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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)

#81

Post by gowld »

bcatanzaro wrote: post #64
JKCalhoun wrote: post #59

There's something rather sad, maybe poignant about it. It stands there as a testimonial to our brevity on this planet, to all that we will not see, do, understand. So it goes, I guess.

I almost want to read it as satire. Especially juxtaposed against his death. Because the ideas of "What I cannot create, I do not understand." and "Know how to solve every problem that has been solved" seem profoundly unwise and endlessly futile.

If you are calling Richard Feynman "profoundly unwise" and "endlessly futile", you might need to do a bit more reflection on the grounding for your opinion.

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

#82

Post by wholinator2 »

vonneumannstan wrote: post #32
archermarks wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The video is not about Feynman's actual career. That's actually the point -- the idea of Feynman people have in their minds is totally divorced from the actual person and his work.

Maybe true in the early 90s but I don't imagine really anyone in the general public is familiar with him anymore. Physicists know of him. >is about Feynman being famous because of this book rather than because of his physics.

People still do very much know of him. My mother is the person who introduced me to his book. I was showing some interest in science in school when it was presented to me though. Though he's probably waning from "household name" status he's likely still widely known

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

#83

Post by jonahx »

fouronnes3 wrote: post #34
gregschlom wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "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.

I'm french and I have a great memory about that quote. In high school my litterature and physics teachers had a disagreement about it, although I believe they didn't know about each other's point of views. Only us the students did, as they each hand waved great insights about the world with this quote. One was arguing, much like you, about the profound truth there is to it. The other was quick to explain that they pe…

Literature professor = bike argument?

That's were I put my money, but I could see it going either way.

This can devolve into a definitional argument, but I actually think it's fair to say we don't understand how we ride a bike. We have many abilities and fluencies we don't understand, or only partially understand, in the sense that we can't break them down into pieces easily and transmit the information. That perspective feels more accurate to me than saying I understand how I ride a bike because I can ride a bike, though in common usage the phrase "I understand how to ride a bike" would be perfectly acceptable.

The subtle distinction between the phrase "knows how to" and "understands" hints at the difference here.

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

#84

Post by sympil »

FredPret wrote: post #77
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

Someone making a 2h 48 min rant about how a dead, great physicist was "not that great" is oddly the opposite of convincing

That is not all want the video is about.

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

#85

Post by wholinator2 »

dralley wrote: post #15
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

Yeah, it's hard not to see some truth in what Murray Gell-Mann said, which is that he spent as much time trying to come up with stories about himself as he did working. Also while breaking the rules might be fun, lockpicking desks & sending coded messages out of Los Alamos "for fun" is maybe not for the best.

It wasn't for the worst either. Frankly i think it's essential for people to have experience in some mischeviety. Hacker mindset, etc, etc. I've joined a PhD program recently and you can really tell who's never done anything but study.

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

#86

Post by cyberax »

gregschlom wrote: post #30
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.

One my personal trick: imagine that you are magically transported into the 19-th century (or earlier). Can you teach the subject to a well-known scientist of that era?

E.g. if you want to explain radioactivity to somebody from 1860-s, how would you do that? Or for math, how would you explain calculus to Archimedes?

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

#87

Post by baxtr »

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.

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

#88

Post by gowld »

hinkley wrote: post #25
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 re…

You can't reasonably keep compressing centuries of progress into an intro series.

I think you are describing undergrad vs graduate, not intro vs upper level, and even that is optimistic. Even tenured professors are still learning new things about what is already known to the world at large.

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

#89

Post by gowld »

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

That YouTuber seems quite bitter, making videos complaining about famous scientists and complaining about people lke Worlfram and Musk who studied physics in school and then became successful in business -- not for being bad businessman or bad people (which some of them may well be), but because she's offended that they say they love physics even though she thinks they don't deserve to.

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

#90

Post by kypro »

I'm sure a lot of people here have already seen this, but for those who haven't I highly recommend you watch this video of Feynman explaining light,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjHJ7FmV0M4

He had an amazing ability to make physics fun and entertaining. I could listen to him talk all day.

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