
What would Feynman do? - cruise02
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ericlippert/archive/2011/02/14/what-would-feynman-do.aspx
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rflrob
When the original "If Feynman Applied for a job at Microsoft" was posted
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1866305>), a lot of people commented
that this doesn't actually sound like something Feynman would say. Sheldon
Cooper, maybe, but Feynman would have loved the simple, elegant solution that
relied on no extra tools.

~~~
cruise02
Although I found the article amusing, I have to agree with you. Surely Feynman
would have seen the "correct" answer as quickly as any of us mere mortals.

~~~
kd0amg
That doesn't mean he'd give that solution right away. This sort of run-around
seems to fit his sense of humor.

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hristov
Whoever this guy is should try to make a point without putting words in
Feynman's mouth. It is downright disrespectful. I know that everyone knows
that Feynman did not say these things, but it is still disrespectful.

Also it shows an enormous ego. Mr. Lippert thinks he is as smart as Feynman
but he is not; he just makes Feynman sound like a pedantic asshole.

Mind you I agree with his point that those questions are silly, but again he
can make this point without bringing in Feynman's corpse and using it as a
sockpupet.

~~~
ericlippert
For the record: I intended no disrespect; I have immense respect and
admiration for Feynman.

And for the record: I do not think that I am as smart as Feynman; that would
be ridiculous.

The piece was intended as satire, and is in a long tradition of such dialogues
intended to ridicule a "straw man" of a particular position. Consider, for
example, Gallileo's Dialogue Concerning Two World Systems, in which the
scientist, Salviati, criticizes the position of Simplicio, who believes the
earth to be the center of the universe.

I couldn't think of a better modern figure to stand for science, reason, clear
thinking, and a mischievious sense of fun than Richard Feynman as my Salviati,
and I hope that he would appreciate the spirit in which it was presented.

~~~
frak_your_couch
I think you defended your use of satire very well. Good job.

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gwern
The Feynman I know from the _Feynman Lectures on Computation_ would have
quickly disposed of the information-theoretic problem posed, and _then_ have
gone on to discuss all the interesting variants.

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teamonkey
Without wanting to drag the discussion down, it seems remiss not to link to
this image that's been going around forever.

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/maitri/1444965179/>

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tomsaffell
_..And why is the solution you were clearly driving me towards one which takes
advantage of an undocumented and unreliable epiphenomenon.._

Since when has the thermal performance of a light bulb been undocumented and
unreliable? I would think that designers of light fixtures and shades rely
heavily on the documented thermal performance of light bulbs, and rate their
products for compatibility with a range of bulbs accordingly.

~~~
sfphotoarts
he calls them epiphenomenon which is correct, their primary property is light
production, heat is a secondary feature and not reliable, take for example LED
based lighting, or even the low energy fluorescents.

But RF was just being a well deserved smartass. Besides, who would ever
interview RF, it would a waste of time, Unless you have Newton, Einstein and
Larry & Sergei already on your payroll just give the man an office, s stapler
and let him do whatever comes to mind.

~~~
wazoox
Just in case anybody didn't know already of this gem:
[http://longnow.org/essays/richard-feynman-connection-
machine...](http://longnow.org/essays/richard-feynman-connection-machine/)

~~~
bryanh
I love their response to Feynmen's desire to "do something real".... "So we
sent him out to buy some office supplies."

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anupj
I don't think Dr. Feynman talks in such a cryptic language, if you've read his
books you would know that he actually talks/writes in a very lucid language.
But the person mentioned in the interview does sound like a certain "Sheldon"
from the "The Big Bang Theory".

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loup-vaillant
Brain teasers and real life just don't work the same way. The trick is to
distinguish them.

If a bridge can only support 2 people, maybe it is better to not cross it at
all. If you do have to cross it, maybe you can trust your tamed tiger with the
goat. Pirates aren't rational agents that use silly rules for sharing the
treasure. An egg that doesn't take a scratch when falling from the 13'th floor
belongs to wonderland. Few women would kill their cheating husband right away.
Fewer still would rely on the perfect rationality of others, and the mayor's
to do so.

And so on. Brain teasers are fun, but many people (not just Richard Feynman)
don't accept their weird assumptions right away, and instead assume a real-
life setting.

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Confusion
I find this story unlikely, but probably for a pretty uncommon reason. Here's
the thing: I heard this question a number of times before (never in an
interview; always on the interwebs), but never attempted to solve it and never
read a solution. As I was reading this paragraph:

    
    
      Can I assume that the lights and the switches are correctly
      wired according to the National Electric Code of the United
      States? That is, that the switches interrupt the hots, not the 
      neutrals, that the switches are standard-duty switches rated 
      to interrupt 15 amps of 120 volt alternating current, and so on?
    

I instantly realized the intended answer. I don't doubt for a second that if
that just happened to me, it would also have happened to Feynman (because I
blame being a physicist for what just happened), immediately after first
thinking of that important signalling word that he was supposedly about to
speak.

~~~
ericlippert
Of course Feynman knows the intended answer. He's way ahead of the
interviewer, and is having some fun with him by deliberately avoiding the
"correct" answer.

~~~
Confusion
Reiterating how brilliant Feynman was completely misses my point, which
depends on the assumption that Feynman would start out as he did.

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juiceandjuice
Feynman would have a better approximation for the resistance of a human. 1K is
just way too low.

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shubber
"Does your team usually write code whose correctness relies upon undocumented
and unreliable correlations, correlations whose magnitudes can vary widely as
a result of implementation details?"

I loved this implication on a Microsoft website.

