Stephen Wolfram, the father of Mathematica (he regards himself as much more than that), is an off-the-beaten-track scientist, having traded academia for business. This makes him an idol for people like Nassim Taleb. As a characteristic trait of Wolfram, he "releases" his scientific work not through publications but from personal communication channels, such as books (e.g., A New Kind of Science) or his blog. It is unclear, probably, to many, whether he is a genius or a crank. He would himself speak of a "kook" instead, as he does for his late friend Fredkin, who is in many respects much like him, possibly explaining the feud between them. It is however clear that he has a stupendous productivity and is a unique living encyclopedia, who met or interacted with most and in a broadest scientific extent than anybody else, not being, precisely, confined by academia. He is famous for making grandiloquent claims, which however fail to garner the interest they should, would they be correct. One of them is his discovery of the (basics of) the fundamental theory of Physics, see for instance here.