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Feynman’s Breakthrough: Disregard Others

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Re: Feynman’s Breakthrough: Disregard Others

#31

Post by baby »

drawkbox wrote: post #13

I believe Feynman is saying stay focused on your work, don't get too caught up changing things or keeping up because of other shiny things, you may miss important innovative ideas on your own work. It doesn't mean ignore others work but sometimes it is better to work it through yourself for understanding and then compare. Put all the energy into your work first and foremost. Same could go with starting a company or p…

> because of other shiny things

It can also be the opinion of others. A lot of people, especially when you're doing something that goes out of the ordinary, will judge you for not researching more conventional things. You end up trimming your research so that it pleases people more.

Re: Feynman’s Breakthrough: Disregard Others

#32

Post by loup-vaillant »

Yup. That works. Just don't forget the follow-up, where external feedback is crucial.

Shameless plug: I've written my own crypto library¹. Not just for the lulz, I fully intend to use it in production. To do that, I had to disregard the crypto community, that basically says anyone who does that deserves to burn in Crypto Hell the time it takes them to count to 2^256. (I might exaggerate a tad).

They say that for a reason however. I had to seek and listen to external advice eventually. Which, judging by the holes they poked through my library, was invaluable.

I think there are two phases. The "I'll show them" phase where you hide under your cave doing your thing, and the phase where you actually show some results and confirm whether this was a worthwhile endeavour.

[1]: http://loup-vaillant.fr/projects/monocypher

Re: Feynman’s Breakthrough: Disregard Others

#33

Post by 317070 »

Ha, that's amazing!

I have always encouraged colleagues to read less scientific articles, especially if it is incremental science. It encourages you to think inside the box and you will come up with the same solutions everyone else is.

Of course there is more to it, work methodically, formulate problems before solving them, etc. But I'm glad Feynmann agrees with me on this one.

Re: Feynman’s Breakthrough: Disregard Others

#34

Post by dotancohen »

srean wrote: post #17
Insanity wrote: post #11

It was a pleasure to read, but of course it should be taken with a grain of salt and not applied to every field :-) Imagine being in a software team and disregarding what others are doing? Screw the rest of the team, I'll work on my own better solution and ignore the parts that are already working well! You might end up with a good solution to the problem, but you'll also manage to piss off a lot of people ^^ A more…

> Imagine being in a software team and disregarding what others are doing? Screw the rest of the team, I'll work on my own better solution and ignore the parts that are already working well! If you are competent, have a realistic estimate of your competence, this might not be a bad idea if what you need is a purely technical solution. In many big organizations (lets leave them nameless) most of your time might be goi…

> If you are competent, have a realistic estimate of your competence, this might not be a bad idea if what you need is a purely technical solution.

This.

Just _yesterday_ some xls-to-json library that has been used in the past was choking on an innocent-looking file. After fiddling with the thing for over an hour, including using LibreOffice to change the file format, I still could not get the library to read the file.

In five minutes I had a Python script which read the CSV version of the file and converted it to the necessary format. I chanced writing the script because that I knew that I could. In other situations, gambling company time on "I _might_ be able to help" usually leads to wasting company time.

Re: Feynman’s Breakthrough: Disregard Others

#35

Post by nabla9 »

Insanity wrote: post #11

It was a pleasure to read, but of course it should be taken with a grain of salt and not applied to every field :-) Imagine being in a software team and disregarding what others are doing? Screw the rest of the team, I'll work on my own better solution and ignore the parts that are already working well! You might end up with a good solution to the problem, but you'll also manage to piss off a lot of people ^^ A more…

>Imagine being in a software team and disregarding what others are doing? Screw the rest of the team

Exactly that has been the goal of large scale programming. To find a way to structure programs so that you will be able to disregard others.

More accurately: to minimize communication needed to build software.

Re: Feynman’s Breakthrough: Disregard Others

#36

Post by wiz21c »

chairmanwow wrote: post #22
kornish wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment reminds me of the Feynman Algorithm [0], which is pure gold: 1. Write down the problem. 2. Think real hard. 3. Write down the solution. "The Feynman algorithm was facetiously suggested by Murray Gell-Mann, a colleague of Feynman, in a New York Times interview." [0]: http://wiki.c2.com/?FeynmanAlgorithm

I think I might start suggesting this to my coworkers + friends.

Not everybody can do that. Note that there's no loop between 2 and 3.

Re: Feynman’s Breakthrough: Disregard Others

#37

Post by vixen99 »

_vlamacko wrote: post #6

Very nice little story and good advice, but I think most of us feel that completely disregarding others is not always the best solution. It really is a exploration vs exploitation problem.

You mean 'looking at' versus 'using'. But it should be 'and' not 'versus' i.e., always taking the wider view by looking at what effects the 'using' has on its environment of which we are all part.

Re: Feynman’s Breakthrough: Disregard Others

#38

Post by jamesrcole »

Insanity wrote: post #11

It was a pleasure to read, but of course it should be taken with a grain of salt and not applied to every field :-) Imagine being in a software team and disregarding what others are doing? Screw the rest of the team, I'll work on my own better solution and ignore the parts that are already working well! You might end up with a good solution to the problem, but you'll also manage to piss off a lot of people ^^ A more…

> A more valuable 'quote' from Feynman would be to "Test everything yourself". Don't just take for granted the results of others but verify it yourself.

IMO it's more about "don't follow the path others take, where it's easy to make the same assumptions they did. work through things from first principles yourself".

Re: Feynman’s Breakthrough: Disregard Others

#39

Post by yxhuvud »

kornish wrote: post #4
have_faith wrote: post #3

Does this work for Feynman, because he is a genius? in the same way that lots of successful people offer tidbits of advice that wouldn't apply to someone in different circumstances, or perhaps with a different level of intellect.

Your comment reminds me of the Feynman Algorithm [0], which is pure gold: 1. Write down the problem. 2. Think real hard. 3. Write down the solution. "The Feynman algorithm was facetiously suggested by Murray Gell-Mann, a colleague of Feynman, in a New York Times interview." [0]: http://wiki.c2.com/?FeynmanAlgorithm

Reminds me of a math teacher I had who had the following on some of his exams:

"Guidance: Think".

The same math teacher also had at least one exam where all the correct answers except one happened to be exactly 3.

Re: Feynman’s Breakthrough: Disregard Others

#40

Post by akvadrako »

wiz21c wrote: post #36
chairmanwow wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I might start suggesting this to my coworkers + friends.

Not everybody can do that. Note that there's no loop between 2 and 3.

There is obviously a missing step though, which is to break the problem down into manageable chunks. That's the only way anyone can do it.
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