparte.”
Mandelbrot, Chapter 21
Looking back Mandelbrot sees that this was the beginning of the ‘Fruitful third stage’ in pursuit of Keplerian dream of pioneering a new field of study. But he at the time the day-to-day activities that were asked of him by IBM didn’t necessarily fit that vision. Again, he shows us a fractal pattern in action – the small steps would come together to create a big shift.
“They appeared at first sight to clash badly—but they really didn’t clash at all. It soon emerged that I was working on the building blocks of my soon-to-be fractal geometry of nature.”
My first exposure to Mandelbrot was through his joint work with Richard L. Hudson in The (Mis)Behavior of Markets, which was published in 2004 and stands as a testament to the contributions he made to finance beginning with this work in 1962. Mandelbrot follows the rules that led him through Part 2 of his life, and in doing so is presented with a unique opportunity to extend humanity’s understanding of financial markets. He takes full advantage of the opportunity, but then draws on the lessons learned in Part 1 to realize that the political inertia of this industry will blunt the impact of his magnificent contribution. Rather than dwell on this, he collects on the cache and karma of his contributions and continues on his life.
There are several impressive things that Mandelbrot does not do:
He doesn’t sever his ties with IBM to become a financier.
He doesn’t dig his heels in to fight the financial establishment – despite his convictions that he is right.
He refines his work on his terms, rather than trying to take the theory to far.
He continues to support the next generation of scientists in this area of finance by working with Eugene Fama and Merton Miller. Mandelbrot does not shepherd his work, he pushes it out and extends its reach.
He misses career opportunities that would be soul crushing and unrecoverable for many, but instead he plots onward.
Mandelbrot does not get stuck on the nature of his contribution to finance, despite its enormous value. He reads the situation accurately and moves on.
Best Quote(s)
“MY INVOLVEMENT WITH THE BEHAVIOR of financial prices—absolutely unplanned—became a constant of my scientific life.”
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 22
Mandelbrot’s path to achieving his Keplerian dream is not smooth – it is rough. Encounters with financial prices and their behavior would forever be a part of his life.
“The three states of chance—wild, mild, and slow—can be compared to the three states of matter. Are not solid and gas separated by liquid? Absolutely. In my view, the same is true of chance—the counterpart of liquid being “slow” randomness.”
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 22
Enumeration of options is always fascinating, and ‘mild, wild and slow’ are wonderful names.
“We’ve done all we can to make sense of these cotton prices. Everything changes, nothing is constant. This is a mess of the worst kind.”
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 22
There is great freedom in declaring a situation in hopeless. By declaring things a mess, “of the worst kind” the stage is set for Mandelbrot to attempt an explanation. As he benefited from his unique position with Zipf in his PhD, here Mandelbrot benefits from encountering a situation where there is low risk of embarrassment.
“Fractals—or their later elaboration, multifractals—do not claim to predict the future with certainty. But they do create a more realistic picture of market risks than does observation alone.”
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 22
Telling the future with 100% accuracy isn’t yet possible – but telling the future a little bit better tomorrow than was done today is a great improvement for society. Finance had previously lived in the world of smooth trajectories – when everyone knew that this was inaccurate. Through his study of roughness, Mandelbrot improved the understanding of market behavior.
“But not for a moment did I forget that to remain stable and vertical, a bicycle must move sufficiently fast.”
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 22
Bicycles are wonderful, but they are safest when moving. Balance is possible with minimal equipment, provided that motion is part of the equation. Velocity and direction are essential to safe operation with a minimalist approach.
“I was acutely aware that my findings would have devastating consequences for the accepted standard theory of speculation.”
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 22
In Part 1 we watched Mandelbrot’s family deftly maneuver through World War 2 and survive where others misread the political environment and perished. Mandelbrot has recognized that he has done work of great merit, but also sees that the work may not exist in fertile ground. The finance industry’s inertia and resistance to change may prevent this phase of his Keplerian Dream from becoming the early landslide victory that it might have been.
There are times when reading a book that every page, every sentence and every word come together to create a smile on the face of the reader. In Part 1 we’ve followed young Mandelbrot’s survival in the face of Nazi persecution and read with awe the names of the intellectuals he dealt with as he ‘drifted’ in Part 2. In Part 3 the tailor draws the thread, and in doing so we see the design pull together in satisfying way.
