

The Last Journey of a Genius - sr3d
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3164300309410618119#

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sr3d
I just finished a 2nd book about Richard Feynman in a few hours (I basically
devoured it) and went searching more about him and his life. I ran into this
video and it was the first time I've seen him. He's such a remarkable figure
and his out look on life is amazingly as remarkable. I only wish I had come to
know about Feynman earlier, but I'm glad I know and read about him. I'm deeply
moved. Thanks Feynman for such wisdom in life and how to live your life like
an adventure. And Touva does sound great as a next traveling destination.

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nlanier
Might I ask which books you've read about him? Thanks.

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sr3d
I read "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" and "What Do You Care What Other
People Think?" You can pick these 2 books on Amazon used for a couple cents
plus 3.99 shipping.

~~~
nlanier
I'm going to check them out, thanks!

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abless
The great thing about Feynman is that he defies the image of the world-
distant, confused, aloof university professor, but rather comes across like
someone you'd love to have a beer with while talking about interesting stuff.

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exit
i hope he got his orange juice

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biznickman
Ok, this guy _IS_ a genius physicist. However why the hell didn't he just get
on a plane and fly to Tuva?!?!? Or hike there!

There are terrorists paying to learn how to fly in the US, there are Mexicans
coming across the US border, journalists wandering into Iran, and many other
places. However a genius couldn't figure out how to get there.

Instead he spent 5 years figuring out the language and trying to get some sort
of random "official" approval through numerous exchanges with people around
the world. The botanists however just walked there. I spent 45 minutes hoping
to see entrepreneurial thought at work and all I found was genius physicist
who couldn't get to a remote country.

Am I the only one that finds this lame? I'm not saying I'm not inspired by his
work but his approach to getting to Tuva is the exact way you prevent forward
motion in a startup. He put false hurdles/barriers in front of himself to make
it more exciting and romanticize it rather than just go there.

Disappointing.

~~~
sr3d
Several possible reasons:

\- Touva was probably not Feynman's main goal, but trying to get there is by
itself an adventure with Ralph, his friend.

\- He had cancer for almost 10 years. This must have had a tremendous impact
on his health.

\- It was the mid-80s, you couldn't just Google about Touva and find out about
it.

\- The cold-war was still going on. And probably USSR was still very much a
black-box.

\- He worked on several government projects (imagine what security clearance
he was when he worked on investigating the Challenger explosion), so going to
the a country within the USSR was probably a real challenge.

Granted he could pull some strings in the government to get a piece of
invitation paper, but that's not the point. Plus after reading about Feynman,
he's not the type of people to do something like that just to go to another
mysterious country. He'd find creative ways to do his goal and enjoy the the
process as things unfolded. If you feel disappointed about Feynman coudln't
fulfill his goal of reaching Touva, then you have miss the point about the
whole story. Nonetheless, he did get an invitation to go to Touva a few days
after he passed away. So he did succeed after all.

And no, there's nothing specific about "entrepreneurial thoughts" in the
video, so you have had a wrong expectation to begin with.

