
Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything - raphar
http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~kilcup/262/feynman.html
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cableshaft
One point that isn't directly mentioned is that he was able to turn the
'wobbling plate equations' into a Nobel Prize because he had such a wide
breadth of knowledge to draw from, and probably had a habit of drawing
parallels between what he's doing and other things within that breadth of
knowledge.

He wouldn't have even thought to make the parallel between the wobble and how
electron orbits move in relativity if he didn't already have a good
understanding of electron orbits, and it wouldn't lead to the Dirac Equation
in electrodynamics without him being familiar with that, then quantum
electrodynamics without being familiar with that.

So yes, while play and working on things 'with no importance' can lead to
great discoveries, or something of importance later, you need to have that
background of knowledge and the habit of connecting two disparate concepts
together or else it will always remain something 'with no importance'.

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jarboot
Relevant SMBC: [http://www.smbc-
comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2698](http://www.smbc-
comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2698)

( Please let me know if this sort of comment is against the rules or common
etiquette )

~~~
k__
The comic explains the problem really well, I think

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plusquamperfekt
The title quote is badly chosen. It's not about being burned out - but about
leaving being burned out behind him and winning the Nobel Prize ...

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cup
Then one day at my academic progress meeting the dean asked me about my
publication record. I had forgotten to publish, but it was ok!

Now that I was unemployed, I had even more time to play with physics!

~~~
waqf
To understand this story it helps to realize that in the olden days there was
something called "tenure".

~~~
cup
Sure,

I was being facetious though. While the story is interesting, it should be
considered in the current context.

A huge swathe of senior researchers are burnt out but the wisdom Feynman
imparts isn't particularly helpful to them due to the nature of academia
today.

~~~
a_bonobo
I think you can still use Feynman-like play in academic work, you just have to
pretend to the funding people and the MBAs running the university that you're
"totally serious", that your work can be turned into money etc.

I have a few scientific projects that I play around with when I'm stuck on my
"totally serious stuff I'm supposed to work with" which give publications at
some point, but that's more of a side-effect than anything else.

And of course scientists now bullshit an extraordinary amount when it comes to
future applications of their work - they often don't particularly care, the
MBAs just want to hear their mantras.

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Hockenbrizzle
This reminds me of a quote that went something like:

"Most children are already physicists. Sadly, our education system beats the
curiosity out of them"

Was that Feynman or someone else?

~~~
brianclements
The first part sounds like a play on the Picasso quote "All children are
artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up"[1] and the
second half sounds like something Ken Robinson said in his TED talk about
creativity[2].

What's interesting about the underlying implications of all these quotes to me
is that what makes a good physicist, a good artist, or a good anything, is the
unabashed curiosity, a willingness to experiment without being stopped by fear
of failure, and the state of play that one must be in to unleash creative
approaches and new connections.

[1][http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/pablopicas169744....](http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/pablopicas169744.html#BdyV1r9X3k6UIFJP.99)
[2][https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_cre...](https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity)

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stuaxo
Hm, coding can be fun when it's like play - how to reconcile this with all the
"boring stuff" \- deployment scripts, documentation, unit tests ?

~~~
orthoganol
Assuming personal projects... Use cheap and simple PAAS integrations. Don't
write documentation on a personal project. Only test the complex stuff that
touches a lot of your app, and enjoy the new ways it challenges you to
conceptualize. 100% test coverage is foolish. Don't "test like the TSA."
Actually, don't even write tests if your app is simple.

Code however you want. Don't let programmers who pose as authorities fool you
into thinking you're 'doing it wrong', that kills all the joy in programming.
As long as you're thinking through things and it works, and especially if
you're actually enjoying it, you're most certainly doing it right.

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knocte
He made a career out of playing. (Moral of the story.)

~~~
fabulist
I took a very different message from it.

He started out having fun with physics, worked very hard to accomplish
tangible things with it, and burned out because that made it stop being fun
(to the point where he found it "disgusting"). He started playing again, doing
things that were completely useless, and that lead to his greatest discovery.

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brianclements
At it's core, creativity is play. Play is how we first learned to be creative,
and that's the only state we can be in that achieves it.

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thewarrior
So am I except for the part where I'm not Feynman.

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frsandstone
This is a great example of why the TEAM matter more than the IDEA.

~~~
crpatino
I do not follow. Are you talking about a degenerate team of one, or what?

