MIchaelFrame

A side of Benoit Mandelbrot many people do not know. An anecdote.

Benoit talked about his financial models in the summer workshops we ran for high school teachers. One of the teachers asked if he had made any money on the stock market using these models. (The answer is no. The models aren't predictive. They just show that risk is greater than most people think)

Benoit answered, "I never discuss 4 things in public. My portfolio, religion, politics, or sex."

So, I asked him, "I understand why you don't discuss your portfolio, religion, or politics. But really, Benoit? Has anyone ever asked you about sex?"

He responded, "No, but I keep hoping."

The room was silent for a second, and then everyone burst into laughter when they realized this was an example of Benoit's great sense of humor.

Fractals are a wonderful way to see connections between things we might not think are related.

Example: Why does a tree in the winter look like our lungs look like a network of rivers?

Benoit DID know this song. He was charmed by it.

Benoit never expected to have a song written about him.

From my point of view, its a cute song but not music I'm wild about. I prefer Boxer Rebellion or Fleet Foxes.

Most unexpected application Surely you must mean Benoit's. Mine is trivial in comparison.

Traffic on the Internet is fractally distributed. This has implications for how the Internet infrastructure is built. (# of routers, size of buffers, things like that)

I think reality IS mathematics. I'll just leave it at that.