Author Archives: flybrand1976

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

[About the image – an IBM 1401 mainframe – from the 1960’s – prints a Mandelbrot fractal driven image.] Mandelbrot would spend the next 35 years employed by an associated with IBM Research. He would serve as a professor at … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

“… Jean Piaget (1896–1980). He was pleased to hear that I was aware of his fame in trying to bring rationality to child psychology.” Continue reading →