Each page in this chapter is great, each turn of phrase is memorable, and it is difficult to not envision an older Mandelbrot working on this document enjoying the time to recall his younger years.
Best Quote(s)
“This chapter’s title seems to make no sense. How can it possibly reflect reality?”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 23
Earlier in the book it became clear that the author was attempting to take his field of roughness and apply it to this text. Here he says so directly, implying that the path that took him to study roughness was itself fractal in nature. Of course.
“Numerous additional fields I visited also differ deeply yet share a key feature that to me matters more than any other: roughness.”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 23
If things are not smooth, then they are rough. The study of roughness, known as Fractals, shows common patterns to behavior and events that are not smooth.
“The fact that my life’s most productive season came late kept me in a constant hurry, and I could rarely take it easy.”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 23
From a life strategy standpoint – Dr. Mandelbrot never shies from the fact that he was late to gain the fame that he seemed destined from at an early age. He admits that this tension drove him and shaped his life.
“In fact, a common thread of my work is that values far from the norm are the key to the underlying phenomenon.”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 23
In reading Charlie Munger’s Almanack (?) he goes to great pains to justify that his good decisions on ‘big days’ led to his fund performance. Mandelbrot points out that this is true of all things.
“Ultimately, my interests and achievements were viewed in Chicago as absurdly broad, and at Harvard as absurdly narrow! Unfortunately, I had to agree that those opinions were not entirely unreasonable.”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 23
Throughout his life – or at least in this autobiographical and elderly reflection – Mandelbrot is comfortable with who he is. He does not force himself into scenarios where he cannot prosper. There is a self confidence in these actions that is crucial to his finding and achieving his Keplerian dream.
“I had not a single identifying brand name for my activity. Ten more years went by until I gave up and coined the word “fractal.””
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 23
Dr. Mandelbrot – because you haven’t been part of someone else’s laboratory, you really should make up a word and then use that to brand your work.
Mandelbrot’s home at IBM is secure, and with that security he continues to search about for interesting problems that fit his growing fractal toolkit. He remains worried that he has started his great work too late in life, and with that worry he remains determined to seek out and pursue new problems which his field of fractals can solve.
Best Quote(s)
“It forced me to gather all I had achieved and fit it into an hour. This effort started me on my 1975 book.”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 24 (Location 3706)
Mandelbrot accepts the lecture in France, and by doing so he creates a deadline. This forces him to organize his notes, which become the foundation of the book that would make his name known worldwide.
Mandelbrot was able to take the lessons he learned in financial prices and other wide ranging fields of interest and tie it back to his core area of strength – mathematics. The Mandelbrot set is named. By thinking of fractal math as dimensions defined by fractions, rather than whole numbers, he further extended humanity’s ability to name and study this field.
Best Quote(s)
“And I understood from readings and course material that a field might simply die for lack of manageable and interesting unsolved questions.” 3848
Benoit Mandelbrot, Chapter 25, Location 3848
Mandelbrot thought about fields of study as a social construct, which required the intrigue, interest and commitment of individual scientists to grow and prosper.
“Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002), a lively paleontologist with multiple appointments at Harvard. Quite independently, we had become two very visible champions of discontinuity—he in paleontology and I in the variation of financial prices.” 3825
Benoit Mandelbrot, Chapter 25, Location 3825
Good products have competitors. Products that don’t have a competitor warrant skepticism in their review. Gould’s framing of discontinuity in the fossil record – known as punctuated equilibrium, explained the fractured lineages of the fossil record by explaining them as bursts of fast moving periods of evolution.
Coining the word ‘fractal’ has been foreshadowed from the early chapters – such as Mandelbrot’s study of Latin as a youth and his education in the US near pioneers of newly named fields like biochemistry. He compares his writing style and objectives with that of his uncle Szolem, and summarizes his approach towards writing.
Best Quote(s)
“Throughout my life, it had been my principle never to compete frontally with anybody.” 4087
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 26 (Location 4087)
Mandelbrot is delighted to find a group that will be publishing a collection of artwork, and with that he writes out a life rule that is unique, and likely colored by the violence that surrounded him in his youth.
