Feynman: making the extraordinary look easy

On the other hand, I'm in one of the departments Feynman had an appointment with for a few years. Some of the older faculty overlapped with him and have fun stories to share. However, one of the lasting memories of his stay was how he was predatory towards the undergraduate women. In fact, it was to the point that some people speculate that he was forced to the leave the department after sleeping with too many of his students.

I still look up to Feynman for his science, but there were some real problems with how he treated women. Even if the article didn't do a great job of presenting the evidence for it. Besides Surely you're Joking is Feynman as portrayed by Feynman. He's famously a showman and isn't going to create an image of himself in the book that he doesn't think is likeable. Interestingly, from what I remember reading, he also did a lot to support the female scientists in his life including his sister.

I recall the story of the Oak Ridge plant, where they think he is a great Genius yet he clearly illustrates he is not.

wait, here it is:

I took mechanical drawing when I was in school, but I am not good at reading blueprints. So they unroll the stack of blueprints and start to explain it to me, thinking I am a genius. Now, one of the things they had to avoid in the plant was accumulation. They had problems like when there's an evaporator working, which is trying to accumulate the stuff, if the valve gets stuck or something like that and too much stuff accumulates, it'll explode. So they explained to me that this plant is designed so that if any one valve gets stuck nothing will happen. It needs at least two valves everywhere.

Then they explain how it works. The carbon tetrachloride comes in here, the uranium nitrate from here comes in here, it goes up and down, it goes up through the floor, comes up through the pipes, coming up from the second floor, bluuuuurp--going through the stack of blueprints, downup- down-up, talking very fast, explaining the very very complicated chemical plant.

I'm completely dazed, Worse, I don't know what the symbols on the blueprint mean! There is some kind of a thing that at first I think is a window. It's a square with a little cross in the middle, all over the damn place. I think it's a window, but no, it can't be a window, because it isn't always at the edge. I want to ask them what it is.

You must have been in a situation like this when you didn't ask them right away. Right away it would have been OK. But now they've been talking a little bit too long. You hesitated too long. If you ask them now they'll say "What are you wasting my time all this time for?"

What am I going to do? I get an idea. Maybe it's a valve.

I take my finger and I put it down on one of the mysterious little crosses in the middle of one of the blueprints on page three, and I say "What happens if this valve gets stuck?" --figuring they're going to say "That's not a valve, sir, that's a window."

So one looks at the other and says, "Well, if that valve gets stuck--" and he goes up and down on the blueprint, up and down, the other guy goes up and down, back and forth, back and forth, and they both look at each other. They turn around to me and they open their mouths like astonished fish and say "You're absolutely right, sir."

So they rolled up the blueprints and away they went and we walked out. And Mr. Zumwalt, who had been following me all the way through, said, "You're a genius. I got the idea you were a genius when you went through the plant once and you could tell them about evaporator C-21 in building 90-207 the next morning," he says, "but what you have just done is so fantastic I want to know how, how do you do that?"

I told him you try to find out whether it's a valve or not.

So... self-aggrandizement? self-deprecating? educational? or just entertainment?

In the past there were two kinds of Feynman articles:

1) Glowing, without reservation, and notably ignoring some of his sexist views, statements, and actions

2) Conflicted and accusatory - tainting a wonderful educator and brilliant innovator as irredeemable. Someone who we should stop worshipping because of his problematic points of view.

The truth is both. And this article acknowledges and leans into it. We should strive to celebrate the best of Feynman, and apply his joy and wonder of science into our lives. But we should be aware of his more prickly and selfish aspects, and seek to not fall into the same trappings.

I think this article is great, and is a good template for approaching other flawed legends.

1) As smart as you think you are, or as smart as you think OTHERS are, EVERYONE goes through moments when they feel stupid, overwhelmed, and overmatched intellectually.

2) Even the smartest people are bad at some things (e.g. reading blueprints)

3) Ultimately you have to be comfortable with asking stupid questions, ESPECIALLY when people think you're smart. (Note - he didn't ask hoping he asked something smart, or provided value. You have to have the intellectual confidence to look stupid sometimes)

4) Your instincts will still help you even in situations where you are overmatched or under-prepared. Have the humility not to over rely on them, but don't hold back ideas - you never know when they might be helpful.

These lessons are universal for any professional.