Part Three: Those Gray Swans of Extremism, Chapter 16: The Aesthetics of Randomness Summary and Analysis

Summary

Chapter 16 opened with a brief biography of Benoit Mandelbrot and the author's feelings about the man. Mandelbrot has been considered the father of fractal geometry, and he indeed did originate the idea. Born in Poland, he moved with his family to France at thirteen years of age and became a renowned mathematician who spoke excellent French. The author described him as still being alive, which he was during the writing of Taleb's book. Mandelbrot died on October 14, 2010. He had lived most of his life in the United States, and although ultimately rejected, he had tried to convince people that fractal geometry could explain how stock market crashes developed, and with this understanding, predict some, but not all, future...