Of anyone I've read or seen (in person or from videos), Feynman has the best fundamental grasp of meta-knowledge. By meta-knowledge, for lack of a better term, I mean understanding what it means to know something. mhartl has already posted this excellent video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMFPe-DwULM , where he explains what the word "why" means in scientific inquiry. When we answer a "why" question, we don't real…
As much as they're interviewing you, you're interviewing them as well. If you're a smart guy, you hopefully have enough prospects that if you don't want to work with pedantic nitwits, you don't have to.
I was interviewing them as well, but I was 4 months unemployed with a disabled wife that couldn't work but whose disability claim was in limbo. I might have actually taken the job had I been offered one, sadly. Fortunately, all's well that ends well. An old headhunter I'd used in the past tossed my info along (for FREE!) to my current boss. After talking to me on the phone, he gave me the old "We don't have a positio…
Hang on - in the US the candidate pays the headhunter?
Similarly, though not as funny, from "The Legend of John Von Neumann" - http://stepanov.lk.net/mnemo/legende.html 'Then there is the famous fly puzzle. Two bicyclists start twenty miles apart and head toward each other, each going at a steady rate of 10 m.p.h. At the same time a fly that travels at a steady 15 m.p.h. starts from the front wheel of the southbound bicycle and flies to the front wheel of the northbound…
all I did was sum the infinite series This is meant to sound very difficult (and might be, if you majored in journalism), but summing infinite geometric series is easy enough to do in your head if you're facile with fractions: (first_term) / (1 - step_multiplier). Observe that, of the combined velocity of the fly and the bike approaching him, the fly always makes up 60%. That makes math easier since it eliminates div…
I don't think it's about difficulty per se but the number of computations required. If 25 miles were covered by the fly and a bicycle, the fly covers 15 making it 60% (first calculation). Thus for 20 miles, the fly covers 12, bicycle 8 (second calculation). 20-16 or 4 miles are remaining of which the fly covers 2.4 (third computation). 2.4 is one-fifth of 12 (fifth computation). 12 / 0.8 => 12 * 5/4 = 15 (sixth computation). This route will always be slower because it requires more computations.
it really just depends on how much he wanted the job I disagree. Feynman was famous for speaking his mind regardless of the context (Bohr insisted on Feynman's presence at critical points during the Manhattan project for exactly this reason, in fact -- everybody else was too inhibited around Bohr to speak up). Feynman might have kicked himself afterwards, but wanting a job wouldn't have prevented him from pointing ou…
There is a huge gap between speaking truth to power and being snippy to make yourself feel better. As a ridiculously intelligent and anti authoritarian friend put it. "You don't walk around barefoot on the first day of a new job, you need to break people in." PS: And yes, he would eventually walk around the office / data centers without footwear.
And the next logical step is to read the book that has his compiled letters. Great stuff.
And of course Mr. Feynman Goes To Washington . I think the ultimate point is that all of his books are awesome. I even liked some of the science stuff. ;-)
The first few chapters of his Lectures on Physics are suprisingly readable as popular science. Later on it gets more hard-science-y.
I was interviewing them as well, but I was 4 months unemployed with a disabled wife that couldn't work but whose disability claim was in limbo. I might have actually taken the job had I been offered one, sadly. Fortunately, all's well that ends well. An old headhunter I'd used in the past tossed my info along (for FREE!) to my current boss. After talking to me on the phone, he gave me the old "We don't have a positio…
Hang on - in the US the candidate pays the headhunter?
No. In my case, I worked for the headhunter as a consultant to a company that eventually hired me. The agency takes a percentage of the first year's salary in many of these situations. That said, I had really good luck with this agency and the recruiter himself personally. Many are scum-bags. If you find a good one, keep 'em on speed dial. You never know when you or a friend will want some help finding work.
What things? The manhole stuff? Do you have a link?
Yea the manhole stuff was on google video, I think it may have been: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3164300309410618119# Or something linked from there. PS: "Tuva or Bust" Edit: Sorry, I am having trouble finding it. There are several interviews that video is based on but they don't show the whole video.