41–50 of 51 posts
The normal Feynman lectures are here: https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/
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>>Feynman was a uniquely gifted teacher that made things intuitive and simple. I think explainers like Neil deGrasse Tyson have a job harder than people imagine. Historically the problem with science education has been, that, as the conceptual universe gets bigger and complicated there's a tendency to assume the common person is too stupid and beneath the subject to understand it. To simplify and demystify science to…
That particular person is more of a shouter and interrupter than an explainer.
Almost a thousand pages of presumably well thought out and neatly written notes. For lectures, and not even his own research. I'm always amazed at the productivity and output of the great ones.
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>>Feynman was a uniquely gifted teacher that made things intuitive and simple. I think explainers like Neil deGrasse Tyson have a job harder than people imagine. Historically the problem with science education has been, that, as the conceptual universe gets bigger and complicated there's a tendency to assume the common person is too stupid and beneath the subject to understand it. To simplify and demystify science to…
That particular person is more of a shouter and interrupter than an explainer.
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especially reading Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! leaves a bad taste in my mouth after all these years. i can only take the title literally "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"
There is a nice essay from Paul Graham that starts with: > The word "prig" isn't very common now, but if you look up the definition, it will sound familiar.
I never understood the appeal of Feynman and these Lectures. It has been a constant topic for years around here. For example, the Electricity and Magnetism book by Purcell is phenomenal but it is hardly ever mentioned. To quote wikipedia, Electricity and Magnetism is a standard textbook in electromagnetism originally written by Nobel laureate Edward Mills Purcell in 1963. Along with David Griffiths' Introduction to E…
Its just charisma. His pedagogy isn't great; my main criticism is that he isn't very incisive. Edit: to be fair though, textbooks are written while lectures are oral. So its hard to compare them.
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Angela Collier has a 3-hour video on the topic (The Sham Legacy of Richard Feynman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKpj2ISQAc ) with funny takes and criticism. It has been a while, so I cannot remember if she was criticizing Feynman himself to some extent or how his legacy is being portrayed by the media. In the latter case, I am also a bit annoyed how he is constantly portrayed as some kind of a super star by Amer…
Her primary thesis, if I understood correctly, is to clarify that none of the books with Feynman listed as the author were written by him, and that they were transcribed from interviews, lectures etc with editorializing. For example, by Ralph Leighton. Her secondary point was that she hates the "autobiographical" ones, and finds parts sexist, and thinks most of the stories are mostly false/lies/storytelling. With tha…
It's been a while since I read "Surely, you must be joking" but I seem to recall Feynman himself makes the same point. He basically says something to the effect that some of his stories and bon mots are things he wished he said or did rather than stuff that actually happened.
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especially reading Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! leaves a bad taste in my mouth after all these years. i can only take the title literally "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"
Surely you're joking Mr Feynman begins in the 30s and takes us to the 60s IIRC, so one has to take into account, what the mainstream was in those times. But he is against hazing, explaining how traumatized European Jews were hazed and reliving their fears in Europe. But, of course, some things cannot be understood nowadays with the mindset we have now.
there are books from the 19 century written by people with much better values
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There is a nice essay from Paul Graham that starts with: > The word "prig" isn't very common now, but if you look up the definition, it will sound familiar.
This should be required reading to make an account here.