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Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)

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Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)

#21

Post by phonon »

bradrn wrote: post #16

> When I was in high school, I'd see water running out of a faucet growing narrower, and wonder if I could figure out what determines that curve. I found it was rather easy to do. Out of curiosity, does anyone know the solution to this problem? I wouldn’t even know how to approach it. (I’m an undergraduate physics major; I know nothing about fluid dynamics, but from Feynmann’s description I suspect that isn’t necessa…

The water is accelerating downward due to gravity...but the amount/s flowing out of the faucet is equal to the amount/s any distance below it...so the stream has to get thinner as it gets "faster".

Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)

#22

Post by 74d-fe6-2c6 »

hungryforcodes wrote: post #14
jacobmischka wrote: post #7

I read (listened to, technically) this book a few weeks ago because I've always been inspired by the idea of Feynman and didn't know much about him. Honestly, I actually like him less after having read it. As I guess I should have expected, because its subtitle is "Adventures of a Curious Character", it's unfortunately for me filled with many more random personal anecdotes, often involving naked women, prostitutes, g…

You definitely inspired me to read it now. The clockwork of Feynman's human and non geeky character is one of the most interesting things about him.

His relationship with women seems pretty immature and very geeky to me.

Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)

#23

Post by ArcMex »

To an extent, this is my attitude towards programming. At the very base, my motivation is genuine interest in the project and tinkering with it. Even when I build useful apps, straying has done more good than harm. By doing this for no reason at than fun curiosity, I've broken builds... But more importantly learned how to fix and document those scenarios.

Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)

#24

Post by chris_j »

This is one of my favourite anecdotes from that book. In recent decades, we've learned how important intrinsic motivation is, and this is a great example of it.

My father was a massive fan of Richard Feynman and also happened to be extremely cynical about formal education. He believed that if you wanted to learn something, you had to take the initiative and learn it for yourself, rather than waiting for the education system to suck the enthusiasm for the subject out of you. It was only after Dad died that I picked up his copy of Surely You're Joking Feynman and learned where he got a lot of his ideas from.

Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)

#25

Post by StavrosK »

jacobmischka wrote: post #7

I read (listened to, technically) this book a few weeks ago because I've always been inspired by the idea of Feynman and didn't know much about him. Honestly, I actually like him less after having read it. As I guess I should have expected, because its subtitle is "Adventures of a Curious Character", it's unfortunately for me filled with many more random personal anecdotes, often involving naked women, prostitutes, g…

There is some pretty bad sexism in the book (because that era was sexist, I guess), but I think your comment goes too far the other way and treats sex as taboo. What's wrong with naked women, prostitutes, gambling and topless bars?

Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)

#26

Post by oytis »

jmfldn wrote: post #6

"The diagrams and the whole business that I got the Nobel Prize for came from that piddling around with the wobbling plate." This shows the extreme importance of blue sky thinking and allowing people to follow their whims sometimes rather than not starting something unless it fits into existing research goals and funding. This breakthrough all lead from an observation that had no apparent use beyond fulfilling a whim…

Well, apart from being playful you also need to be a person who can figure out the equation for water funnel effortlessly as a high school kid. The rest of us can benefit from forcing oneself to intellectual effort

Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)

#27

Post by pfortuny »

chris_j wrote: post #17
jacobmischka wrote: post #7

I read (listened to, technically) this book a few weeks ago because I've always been inspired by the idea of Feynman and didn't know much about him. Honestly, I actually like him less after having read it. As I guess I should have expected, because its subtitle is "Adventures of a Curious Character", it's unfortunately for me filled with many more random personal anecdotes, often involving naked women, prostitutes, g…

What is it about those anecdotes that makes you like him less?

I guess you do not go to a topless bar to pay respect to and trean women with equality and respect.

Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)

#28

Post by fastasucan »

Anon84 wrote: post #19
bradrn wrote: post #16

> When I was in high school, I'd see water running out of a faucet growing narrower, and wonder if I could figure out what determines that curve. I found it was rather easy to do. Out of curiosity, does anyone know the solution to this problem? I wouldn’t even know how to approach it. (I’m an undergraduate physics major; I know nothing about fluid dynamics, but from Feynmann’s description I suspect that isn’t necessa…

It’s not. It’s just conservation of volume. Imagine a thing disk of water just as it comes out of the faucet (pi r^2 v*dt) as it falls, the speed increases so the same volume of what is now thinner and longer (r decreases to account for the increase in v).

*volumetric flow

Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)

#29

Post by kstenerud »

jacobmischka wrote: post #7

I read (listened to, technically) this book a few weeks ago because I've always been inspired by the idea of Feynman and didn't know much about him. Honestly, I actually like him less after having read it. As I guess I should have expected, because its subtitle is "Adventures of a Curious Character", it's unfortunately for me filled with many more random personal anecdotes, often involving naked women, prostitutes, g…

Or, just approach it with an open mind, as a window into small parts of a man's journey.

The more you judge people, the less you'll enjoy the twists and turns of a human life.

Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)

#30

Post by Stevvo »

oytis wrote: post #26
jmfldn wrote: post #6

"The diagrams and the whole business that I got the Nobel Prize for came from that piddling around with the wobbling plate." This shows the extreme importance of blue sky thinking and allowing people to follow their whims sometimes rather than not starting something unless it fits into existing research goals and funding. This breakthrough all lead from an observation that had no apparent use beyond fulfilling a whim…

Well, apart from being playful you also need to be a person who can figure out the equation for water funnel effortlessly as a high school kid. The rest of us can benefit from forcing oneself to intellectual effort

You also need tenure, more than anything else.
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