5 ms·
Just me or does that guy seem to lack humility, I don't know something about the way he wrote that.
by xupybd 11y ago
Just me or does that guy seem to lack humility, I don't know something about the way he wrote that.
- junke 11y agoRead http://bactra.org/reviews/wolfram/ http://bactra.org/reviews/wolfram/ to know more about him, or at least how he is perceived by other people.
- vixen99 11y agoIt's not just you. Browse through the 372 reviews of A New Kind of Science on Amazon!
- JonnieCache 11y ago"Does anyone want to bet as to which will gain self-awareness first: Wolfram Alpha or Wolfram, Stephen?" - Casey Muratori
- frou_dh 11y agoThe like-clockwork sniping at the man whenever he's brought up borders on being more irritating than his original "offence".
- TeMPOraL 11y agoThis is what 'dang famously described as a Pavlovian hashtable reflex[0]. [0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9722096 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9722096
- jjoonathan 11y agoThe root of this comment tree was written by someone who wasn't familiar with Wolfram's reputation but saw cause to gripe anyway. The transition from "Stephen Wolfram" to "absurdly self-centered" occurred by observation, not hashtable. I hadn't heard of "Pavlov's hashtable" before, it's a neat concept, and I'm glad you brought it up. I just don't think it's responsible for the direction of this particular comment train. Which is in itself a testament to the peculiar qualities of Wolfram's personality.
- TeMPOraL 11y agoFair enough. I was providing a reference to the phenomenon 'frou_dh described.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- ska 11y agoThat is unfair. JonnieCache didn't bring this up, in response to what reads as an honest response by someone not familiar with Wolfram. This quote is a succinct way of pointing out that Wolfram is, in fact, famously lacking in humility and self awareness, to the degree that many find it detracts from his legitimate achievements.
- xupybd 11y agoSorry, you are right my comment was not constructive. You raise a good point. It's the first time I'd come across that style of writing and got a weird vibe from it and thought I'd comment about it. But in hindsight it was pretty negative.
- frou_dh 11y agoDon't worry. It was more the quote that set me off.
- galfarragem 11y agoNormally very smart people have an huge ego and hate politics. It's always a pity to see so much potential wasted.
- Retra 11y agoWhat's wasted?
- ntumlin 11y agoI watched a TED talk by him and got the same impression. Maybe he is a genius, but it certainly is off putting to my own ego for him to laud how great he is all the time. Maybe I should just get over it.
- ageofwant 11y agoIndeed. He's not only a blowhard, he's an accomplished blowhard, the most annoying type of blowhard.
- anonymousDan 11y agoI actually disagree. Having thought that about some stuff he's written in the past, I actually thought he came across as quite humble and just really excited about his book.
- JackFr 11y agoHe is that irritating combination of someone who lacks humility and is unable to ever admit being wrong (except superfluously to make a larger point) and yet is demonstrably, objectively a genius.
- jordigh 11y agoIt is not clear how much of a genius he is or not. His NKS is just a bunch of repackaged ideas, mostly unacknowledged, with lots of pretty pictures, with some original work. It's borderline crank mathematics. The other things attributed to him are dubious, as he has a big problem attributing to himself the work of others. He has threatened to sue employees of his who try to publish mathematical results of their own without attributing them to his company. He keeps acting like Mathematica was all him, whereas in reality he got it from a bunch of coauthors after suing them into submission and silence. It's difficult to find any evidence of this other than oblique allusions, because, well, he won or settled the lawsuits in his favour. Wolfram certainly has talent, but like Steve Jobs, it may be more people-talent to know how to manipulate and impress others than mathematics talent. He certainly has some of the latter too.
- JackFr 11y agoHis physics Phd from Caltech at 20 and MacArthur grant at 21 are objective and substantial accomplishments, which predate Mathematica, etc.
- jordigh 11y agoSure, he was a precocious student. What came after that is more difficult to measure. edit: He may well be a genius. To almost all of his contemporaries, Galois seemed like an incomprehensible twit. Wolfram may be a Galois, or he may just be a precocious blowhard full of nothing but hot air.
- JorgeGT 11y agoFortunately, pistol duels have fallen out of style nowadays...