“Many scientific articles are completely flat because they are written for people who do not have to be convinced.” 4189
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 26 (Location 4189)
This is a fantastic insight – if the audience is captive, and if the author knows their information is unique and valuable, then what incentive do they have to make reading a joy?
“Whether it is opera or Greek drama, one must know how to enter into a subject quickly because one cannot assume that the audience will wait to understand. One has to be able to speak to people in their style, to motivate and even amuse the reader a little.” 4193
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 26 (Location 4193)
Enter the subject to quickly – and the reader is not prepared to receive the message. Enter it too slowly, and they are bored and walk away. How wonderful to enter a topic in conversation, where words can flow back and forth and we can reach the topic at the pace needed in order to achieve our goals.
“Szolem responded, “Yes, there are about fifteen people in the world who read everything I write. That is enough. I find that very comforting.”” 4018
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 26 (Location 4087)
The humor of this statement, with Mandelbrot’s uncle proudly boasting of his 15 loyal readers, compared to the generations of people who now know Mandelbrot and his fractals, is a great contrast to the anxiety that Mandelbrot faced his whole life.
Mandelbrot’s time at Yale is punctuated with the institution’s highest honor. He observes twice, both in his life and in the goals identified by Yale’s math department that there was a strategy for setting out on goals that were ‘odd and unreachable’, that can lead to great things. Yale hired him based on a desire to be ‘different’, not ‘lesser’.
Best Quote(s)
“THE ART OF RECEIVING new offers and fast promotions has always baffled me, but I have been lucky on a few occasions.” 4200
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 27, Location 4200
Mandelbrot’s name is now well known and distinct, but his life is full of big offers and promotions that go unfilled. There is a fractal nature to his life – rarely smooth, and often rough. How many autobiographies are smoothed out in the re-telling and remembering of a life?
“I had often demonstrated the capacity to formulate big dreams that everyone else held to be odd and unreachable—but that I managed to fulfill.” 4253
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 27, Location 4253
Mandelbrot’s self aware comment matches his insight about his new academic home, Yale, earlier in the chapter, “… they had decided to replace “lesser” with “different”—in particular, by expanding less abstract topics.”
With two chapters left to go, Mandelbrot’s reflections on his life and accomplishments make every passage notable. Picking ‘Best Quotes’ feels like an affront to the pearls of wisdom dispensed but not chosen.
Best Quote(s)
“An important turn in my life occurred when I realized that something I had long been stating in footnotes should be put on the marquee.”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 28 (Location 4278)
Mandelbrot didn’t set out to study roughness; he instead found a series of problems across seemingly unconnected fields that focused his mathematical skills on an area that was universally present, but not always acknowledged.
“Before my work on roughness, it was either undefined or measured by too many irrelevant quantities. Now it can be measured by one, two, or a few numbers.”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 28 (Location 4289)
I’m reading John Urschel’s Mind and Matter with my son; Urschel played in the NFL and afterwards completed a PhD in math at MIT. At times his statements of fact seem boastful, but they are true. How wonderful a statement from Mandelbrot! Is he boasting? Perhaps, but how could he state the truth and not be boastful.
Mandelbrot’s Keplerian dream inspired him to organize a theory of roughness from work across many fields and make a great contribution in mankind’s understanding of the world around us.
With only the Afterword left, these are the final words written by Mandelbrot. He begins with a weighty reflection about his 86 years of life, and closes with a wink to the reader, that the ‘fractal’ hints that were sprinkled in the book about his own life were intentionally inserted. Like the other chapters in Part 3, there are a number of outstanding quotes that provide insight to his strategy for life and models for explaining the world around him.
Best Quote(s)
My favorite quote from this chapter may be my favorite overall for the whole book; it is usable in real life. If things aren’t smooth – they are probably rough. There is a model for how rough things work – fractals.
