Tag Archives: Benoit Mandelbrot

The only noteworthy correction I made in the 1900 pages of the INCERTO

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The only noteworthy correction I made in the 1900 pages of the INCERTO, written over 18 years, which should come out as single unit:
“To Benoit Mandelbrot, a Greek among Romans” [The Black Swan, 2007]
to
“To Benoit Mandelbrot, a Roman among Greeks”

As I came to realize that the Romans were noBS FatTonies; they resented grand theories and favored prudent and progressive tinkering. Much of what they built, from constitution, to Roman law, to bridges, to low income housing, to their literature, to their imperial administration (still around in the structure of the Catholic church), have survived 2000 years.

Nothing else of substance was changed.

via: Facebook

Nassim Taleb Educates a Quant

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Now you all know I’m a Taleb super-fan, but this is excellent and hilarious. It’s not going to mean much to the general public, but to those of us following the argument it’s genius.  Would love to watch NNT’s face as he saw it for the first time. I like to think that he’d get a few laughs out of it as well, but who knows?
It has 55 views so far and was created with the very fun Xtranormal software. Here’s the link.  It’s attributed to Peter Cotton. Snooping around on the net I see a Peter Cotton associated with Taleb’s name here, which leads me to believe that it may have been created this Peter Cotton. Would love to get confirmation on that if only to thank him for a good laugh.

Benoit Mandelbrot, 1924-2010

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Dave Lull just wrote to inform me that NNT has updated his homepage as an homage to Benoit Mandelbrot. Looking around the net I see no news of Mandelbrot’s passing so must assume that NNT was very close to the situation.

In May, NNT Tweeted, “Mandelbrot’s genius is in achieving aesthetic simplicity without having recourse to smoothness; producing harmony in highly jagged surfaces”

Taleb referred to Mandelbrot as his mentor.
The two were interviewed by NPR in 2008.

Benoit Mandelbrot and Nassim Taleb NPR Interview, Audio Only.

Paul Solman NPR Interview 2008 10 21

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLFkQdiXPbo

with Spanish captions: