Some of the stuff Wolfram worked on was neat, but I really don't care for the self-aggrandizing tone of everything he writes. He comes off as having a nasty superiority complex.
Personally I appreciate that Stephen Wolfram tries to talk about his work in a larger context and using terms that even a layperson can understand, rather than hiding behind specialist jargon and the false modesty of a traditional expert persona.
He may not be right about computational program-space mining becoming a trillion-dollar industry, but he's brave enough to frame his long-term enthusiasm in these terms. What's the worst that can happen? If it eventually turned out that he was right, he'd certainly be remembered. If he's wrong, no big deal -- it doesn't take anything away from his accomplishments as a programmer and CEO.
()one to ten Wolfram Egocentricity Lineal Scale.
As in every profession, there are lots of "artists". Some also have substance though: ie. Feynman was like Dali: some neat stuff (teaching) and some less neat1, to still make a living.
1 ,,Please send my notes back'' -- Stückelberg (not the painter), as his worst enemy used to joke (back) to him
http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/reviews/wolfram/
Stolen, in that he claims the lion's share of the credit, while having contributed very little.
Did you know that he sued a subordinate to prevent the publication of a theorem that "was rightfully his" ?
2) Some discussion:
http://mathforum.org/kb/message.jspa?messageID=399736&ts...
3) the case, on public record:
http://web.archive.org/web/20030822002640/http://www.courtho...
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Wolfram Research Inc. v. Matthew Cook
8/31 CV00-9357 CBM
Notice of joint stipulation and join stipulation re plaintiff Wolfram Research Inc.’s motion to compel the production of documents from California Institute of Technology.
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