“What I’m asserting, very strongly, is that when some real thing is found to be unsmooth, the next mathematical model to try is fractal or multifractal. Since roughness is everywhere, fractals are present everywhere.” Location 4460
Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot, Chapter 29, Location 4460
How best to explain one concept of fractals – self-similarity – with examples;
“A cauliflower shows how an object can be made of many parts, each of which is like a whole, but smaller. Another example of this repeated roughness is the cloud.” Location 4456
Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot, Chapter 29, Location 4456
If fractals are so new as a field of study, how many other similarly obvious fields await the focus of the right mind?
“Fractal geometry is one of those concepts which at first invites disbelief but on second thought becomes so natural that one wonders why it has only recently been developed.” Location 4422
Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot, Chapter 29, Location 4422
If other obvious fields exist for study – if fractals were waiting for the right circumstances to be unlocked, how was it that our story’s hero, who had fled the Nazis in Part 1, was the person to find them?
“One reason is my personality—I don’t seek power or run around asking for favors. A second is circumstances—I was in an industrial laboratory because academia found me unsuitable.” Location 4460
Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot, Chapter 29, Location 4460
And lastly, a wink and a nod to those who have noted that fractals have surely filled the life of Dr. Mandelbrot:
“Does not the distribution of my personal experiences remind one of the central topic of my scientific work—namely, extreme fractal unevenness? All counted, I have known few minutes of boredom.” Location 4480
Mandelbrot achieved a great deal, but felt his whole life that there was much more discovery that he could have given the world. The afterword closes out with the topics he had hoped to touch on, but was unable to develop – negative dimensions and lacunarity, and also provides some closing observations on his life.
Best Quote(s)
“Like fractals, life is better understood as a process than as a result.”
Afterword
Use processes to understand the world.
“A fractal is defined as well by what has been removed as it is by what remains.”
There is a grace and tact to Mandelbrot’s writing instilled from his upbringing – he has not written a ‘final’ part, simply ‘Part 3.’ Condensing the life of someone that unlocked so much knowledge starts to feel hopeless – he did so many impressive things and wrote about them with modesty and elegance.
Fractals For When Things Are Not Smooth
“What I’m asserting, very strongly, is that when some real thing is found to be unsmooth, the next mathematical model to try is fractal or multifractal. Since roughness is everywhere, fractals are present everywhere.” Location 4460
Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot, Chapter 29, Location 4460
Before Mandelbrot, mathematics and models dealt with a world that was smooth. Interest rates compounded continuously, and graphs were full of straight lines, slopes and curves. But this did not fit the world as it was seen. Mandelbrot’s creation of fractals allowed models and graphics that created images that reflected the roughness shown in nature, finance, and so many other fields.
For a ‘Fractal Life Strategy’, we could say:
You know how things behave if the world is smooth.
When the world is not smooth, it is rough. And when it is rough, we anticipate things using our knowledge of fractals.
Wild, Mild and Slow
“The three states of chance—wild, mild, and slow—can be compared to the three states of matter. Are not solid and gas separated by liquid? Absolutely. In my view, the same is true of chance—the counterpart of liquid being “slow” randomness.”
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 22
Any form of enumeration is enlightening – Mandelbrot’s study of fractals established that probabilities can shift between three states – mild, wild and slow.
Branding
“I had not a single identifying brand name for my activity. Ten more years went by until I gave up and coined the word “fractal.””
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 23
Mandelbrot contributed to many different fields, all building from his first work with Zipf’s Law. As he matured, he realized that he needed a name for this field of study – he needed to market his accomplishments. ‘Fractals’ were born.
Writing
“Many scientific articles are completely flat because they are written for people who do not have to be convinced.” 4189
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 24
Mandelbrot succeeded in his Keplerian dream because he was outside of the academic establishment; by being with IBM he could see many problems, and by having a broad focus for his work, he was forced to make his writing more accessible than his peers who had a narrower, more learned, target audience.
Team Building
“The Revolution succeeded because Carnot hired men such as the Corsican Napoléon Bonaparte.”
Mandelbrot, Chapter 21
Mandelbrot joins IBM at a time when the business is going through a massive post World War 2 hiring binge to promote a much needed culture changes. They hire for brilliance, ignoring quirks, and in so doing develop a world class research center. The camaraderie and stability of IBM enable the birth of fractals and fulfillment of Mandelbrot’s Keplerian dream.
