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Why do people feel the need to denigrate Wolfram at every turn? He is obviously a genius of the highest caliber, who has dedicated his life to making useful too

Why do people feel the need to denigrate Wolfram at every turn? He is obviously a genius of the highest caliber, who has dedicated his life to making useful tools to advance science and engineering. He has made a tremendous positive impact. People should focus more on making their own positive impact instead of trying to tear Wolfram down for his awkward but ultimately harmless lack of self awareness.

saagarjha 7y ago
My guess is that it's because his lack of self awareness generally precedes his demonstration of talent, which frequently leads to a bad impression. Also I hear he's nasty in person, though that's not relevant here.
- pc 7y ago
  I've known him for more than ten years -- we first met when I was a student in college. In my experience, he's always been helpful, kind, and encouraging.
  - mplewis 7y ago
    That is not a universal experience.
mistrial9 7y ago
.. because when I met him personally at a hack event in the 1980s, he was obviously in the "dominant and loud" mode, and directly commanded anyone within earshot, at most opportunities.. later, it turned out he forked his company and left the people who built Mathematica out of future profits. Silicon Valley bred people like that .. it is still common in some environments.
- jjtheblunt 7y ago
  My grad math advisor was one of the folks who wrote significant parts in Urbana of the symbolic core; the behind the scenes team got legal settlements after that strange move. He's not from Silicon Valley; I think he'd done some early prototyping and coding himself while at CalTech (in Lisp if i recall) then came to Urbana-Champaign as a research prof, and got the team of several to build it out. [ I've been using it since 1988, and love it. ]
lidHanteyk 7y ago
Oh, easy. Because Stephen Wolfram plagarizes work from his underlings. That's despicable behavior and shouldn't be rewarded. It should, in fact, be punished. Worse, he's not right often enough to justify the worship. He was completely and hilariously wrong on Bell's inequality and cellular automata for quantum logic. Honestly, he's not even the coolest balding geeky pudgy unassuming guy; Jan Hammer is way cooler.

saagarjha 7y ago

My guess is that it's because his lack of self awareness generally precedes his demonstration of talent, which frequently leads to a bad impression. Also I hear he's nasty in person, though that's not relevant here.

pc 7y ago
I've known him for more than ten years -- we first met when I was a student in college. In my experience, he's always been helpful, kind, and encouraging.
- mplewis 7y ago
  That is not a universal experience.

mistrial9 7y ago

.. because when I met him personally at a hack event in the 1980s, he was obviously in the "dominant and loud" mode, and directly commanded anyone within earshot, at most opportunities.. later, it turned out he forked his company and left the people who built Mathematica out of future profits. Silicon Valley bred people like that .. it is still common in some environments.

jjtheblunt 7y ago
My grad math advisor was one of the folks who wrote significant parts in Urbana of the symbolic core; the behind the scenes team got legal settlements after that strange move. He's not from Silicon Valley; I think he'd done some early prototyping and coding himself while at CalTech (in Lisp if i recall) then came to Urbana-Champaign as a research prof, and got the team of several to build it out. [ I've been using it since 1988, and love it. ]

lidHanteyk 7y ago

Oh, easy. Because Stephen Wolfram plagarizes work from his underlings. That's despicable behavior and shouldn't be rewarded. It should, in fact, be punished. Worse, he's not right often enough to justify the worship. He was completely and hilariously wrong on Bell's inequality and cellular automata for quantum logic. Honestly, he's not even the coolest balding geeky pudgy unassuming guy; Jan Hammer is way cooler.