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Richard Feynman's blackboard at the time of his death (1988)

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Re: Richard Feynman's blackboard at the time of his death (1988)

#21

Post by hinkley »

I finally put my whiteboard back up that’s been down since before Covid. It still had scribblings of a novel merge sort with lower space overhead that turned out to be an artifact of non-representative sample inputs. As Bletchley Park taught us, humans are terrible at randomness.

No piece of software replicates the experience of having a board to write things on (or magnet things to, if yours is ferromagnetic like mine). The ones that come closest, that money is better spent on something else.

Re: Richard Feynman's blackboard at the time of his death (1988)

#22

Post by torlok »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #16
gitremote wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the sham legacy of Richard Feynman" is about Feynman being famous because of this book rather than because of his physics. The YouTuber, an obsessed physicist who had spent months reading all Feynman books, provides a critical analysis and explains the cultural impact of "Surely You're Joking, Mr.Feynman!" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKpj2ISQAc

And his Nobel Prize, the highest acclamation by his peers that exists. The people eager to tear him down seem to forget that. [EDIT] Oops, somehow this post appeared twice?

The video is a critical look at the legend of Richard Feynman, not his work. You should watch it.

Re: Richard Feynman's blackboard at the time of his death (1988)

#23

Post by speff »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #17
gitremote wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the sham legacy of Richard Feynman" is about Feynman being famous because of this book rather than because of his physics. The YouTuber, an obsessed physicist who had spent months reading all Feynman books, provides a critical analysis and explains the cultural impact of "Surely You're Joking, Mr.Feynman!" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKpj2ISQAc

And his Nobel Prize, the highest possible acclamation by his peers. The people eager to tear him down seem to overlook that.

One minute and thirty seconds into the video: "Amazing Nobel Prize winning physicist"

Re: Richard Feynman's blackboard at the time of his death (1988)

#24

Post by mkagenius »

jandrese wrote: post #18
Molitor5901 wrote: post #3

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! is one of my favorite books. We lost him much too soon.

How much of that book do you think is the literal truth and how much do you think was embellished? When I read it my impression is that Feynmann is the kind of storyteller that doesn't let the boring real life details get in the way of a good story. Some of it is completely believable, like the general telling people to never have their safes open when he is around, but others came across as a bit fanciful to me, esp…

Murray Gelman used to hate him.

Freeman Dyson loved him.

(Both nobel prize winners)

Re: Richard Feynman's blackboard at the time of his death (1988)

#25

Post by hinkley »

dhosek wrote: post #2

“Know how to solve every problem that has been solved.” That seems a reasonable goal.

Feynman was a huge proponent of, whether he knew it or not, compression being a form of modeling.

He thought everything settled about physics should be teachable in the freshmen introductory series, and if he couldn’t make it fit that meant we didn’t really understand it yet.

I personally like the idea of upper level classes being about things we are still working out. That feels more like preparing people for the real world, where your job is to figure stuff out they couldn’t teach you in class because you and your coworkers are going to write the “book”. Or at least make money because not enough people have figured “it” out to make it cheap.

Re: Richard Feynman's blackboard at the time of his death (1988)

#26

Post by mkagenius »

sigmoid10 wrote: post #4

Richard Feynman having the quantum Hall effect on his "to learn" list is amazing. I mean, it makes sense, because less than three years before he died the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded for its discovery. But it shows that even one of the greatest physicists of his generation had not fully grasped something that is now part of every undergraduate physics degree's standard curriculum and is arguably much less comp…

Being part of a course doesn't mean the students get enough time to delve as deep or have as deep an understanding of the phenomenon though.

Re: Richard Feynman's blackboard at the time of his death (1988)

#28

Post by vonneumannstan »

gitremote wrote: post #8
Molitor5901 wrote: post #3

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! is one of my favorite books. We lost him much too soon.

"the sham legacy of Richard Feynman" is about Feynman being famous because of this book rather than because of his physics. The YouTuber, an obsessed physicist who had spent months reading all Feynman books, provides a critical analysis and explains the cultural impact of "Surely You're Joking, Mr.Feynman!" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKpj2ISQAc

It's easy to dunk on someone unable to defend themselves.

Some basic sanity checks: Personally recruited onto the Manhattan Project by Oppenheimer in 1943. Feynman Diagrams, fundamental to QM and became popular in the early 50s. There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom lecture was given in 1959. The Feynman Lectures on Physics were recorded at Caltech between 1961-1964 and became famous throughout the field shortly after. Nobel Prize for the development of Quantum Electrodynamics shared with Schwinger and Tomonaga in 1965 Richard Feynman: Fun to Imagine Collection came out in 1983 Surely you must be joking Mr. Feynman released in 1985.

Any Physics Professor on earth would give both their legs to have the career Feynman did before he was supposedly only made relevant by his Biography.

Re: Richard Feynman's blackboard at the time of his death (1988)

#29

Post by vonneumannstan »

mkagenius wrote: post #24
jandrese wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much of that book do you think is the literal truth and how much do you think was embellished? When I read it my impression is that Feynmann is the kind of storyteller that doesn't let the boring real life details get in the way of a good story. Some of it is completely believable, like the general telling people to never have their safes open when he is around, but others came across as a bit fanciful to me, esp…

Murray Gelman used to hate him. Freeman Dyson loved him. (Both nobel prize winners)

Dyson has won nearly every award other than the Nobel.

Re: Richard Feynman's blackboard at the time of his death (1988)

#30

Post by gregschlom »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #14

His motto "What I cannot create, I do not understand" has been one of the driving forces in my own quest to understand more about the world around me. A good friend had picked up a corollary which was "What I cannot teach, I do not understand" which I think was quite similar. Definitely one of my heroes.

> "What I cannot teach, I do not understand"

And the corollary to that, from 17th century French writer Nicolas Boileau: "Ce que l'on conçoit bien s'énonce clairement, et les mots pour le dire arrivent aisément." - What we understand well, we express clearly, and words to describe it flow easily.

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