Opportunity, Impact
“I had often demonstrated the capacity to formulate big dreams that everyone else held to be odd and unreachable—but that I managed to fulfill.” 4253
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 27
Mandelbrot had a grand dream – to impact to humanity along the lines of what Kepler brought by studying, calculating, and predicting the structure of the universe. His dreams were big. Others though them unattainable, but he continued to work and was successful in reaching them.
Part 3, Chapter by Chapter Summary – 34 Mandelbrot Quotes
Mandelbrot would spend the next 35 years employed by an associated with IBM Research. He would serve as a professor at times, but there was always a tie back to industry, giving him flexibility in his pursuits.
Best Quote(s)
IBM was going through a change, and with it they needed to change the kind of people that they were hiring.
“For one thing, relaxed hiring rules brought in many individuals for whom other institutions did not compete: “oddballs,” “wild geese,” scientists whose high-class record was marred by some fault or another or by disputes with faculty advisers.”
Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 21
IBM had to change. It had to go through a step change in personnel to create a step change in its own business. It had need of a fractal ‘big change’, which could only occur if it made a series of correct ‘small change’ decisions with its hiring. Mandelbrot again shows examples of fractal activity in his life; if things are smooth – we know how they will behave, but when things are rough, there is a different set of rules.
“The Revolution succeeded because Carnot hired men such as the Corsican Napoléon Bonaparte.”
Mandelbrot, Chapter 21
Looking back Mandelbrot sees that this was the beginning of the ‘Fruitful third stage’ in pursuit of Keplerian dream of pioneering a new field of study. But he at the time the day-to-day activities that were asked of him by IBM didn’t necessarily fit that vision. Again, he shows us a fractal pattern in action – the small steps would come together to create a big shift.
“They appeared at first sight to clash badly—but they really didn’t clash at all. It soon emerged that I was working on the building blocks of my soon-to-be fractal geometry of nature.”
My first exposure to Mandelbrot was through his joint work with Richard L. Hudson in The (Mis)Behavior of Markets, which was published in 2004 and stands as a testament to the contributions he made to finance beginning with this work in 1962. Mandelbrot follows the rules that led him through Part 2 of his life, and in doing so is presented with a unique opportunity to extend humanity’s understanding of financial markets. He takes full advantage of the opportunity, but then draws on the lessons learned in Part 1 to realize that the political inertia of this industry will blunt the impact of his magnificent contribution. Rather than dwell on this, he collects on the cache and karma of his contributions and continues on his life.
There are several impressive things that Mandelbrot does not do:
He doesn’t sever his ties with IBM to become a financier.
He doesn’t dig his heels in to fight the financial establishment – despite his convictions that he is right.
He refines his work on his terms, rather than trying to take the theory to far.
He continues to support the next generation of scientists in this area of finance by working with Eugene Fama and Merton Miller. Mandelbrot does not shepherd his work, he pushes it out and extends its reach.
He misses career opportunities that would be soul crushing and unrecoverable for many, but instead he plots onward.
Mandelbrot does not get stuck on the nature of his contribution to finance, despite its enormous value. He reads the situation accurately and moves on.
Best Quote(s)
“MY INVOLVEMENT WITH THE BEHAVIOR of financial prices—absolutely unplanned—became a constant of my scientific life.”
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 22
Mandelbrot’s path to achieving his Keplerian dream is not smooth – it is rough. Encounters with financial prices and their behavior would forever be a part of his life.
“The three states of chance—wild, mild, and slow—can be compared to the three states of matter. Are not solid and gas separated by liquid? Absolutely. In my view, the same is true of chance—the counterpart of liquid being “slow” randomness.”
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 22
Enumeration of options is always fascinating, and ‘mild, wild and slow’ are wonderful names.
“We’ve done all we can to make sense of these cotton prices. Everything changes, nothing is constant. This is a mess of the worst kind.”
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 22
There is great freedom in declaring a situation in hopeless. By declaring things a mess, “of the worst kind” the stage is set for Mandelbrot to attempt an explanation. As he benefited from his unique position with Zipf in his PhD, here Mandelbrot benefits from encountering a situation where there is low risk of embarrassment.
“Fractals—or their later elaboration, multifractals—do not claim to predict the future with certainty. But they do create a more realistic picture of market risks than does observation alone.”
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 22
Telling the future with 100% accuracy isn’t yet possible – but telling the future a little bit better tomorrow than was done today is a great improvement for society. Finance had previously lived in the world of smooth trajectories – when everyone knew that this was inaccurate. Through his study of roughness, Mandelbrot improved the understanding of market behavior.
“But not for a moment did I forget that to remain stable and vertical, a bicycle must move sufficiently fast.”
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 22
Bicycles are wonderful, but they are safest when moving. Balance is possible with minimal equipment, provided that motion is part of the equation. Velocity and direction are essential to safe operation with a minimalist approach.
“I was acutely aware that my findings would have devastating consequences for the accepted standard theory of speculation.”
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 22
In Part 1 we watched Mandelbrot’s family deftly maneuver through World War 2 and survive where others misread the political environment and perished. Mandelbrot has recognized that he has done work of great merit, but also sees that the work may not exist in fertile ground. The finance industry’s inertia and resistance to change may prevent this phase of his Keplerian Dream from becoming the early landslide victory that it might have been.
There are times when reading a book that every page, every sentence and every word come together to create a smile on the face of the reader. In Part 1 we’ve followed young Mandelbrot’s survival in the face of Nazi persecution and read with awe the names of the intellectuals he dealt with as he ‘drifted’ in Part 2. In Part 3 the tailor draws the thread, and in doing so we see the design pull together in satisfying way.
Each page in this chapter is great, each turn of phrase is memorable, and it is difficult to not envision an older Mandelbrot working on this document enjoying the time to recall his younger years.
Best Quote(s)
“This chapter’s title seems to make no sense. How can it possibly reflect reality?”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 23
Earlier in the book it became clear that the author was attempting to take his field of roughness and apply it to this text. Here he says so directly, implying that the path that took him to study roughness was itself fractal in nature. Of course.
“Numerous additional fields I visited also differ deeply yet share a key feature that to me matters more than any other: roughness.”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 23
If things are not smooth, then they are rough. The study of roughness, known as Fractals, shows common patterns to behavior and events that are not smooth.
“The fact that my life’s most productive season came late kept me in a constant hurry, and I could rarely take it easy.”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 23
From a life strategy standpoint – Dr. Mandelbrot never shies from the fact that he was late to gain the fame that he seemed destined from at an early age. He admits that this tension drove him and shaped his life.
“In fact, a common thread of my work is that values far from the norm are the key to the underlying phenomenon.”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 23
In reading Charlie Munger’s Almanack (?) he goes to great pains to justify that his good decisions on ‘big days’ led to his fund performance. Mandelbrot points out that this is true of all things.
“Ultimately, my interests and achievements were viewed in Chicago as absurdly broad, and at Harvard as absurdly narrow! Unfortunately, I had to agree that those opinions were not entirely unreasonable.”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 23
Throughout his life – or at least in this autobiographical and elderly reflection – Mandelbrot is comfortable with who he is. He does not force himself into scenarios where he cannot prosper. There is a self confidence in these actions that is crucial to his finding and achieving his Keplerian dream.
“I had not a single identifying brand name for my activity. Ten more years went by until I gave up and coined the word “fractal.””
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 23
Dr. Mandelbrot – because you haven’t been part of someone else’s laboratory, you really should make up a word and then use that to brand your work.
Mandelbrot’s home at IBM is secure, and with that security he continues to search about for interesting problems that fit his growing fractal toolkit. He remains worried that he has started his great work too late in life, and with that worry he remains determined to seek out and pursue new problems which his field of fractals can solve.
Best Quote(s)
“It forced me to gather all I had achieved and fit it into an hour. This effort started me on my 1975 book.”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 24 (Location 3706)
Mandelbrot accepts the lecture in France, and by doing so he creates a deadline. This forces him to organize his notes, which become the foundation of the book that would make his name known worldwide.
Mandelbrot was able to take the lessons he learned in financial prices and other wide ranging fields of interest and tie it back to his core area of strength – mathematics. The Mandelbrot set is named. By thinking of fractal math as dimensions defined by fractions, rather than whole numbers, he further extended humanity’s ability to name and study this field.
