
Freeman Dyson – Birds and Frogs (2009) - mgdo
http://fermatslibrary.com/s/birds-and-frogs
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andrewl
I have yet to see something from Dyson that wasn't worth reading, assuming I
had the background to handle it.

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abecedarius
My fave is his memoir _Disturbing the Universe_. HN types would probably
especially like the chapters on 'startups' he worked on: the TRIGA nuclear
reactor and the Orion nuclear rocket.

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hyperpallium
Is there a way to view this offline?

EDIT
[https://www.ams.org/notices/200902/rtx090200212p.pdf](https://www.ams.org/notices/200902/rtx090200212p.pdf)

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alokrai
1\. It is very interesting to note that Freeman Dyson considers Von Neumann to
be a frog rather than a bird.

Considering Neumann's wide ranging, and prodigious work, I always thought of
him as a superman who could survey the entire landscape of mathematics. Dyson
does give some persuasive reasons why this may not be true.

2\. Dyson reminds me of Isaiah Berlin's THE HEDGEHOG AND THE FOX essay:
[https://www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk/crag/files/2016/06/the_hedgeh...](https://www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk/crag/files/2016/06/the_hedgehog_and_the_fox-
berlin.pdf)

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btrettel
The birds and frogs distinction is interesting, but seems to be a false
dichotomy to me. Ideally a researcher is both a bird and a frog. I try to be.
And unfortunately many researchers probably aren't either. In my own subfield
I can think of many contributions which lack either depth or breadth.

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ageofwant
Maybe if FD gets a PhD he will be able to understand global warming.

Look, I'm not suggesting we abandon contrarianism as entertainment altogether,
amusements are sacred constructs of great power and beauty, but as a system of
philosophy, a guiding force to live your life ?

Give me a fucking break.

