A sometimes-engaging but overlong and self-congratulatory set of writings.
In this collection of essays, Wolfram (How to Teach Computational Thinking, 2018, etc.), the founder and CEO of software company Wolfram Research, recounts some of his more interesting endeavors in the world of computing
When you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and as Wolfram tells it, when you’re a computing expert, everything looks like a computing problem: “Whether I’m thinking about science, or technology, or philosophy, or art,” he writes in his preface, “the computational paradigm provides both an overall framework and specific facts that inform my thinking.” Sometimes the problem really is a computing-related one, as when Wolfram was asked to help in the creation of realistic screen displays for the 2016 sci-fi film Arrival. At other times, the problem is harder to address, as when a friend asked him for help on a project to manufacture quartz discs that would be left in various locations around the solar system to communicate with aliens; this required figuring out how one would talk with beings without a shared cultural context. Over the course of the book, the author shows how his computing knowledge helped him solve myriad puzzles, whether it was figuring out whether computers can make music as good as humans’, or what to call a mathematical language of the his own invention (he landed, not so creatively, on “Wolfram Language”). The author’s prose is deliberative and accessible, and readers will often feel as if they’re sitting through a lecture by an experienced and enthusiastic professor: “What is a rhombic hexecontahedron? It’s called a ‘hexecontahedron’ because it has 60 faces, and ἑξηκοντα (hexeconta) is the Greek word for 60. (Yes, the correct spelling is with an ‘e’, not an ‘a’.)” But although some of the essays are compelling, others are less so; many of the latter seem to have originated as posts on Wolfram’s corporate blog. Specifically, there’s an unmistakable trend of self-promotion throughout the book, with Wolfram frequently bringing up his own company’s innovations and products. As a result, he starts to seem less like a curious explorer and more like a salesman.
A sometimes-engaging but overlong and self-congratulatory set of writings.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-57955-026-4
Page Count: 421
Publisher: Wolfram Media
Review Posted Online: Oct. 8, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.
It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.
Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1945
ISBN: 0061130249
Page Count: 450
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1945
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