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.

Page by Page, Chapter by Chapter

869

874

“We were in the most literal sense saved by devoted friends of Szolem—descendents of hardscrabble farmers and teachers from a village school, who valiantly helped Lady Luck.”

879

“Xenophobia lost, meritocracy won, and she deliberately misplaced my family’s files.” Chapter 4, Location 879

885

“My parents’ systematic efforts at acculturation having worked, Léon and I sounded and looked almost native.”

““Intermittence” is a word for the old quip that army service consists of endless boredom punctuated by scary, irregular, and unpredictable interruptions.”

“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

896

“But after we broke down the wall of distrust, they became the most generous of hosts and helped us survive the war.”

935

“Just before Paris fell in June 1940, my parents joined us—with slim savings, as Father’s business partner had fled with the cash box and the bank balance.”

941

“Eternal thanks.”

958

“We settled there into a life of the most extreme parsimony, managing with a level of ingenuity that my brilliant and resilient parents—rich in experience from previous catastrophes—could contrive when forced into inactivity.”

963

“He was extremely skilled with his hands and the tools he scrounged. Watching and helping him taught me to be handy as well. He read voraciously, always taking notes.”

969

“Mother just shrugged.”

The family China was shattered – she didn’t care, because it wasn’t her priority.

985

“But I wanted to write for an audience that was mixed and not known in advance, so writing skills mattered.” Chapter 4, Location 985

1002

“Invariably, they included masses of illustrations of shapes that later books omitted as a matter of principle.”

Like Tufte…

1013

“I had performed as expected.”

Summa cum laude – 1st in school history.

1019

“I never saw my parents celebrate. They may have never done so, or forgotten how—certainly they did not teach me anything along those lines.”

1030

“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

1041

“Sadly, on a bike tour, they stopped for a swim and Laurent watched Martin be killed by a powerboat.”

Tragedy flows throughout Mandelbrot’s book.  It does not determine his fate, but it paints his outlook on the world.