4 ms·

It 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 o

by jordigh 11y ago

It 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 ago
His physics Phd from Caltech at 20 and MacArthur grant at 21 are objective and substantial accomplishments, which predate Mathematica, etc.
- jordigh 11y ago
  Sure, 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 ago
    Fortunately, pistol duels have fallen out of style nowadays...
- trymas 11y ago
  I've read this http://bactra.org/reviews/wolfram/ http://bactra.org/reviews/wolfram/ linked in another comment on this post. He is one of those smart douchebag assholes type (L. Torvalds, S. Jobs etc.), probably even a prodigy genius level of smart. I have not read enough bios about, lets say, Torvalds or Jobs, but S. Wolfram looks like pure evil against them. The eye opener for me was that Mathematica was basically stollen from University of Illinois[0]. It goes on and on, like that [1]. I am amazed how S. Wolfram managed to settle courts in his favour, or just successfully threaten with courts. How can you threaten someone of citing your (I guess public) work, if it will be openly and correctly cited, and people know details about it? Threatening your employees, etc. How can anyone work there? Sorry, for this rant, but after some reading today, S. Wolfram looks like Genghis Khan of academics. Gives impression of great leader, who have accomplished something who have not done before, though simply chops heads for everyone who can cross his path. In my eyes, a person who does not respect others, does not deserve respect themselves. [0] > Wolfram quit Illinois, took the program private, and entered into complicated lawsuits with both his former employee and his co-authors (all since settled). [1] > ..because one of our citations referred to a certain mathematical proof, and they claimed the existence of this proof was a trade secret of Wolfram Research.

by jordigh 11y ago

JackFr 11y ago

His physics Phd from Caltech at 20 and MacArthur grant at 21 are objective and substantial accomplishments, which predate Mathematica, etc.

jordigh 11y ago
Sure, 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 ago
  Fortunately, pistol duels have fallen out of style nowadays...
trymas 11y ago
I've read this http://bactra.org/reviews/wolfram/ http://bactra.org/reviews/wolfram/ linked in another comment on this post. He is one of those smart douchebag assholes type (L. Torvalds, S. Jobs etc.), probably even a prodigy genius level of smart. I have not read enough bios about, lets say, Torvalds or Jobs, but S. Wolfram looks like pure evil against them. The eye opener for me was that Mathematica was basically stollen from University of Illinois[0]. It goes on and on, like that [1]. I am amazed how S. Wolfram managed to settle courts in his favour, or just successfully threaten with courts. How can you threaten someone of citing your (I guess public) work, if it will be openly and correctly cited, and people know details about it? Threatening your employees, etc. How can anyone work there? Sorry, for this rant, but after some reading today, S. Wolfram looks like Genghis Khan of academics. Gives impression of great leader, who have accomplished something who have not done before, though simply chops heads for everyone who can cross his path. In my eyes, a person who does not respect others, does not deserve respect themselves. [0] > Wolfram quit Illinois, took the program private, and entered into complicated lawsuits with both his former employee and his co-authors (all since settled). [1] > ..because one of our citations referred to a certain mathematical proof, and they claimed the existence of this proof was a trade secret of Wolfram Research.