Feynman’s science lesson for entrepreneurs: Challenge authority.
radicalsocialentreps.org
Feynman’s science lesson for entrepreneurs: Challenge authority.
1–10 of 25 posts
Re: Feynman’s science lesson for entrepreneurs: Challenge authority.
#2This is not a new video, it's part of his Messenger series lectures from 1964: http://research.microsoft.com/apps/tools/tuva/
Re: Feynman’s science lesson for entrepreneurs: Challenge authority.
#3Would the analogous lesson for entrepreneurs be that if the market doesn't want it, it's wrong? I'd think there's some cases where products are ahead of their time, i.e. they're right at the wrong time.
Re: Feynman’s science lesson for entrepreneurs: Challenge authority.
#4Would the analogous lesson for entrepreneurs be that if the market doesn't want it, it's wrong? I'd think there's some cases where products are ahead of their time, i.e. they're right at the wrong time.
I think so. Obviously this is based on the standards of market preferences, which is in constant flux unlike the 'objective laws' of the physical world. Something might be a great idea but is wrongly timed in the sense that the market doesn't want it yet (or at all). In the sea of human preference subjectivity the only objectivity we can hope for, it seems to me, is sink-or-swim on the market.
In a sense the same might be said for science though.. such as if a theory is imagined long before we have the tools to actually test it out.
Re: Feynman’s science lesson for entrepreneurs: Challenge authority.
#5Eugenics in this context is a bad example, because in this case controlled breeding definitely gets results, i.e. the theory (sort of) agrees with the theory, at least in the case of animals. You should thank such manipulative practices when you are enjoying a seedless banana.
Of course, the practice is abhorrent! But, and I think this is important, the ethical part has nothing to do with the science part. Consider the piece from NYT that reported Robert Spitzer's apology (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/health/dr-robert-l-spitzer...) for defining homosexuality as a "disease" and trying to cure it. When he published his study one commentary:
"...cited the Nuremberg Code of ethics to denounce the study as not only flawed but morally wrong. “We fear the repercussions of this study, including an increase in suffering, prejudice, and discrimination,” concluded a group of 15 researchers at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, where Dr. Spitzer was affiliated."
I think that a scientific theory can we wrong or right (or currently undecided) but it cannot be morally wrong. The way you perform the experiments to test it may be morally wrong, though. There were significant faults with Spitzer's research, these should be pointed out rather than its moral wrongness.
Similarly eugenics should be attacked for its unintended consequences (e.g. extinction of Cavendish bananas http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/bananas.asp) and its nineteenth-century simplistic approach to the human genetic-psychological relationship which, as we now, is vastly complex.
Re: Feynman’s science lesson for entrepreneurs: Challenge authority.
#6Eugenics in this context is a bad example, because in this case controlled breeding definitely gets results, i.e. the theory (sort of) agrees with the theory, at least in the case of animals. You should thank such manipulative practices when you are enjoying a seedless banana. Of course, the practice is abhorrent! But, and I think this is important, the ethical part has nothing to do with the science part. Consider t…
I think the problem is that most people (at least in the US) don't have enough science knowledge to know why they should even care about Spitzer's bad science. However, most people have an opinion about the morality of eugenics, so people tend to focus on that.
Re: Feynman’s science lesson for entrepreneurs: Challenge authority.
#7Would the analogous lesson for entrepreneurs be that if the market doesn't want it, it's wrong? I'd think there's some cases where products are ahead of their time, i.e. they're right at the wrong time.
So are you saying that a product that's ahead of its time is "right"? I think that (with some very notable caveats), we can say that in general if the market doesn't want a product, there's something wrong (perhaps the problem isn't with the product itself).
Re: Feynman’s science lesson for entrepreneurs: Challenge authority.
#8Would the analogous lesson for entrepreneurs be that if the market doesn't want it, it's wrong? I'd think there's some cases where products are ahead of their time, i.e. they're right at the wrong time.
I'm reminded of the Heinlein quote "Engineering is the art of the practical and depends more on the total state of the art than it does on the individual engineer. When railroading time comes you can railroad—but not before."
The same is true of markets.
Re: Feynman’s science lesson for entrepreneurs: Challenge authority.
#9Eugenics in this context is a bad example, because in this case controlled breeding definitely gets results, i.e. the theory (sort of) agrees with the theory, at least in the case of animals. You should thank such manipulative practices when you are enjoying a seedless banana. Of course, the practice is abhorrent! But, and I think this is important, the ethical part has nothing to do with the science part. Consider t…
Of course, the practice is abhorrent!
While I agree that eugenics has been used (often poorly) to justify many horrible policies in the past, I don't think it's abhorrent in general. Today eugenics is used very successfully to prevent horrible genetic diseases.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dor_Yeshorim
Most of the horrible policies we associate with eugenics are actually a result of a belief in eugenics AND malthusianism. If you reject malthusianism and replace it with, e.g., comparative advantage, you lose the scary policy prescriptions.
http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2012/05/eugenics_malthu....
Re: Feynman’s science lesson for entrepreneurs: Challenge authority.
#10This is not a new video, it's part of his Messenger series lectures from 1964: http://research.microsoft.com/apps/tools/tuva/
It'd be remarkably impressive if it was a new video, considering Feynman's been dead 24 years.