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The Fractalist
Book

The Fractalist

Memoir of a Scientific Maverick

Benoit Mandelbrot
Pantheon Books, 2012

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Scientific
  • Eye Opening

Recommendation

Benoit Mandelbrot, a Polish-born mathematician, is the “father of fractals.” This genius discovered quantifiable order in “chaotic” entities like shorelines and clouds. Mandelbrot tells the story of his dramatic life in this fascinating, if occasionally challenging and perplexing, autobiography. Mandelbrot’s intellectual discoveries prove compelling but, as you might imagine, their knotty complexity can be confusing for laypeople. Besides describing his eventful life, Mandelbrot also provides an absorbing perspective on the history of rustic Mitteleuropa before World War II. getAbstract recommends his book to all those who love to read about history’s brilliant thinkers and praises its artwork of colorful fractal patterns.

Take-Aways

  • Benoit Mandelbrot, an academic and intellectual vagabond, worked in disparate fields, including mathematics, finance, engineering, statistics, linguistics and physics.
  • Mandelbrot, a singular genius, developed fractal geometry.
  • He discovered the “Mandelbrot set,” the “most complex object” in mathematics.

About the Author

Benoit Mandelbrot, a world-famous mathematician, is the father of fractal geometry. He developed a formal “theory of roughness” in nature and discovered the Mandelbrot set, the ideal example of mathematical visualization.

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