When I was around fourteen, my grandpa one day told me that he had a book he thought I would like. The book was “Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman”. This was the first time I had heard of Feynman and the beginning of my interest in him.
I was reminded of Feynman this week after listening to a podcast with Naval Ravikant (I discovered Naval this week and am also interested in him. Future blog post). I enjoyed Naval’s description of Feynman:
“I loved him because Feynman was one of the first characters that I encountered that did science and serious work and was accomplished in so-called real life. He was a character, he was a happy person. He was deeply philosophical, he didn’t take himself nor life too seriously. He appreciated the mysteries of life, he appreciated living life and he had a lot of fun along the way. To me, he was like a full-stack intellectual hacker of life.”
Feynman was a Nobel prize winning theoretical physicist, a part of the Manhattan project and a member of the Rogers Commission. However, what people appreciated most about him was his sense of curiosity and passion for understanding. Feynman pushed to deeply understand ideas and concepts. Understanding was important to him, not memorization. This made Feynman an excellent teacher as he was able to take complicated topics and put them into easy to understand language. His series (“Fun to Imagine”) is a great example of this.
My grandpa was correct, I did really enjoy the book. The book is a combination of stories from Feynman’s life. Often he is using his intelligence to do something mischievous. One of the stories was about a math trick he used to find the square of larger numbers. I learned this trick and for years would use it on my friends…
While the math tricky made for a good show, there is much to learn from Feynman. I think it is important to maintain a sense of curiosity, and push to understand rather than memorize. This may mean reading fewer books but spending more time per book. This also applies to other information mediums.
– Mitch
Quote of the Week
Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that’s not why we do it - Richard Feynman