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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)

#241

Post by hamburglar »

crazygringo wrote: post #227
everly wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's from a 10+ year-old blog post so I wouldn't expect it to be in line with modern psychotherapy. It's an insight that has stuck with me since then and seems to strike a chord with others when shared, regardless of whether or not it's "great". Of course it's fine to want something and then get it. Last night I wanted a Klondike bar so I walked to my freezer and got one. This misses the point entirely. Plenty of exa…

> Plenty of examples of people getting what they thought they wanted and still feeling unfulfilled. Right, I think that's what might be striking a chord. Modern psychotherapy would tell you that you'd picked something thinking it would solve problems that it never would. A classic example is that if you achieved a certain career objective or measure of success, you would feel loved and approved of and worthy. And the…

It’s possible these are both right. You should pick achievable goals which will actually make you happy, and you should pick impossible goals that you will always enjoy working towards.

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

#242

Post by tovej »

baxtr wrote: post #87
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.

Love his books! Although, it seems like he’s getting a bad rep these days. How did that happen? PS: I’m referring to that video that pops up on top when you google him for example.

He hasn't written a single book (surprising I know), I assume you're talking about "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman", which contains exaggerated anecdotes designed to make Feynman look like a hero. That one was written by a fanboy (Ralph Leighton) based on stories that Feynman told him, which have been revealed to be either fake or exaggerations (they found notes in his office of him writing and rewriting these hero stories).

It's a terrible book, in my opinion. If you want to know why, Angela Collier says it better and in more detail than I could: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKpj2ISQAc

Is that the video you're referring to? Watch the video and I think you'll see why he is "getting a bad rep these days".

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

#243

Post by tovej »

sundarurfriend wrote: post #193
scintill76 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve watched 2 Angela Collier videos on him albeit in the background — you’d probably have to watch the whole thing to truly understand the “bad rep” and I can’t speak to how widespread the bad rep is. My memory is, misogyny, cringey stories that were surely greatly exaggerated and just happen to make Feynman the smartest guy in every room, kind of a jerk in general, divorce due to claimed domestic violence, never di…

I haven't watched this particular video, but Angela Collier's channel seems to be unfortunately going the typical way of pop-physicists, like Neil deGrasse Tyson, Sabine Hossenfelder, etc. - becoming famous for their physics-related content, and then assuming they're an expert at everything because they are physicists, and physics explains everything. It seems to be a rare physicist ( possibly Sean Carroll) that's in…

She's the only youtube physicist I can stand, to be honest. Much better than Tyson, and much, much better than Hossenfelder, who's turning out to be a complete crank. Collier is matter of fact, cites her sources, and has non-hot takes on whatever non-physics topic she's talking about (e.g. AI). Sure, she gets the terminology wrong, but she gets the main thrust of the matter right. I say that as a computer science researcher who's concerned about AI ethics.

And her video on Feynman is detailed and worth watching. She goes through evidence from court cases of Feynman strangling his wife, of how Ralph Leighton created much of this myth of Feynman by fanboying him. And she gives him the benefit of the doubt as well, presenting him as flawed, but human.

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

#244

Post by tovej »

EncomLab wrote: post #234

Anyone know why it seems that Feynman is coming under attack lately - most prominently by You Tuber Angela Collier whose "the sham legacy of Richard Feynman" now has nearly 1M views? I don't understand it at all.

Well, for one, he strangled his wife when he got upset: https://slate.com/technology/2019/01/richard-feynman-physica...

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

#245

Post by tovej »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #74
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

The person talking in the video lost me, when she criticized pupils asking about air resistance. Basically that was me, literally, without having known anything about Feynman. I simply asked, because I was interested in how one would calculate that, rather than the boring "use formula from book, plug in values, get result". I wanted to know more. Not because I wanted to "seem smart because I know air exists". That's…

She's a phd in physics, I think we can safely say that she has a curious mind.

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

#246

Post by calebio »

hamburglar wrote: post #241
crazygringo wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Plenty of examples of people getting what they thought they wanted and still feeling unfulfilled. Right, I think that's what might be striking a chord. Modern psychotherapy would tell you that you'd picked something thinking it would solve problems that it never would. A classic example is that if you achieved a certain career objective or measure of success, you would feel loved and approved of and worthy. And the…

It’s possible these are both right. You should pick achievable goals which will actually make you happy, and you should pick impossible goals that you will always enjoy working towards.

bingo, this was my thought as well. One perspective works well for the micro, and the other for the macro.

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

#247

Post by calebio »

jstanley wrote: post #196
JKCalhoun wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Feynman has a comment in one of his two autobiographies where he describes an argument with an artist friend — about, I think, the beauty of a rose. His friend believed that "dissecting" the rose, breaking it down to its biological components chemical processes, took away from the beauty of the rose. Feynman disagreed — couldn't understand how knowing more about the thing could possibly take away from it. It was the…

This comment went the exact opposite of the direction I was expecting. Do you also find that you enjoy magic tricks less when you know how they're done? Personally I find the "not knowing" kind of painful. I can't imagine cherishing ignorance.

Agreed. I find that I still have "wonder" all of the time, and that is what drives me to try and "figure it out". The sense of wonder never goes away, but my naivete about a single experience does go away.

I don't know why I'd want to continue to be naive about something after experiencing it. There's plenty of new things to see and do that will generate that "wonder" feeling all over again.

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

#248

Post by dinkumthinkum »

somat wrote: post #109
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.

A similar thing I heard about the amish, is that it is not that they are anti technology, it is that they Don't want technology they can't control, basically if unable to make from raw materials they don't want it. Now I don't think this is entirely the way things are, I suspect there is a core of truth with a lot of religion and tradition surrounding it. But I have a lot of sympathy for wanting to have the freedom t…

That's not really true about the Amish. I've never heard that interpretation. It is more complicated than and Amish do use technology in limited ways but it boils down to not wanting to disrupt their family with technology and also the complicated process of integrating new technology into their lifestyles.

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

#249

Post by dinkumthinkum »

EncomLab wrote: post #234

Anyone know why it seems that Feynman is coming under attack lately - most prominently by You Tuber Angela Collier whose "the sham legacy of Richard Feynman" now has nearly 1M views? I don't understand it at all.

I don't want to get into it but she is a nice person and is quite smart but she is a far leftist and interprets many things through a Marxist and anti-capitalist world-view with a very millennial kind of approach. So, I would tend take a lot of things she says with a grain of salt.

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

#250

Post by dinkumthinkum »

shimonabi wrote: post #169

He was a con artist with a Nobel Prize. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKpj2ISQAc

As I wrote in a comment about the same person, be careful, she is a far-leftist that regularly pushes a "particular" agenda in her entertaining videos about physics and life as a phd student.
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