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.”