|
|
Article: Benoit Mandelbrot: with the financial crisis sparking renewed interest in his ideas, the godfather of chaos theory looks back on a life of turbulence.(EPIPHANIES)
- Article from:
- Foreign Policy
- Article date:
- July 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Foreign Policy. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
I had a very eventful early life. My father's business in Poland failed during the Great Depression. After we moved to Paris, we had to move again when World War II started, and we settled in a very remote area of France, the equivalent of Appalachia. We were very lucky, but it's probably not an accident that I became interested in studying turbulence and risk. They were very much a part of my life.
Near the end of the war, the time came for me to take my university exams. Because we kept moving around during the war, I hadn't really prepared at all. Yet, after taking the exams, I came in first in my class in math. How did I do it? The truth is, I cheated. I ...