Best Quote(s)
“And I understood from readings and course material that a field might simply die for lack of manageable and interesting unsolved questions.” 3848
Benoit Mandelbrot, Chapter 25, Location 3848
Mandelbrot thought about fields of study as a social construct, which required the intrigue, interest and commitment of individual scientists to grow and prosper.
“Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002), a lively paleontologist with multiple appointments at Harvard. Quite independently, we had become two very visible champions of discontinuity—he in paleontology and I in the variation of financial prices.” 3825
Benoit Mandelbrot, Chapter 25, Location 3825
Good products have competitors. Products that don’t have a competitor warrant skepticism in their review. Gould’s framing of discontinuity in the fossil record – known as punctuated equilibrium, explained the fractured lineages of the fossil record by explaining them as bursts of fast moving periods of evolution.
Coining the word ‘fractal’ has been foreshadowed from the early chapters – such as Mandelbrot’s study of Latin as a youth and his education in the US near pioneers of newly named fields like biochemistry. He compares his writing style and objectives with that of his uncle Szolem, and summarizes his approach towards writing.
Best Quote(s)
“Throughout my life, it had been my principle never to compete frontally with anybody.” 4087
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 26 (Location 4087)
Mandelbrot is delighted to find a group that will be publishing a collection of artwork, and with that he writes out a life rule that is unique, and likely colored by the violence that surrounded him in his youth.
“Many scientific articles are completely flat because they are written for people who do not have to be convinced.” 4189
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 26 (Location 4189)
This is a fantastic insight – if the audience is captive, and if the author knows their information is unique and valuable, then what incentive do they have to make reading a joy?
“Whether it is opera or Greek drama, one must know how to enter into a subject quickly because one cannot assume that the audience will wait to understand. One has to be able to speak to people in their style, to motivate and even amuse the reader a little.” 4193
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 26 (Location 4193)
Enter the subject to quickly – and the reader is not prepared to receive the message. Enter it too slowly, and they are bored and walk away. How wonderful to enter a topic in conversation, where words can flow back and forth and we can reach the topic at the pace needed in order to achieve our goals.
“Szolem responded, “Yes, there are about fifteen people in the world who read everything I write. That is enough. I find that very comforting.”” 4018
Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist, Chapter 26 (Location 4087)
The humor of this statement, with Mandelbrot’s uncle proudly boasting of his 15 loyal readers, compared to the generations of people who now know Mandelbrot and his fractals, is a great contrast to the anxiety that Mandelbrot faced his whole life.
Mandelbrot’s time at Yale is punctuated with the institution’s highest honor. He observes twice, both in his life and in the goals identified by Yale’s math department that there was a strategy for setting out on goals that were ‘odd and unreachable’, that can lead to great things. Yale hired him based on a desire to be ‘different’, not ‘lesser’.
Best Quote(s)
“THE ART OF RECEIVING new offers and fast promotions has always baffled me, but I have been lucky on a few occasions.” 4200
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 27, Location 4200
Mandelbrot’s name is now well known and distinct, but his life is full of big offers and promotions that go unfilled. There is a fractal nature to his life – rarely smooth, and often rough. How many autobiographies are smoothed out in the re-telling and remembering of a life?
“I had often demonstrated the capacity to formulate big dreams that everyone else held to be odd and unreachable—but that I managed to fulfill.” 4253
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 27, Location 4253
Mandelbrot’s self aware comment matches his insight about his new academic home, Yale, earlier in the chapter, “… they had decided to replace “lesser” with “different”—in particular, by expanding less abstract topics.”
With two chapters left to go, Mandelbrot’s reflections on his life and accomplishments make every passage notable. Picking ‘Best Quotes’ feels like an affront to the pearls of wisdom dispensed but not chosen.
Best Quote(s)
“An important turn in my life occurred when I realized that something I had long been stating in footnotes should be put on the marquee.”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 28 (Location 4278)
Mandelbrot didn’t set out to study roughness; he instead found a series of problems across seemingly unconnected fields that focused his mathematical skills on an area that was universally present, but not always acknowledged.
