

Richard Feynman’s Modest Science (and fake teaching) - aaco
http://duartes.org/gustavo/blog/post/richard-feynmans-modest-science

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stanley
Feynman was a fascinating character. Anyone interested in learning more about
him should pick up _Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!_

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13ren
_It was so humble and visceral and honest._

 _here was a Nobel laureate telling me that_ he didn’t really understand it
either

 _Analogies that were meant to “help understand” reality had in fact
supplanted it ... ts entire aim was to pretend that science is not
mysterious._

I've noticed that people at the top of their field in computing tend to have
that humility, too. It's a contrast to those who insist that their way is the
only way, that what they see is all there is to see. Computing is also
mysterious.

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kqr2
Just curious, has anyone here ever read all 3 volumes of Feynman's Lectures on
Physics?

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DaniFong
I read most of them; I skipped a few chapters, which I can't now remember.

It helped once I saw a video of him lecturing: it made such a strong
impression that I can hear him as I'm reading. He was quite the showman.

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weegee
I'm not a scientist and I don't play one on TV, but I've read Feynman's two
auto-biographical books, "Surely You're Joking Mr.Feynman" and "What do you
care what other people think - further adventures of a curious character" and
they are both very well worth reading. What I didn't know until now was the
sheer volume of writing he did in his lifetime. A search on bookfinder.com
comes up with literally dozens of books.

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albertcardona
_"Professor, please give me an approximate description of the electromagnetic
waves, even though it may be slightly innacurate, so that I too can see them
as well as I can see almost-invisible angels. Then I will modify the picture
to the necessary abstraction.”_

 _"I’m sorry I can’t do that for you. I don’t know how. I have no picture of
this electromagnetic field that is in any sense accurate. (…) So if you have
some difficulty in making such a picture, you should not be worried that your
difficulty is unusual."_

Honesty.

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Herring
Yeah honest, and he could also be wrong. What's wrong with a wave picture like
disturbances in the air or water? It's not perfect, not by a long shot, but
all you need is something useful.

To an extent I agree with the blog author when he says these analogies tend to
'supplant reality.' Of course their entire aim is "to pretend that science is
not mysterious". Math is the only language for understanding these concepts
but relating them to the human experience helps (many people, probably most)
in understanding. It's not our fault that he's never studied physics & prefers
to read the cliffsnotes versions.

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khafra
In the book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman," he talks about needing a
concrete example of any abstract system he was taking a new look at; this
would help him intuit problems or inconsistencies faster than he could work
them out precisely on paper.

I think this kind of concrete example is qualitatively different from an
analogy or other way of visualizing the full system. The former helps more in
specific circumstances, while the latter gives a warm, happy, and likely
incorrect feeling of understanding.