“Before my work on roughness, it was either undefined or measured by too many irrelevant quantities. Now it can be measured by one, two, or a few numbers.”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist, Chapter 28 (Location 4289)
I’m reading John Urschel’s Mind and Matter with my son; Urschel played in the NFL and afterwards completed a PhD in math at MIT. At times his statements of fact seem boastful, but they are true. How wonderful a statement from Mandelbrot! Is he boasting? Perhaps, but how could he state the truth and not be boastful.
Mandelbrot’s Keplerian dream inspired him to organize a theory of roughness from work across many fields and make a great contribution in mankind’s understanding of the world around us.
With only the Afterword left, these are the final words written by Mandelbrot. He begins with a weighty reflection about his 86 years of life, and closes with a wink to the reader, that the ‘fractal’ hints that were sprinkled in the book about his own life were intentionally inserted. Like the other chapters in Part 3, there are a number of outstanding quotes that provide insight to his strategy for life and models for explaining the world around him.
Best Quote(s)
My favorite quote from this chapter may be my favorite overall for the whole book; it is usable in real life. If things aren’t smooth – they are probably rough. There is a model for how rough things work – fractals.
“What I’m asserting, very strongly, is that when some real thing is found to be unsmooth, the next mathematical model to try is fractal or multifractal. Since roughness is everywhere, fractals are present everywhere.” Location 4460
Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot, Chapter 29, Location 4460
How best to explain one concept of fractals – self-similarity – with examples;
“A cauliflower shows how an object can be made of many parts, each of which is like a whole, but smaller. Another example of this repeated roughness is the cloud.” Location 4456
Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot, Chapter 29, Location 4456
If fractals are so new as a field of study, how many other similarly obvious fields await the focus of the right mind?
“Fractal geometry is one of those concepts which at first invites disbelief but on second thought becomes so natural that one wonders why it has only recently been developed.” Location 4422
Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot, Chapter 29, Location 4422
If other obvious fields exist for study – if fractals were waiting for the right circumstances to be unlocked, how was it that our story’s hero, who had fled the Nazis in Part 1, was the person to find them?
“One reason is my personality—I don’t seek power or run around asking for favors. A second is circumstances—I was in an industrial laboratory because academia found me unsuitable.” Location 4460
Dr. Benoit Mandelbrot, Chapter 29, Location 4460
And lastly, a wink and a nod to those who have noted that fractals have surely filled the life of Dr. Mandelbrot:
“Does not the distribution of my personal experiences remind one of the central topic of my scientific work—namely, extreme fractal unevenness? All counted, I have known few minutes of boredom.” Location 4480
Mandelbrot achieved a great deal, but felt his whole life that there was much more discovery that he could have given the world. The afterword closes out with the topics he had hoped to touch on, but was unable to develop – negative dimensions and lacunarity, and also provides some closing observations on his life.
Best Quote(s)
“Like fractals, life is better understood as a process than as a result.”
Afterword
Use processes to understand the world.
“A fractal is defined as well by what has been removed as it is by what remains.”
Mandelbrot achieved a great deal, but felt his whole life that there was much more discovery that he could have given the world. The afterword closes out with the topics he had hoped to touch on, but was unable to develop – negative dimensions and lacunarity, and also provides some closing observations on his life.
Best Quote(s)
“Like fractals, life is better understood as a process than as a result.”
Benoit Mandelbrot, The Fractalist: Afterword
Use processes to understand the world.
“A fractal is defined as well by what has been removed as it is by what remains.”
Benoit Mandelbrot’s The Fractalist
Absence defines as much as presence.
Page by Page, Screen by Screen, Swipe by Swipe – 5 Mandelbrot Quotes
4535
“What he regretted most, other than not completing this memoir, was leaving his ideas about negative dimensions at such an early stage.”
4539
“Another unfinished area, lacunarity, began when Benoit noted that many fractals appearing quite different have the same dimension, like the fractals you see below.”
4553
“Follow your curiosity, your passion, wherever it leads. Whether you find a new world or a new snowflake, it doesn’t so much matter. Like fractals, life is better understood as a process than as a result.”
“Often Benoit said a fractal is defined as well by what has been removed as it is by what remains.”
“Bottomless wonders spring from simple rules … repeated without end.”
