The sham legacy of Richard Feynman [video](youtube.com)
youtube.com
The sham legacy of Richard Feynman [video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKpj2ISQAc
6 comments
Third time's a charm?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42310360
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42276170
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42268976
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42310360
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42276170
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42268976
Don’t you mean fourth?
If a HN post doesn’t catch it won’t catch, it might explode in a month for no real reason.
If a HN post doesn’t catch it won’t catch, it might explode in a month for no real reason.
I enjoyed this video although I didn’t think I would. It is similar to other videos she’s made wondering why pop physics culture is so out of step with actual physics culture.
I had so many recommendations for "Surely you're joking Mr Feynman" that I had to read it. I gave up halfway through. It seemed awfully self-serving.
I read it as a teenager, which is exactly when his stories seem most plausible and exciting.
But there was one that bugged me even at the time. He talked about an advanced biology class, in which he was unable to participate because he hadn't done any of the required reading. He castigated them for having wasted so much time on things he could look up, like anatomical diagrams.
He expected the entire class to stop while he looked up each and every word they used. They couldn't possibly make any progress under those conditions. Biology students spend a lot of time memorizing stuff so that they can have a common language. There are just a lot of different individual things inside a body.
It doesn't surprise me that a lot more of his stories have some aspect that I missed as a teenager, and don't reflect nearly as well on him in context.
But there was one that bugged me even at the time. He talked about an advanced biology class, in which he was unable to participate because he hadn't done any of the required reading. He castigated them for having wasted so much time on things he could look up, like anatomical diagrams.
He expected the entire class to stop while he looked up each and every word they used. They couldn't possibly make any progress under those conditions. Biology students spend a lot of time memorizing stuff so that they can have a common language. There are just a lot of different individual things inside a body.
It doesn't surprise me that a lot more of his stories have some aspect that I missed as a teenager, and don't reflect nearly as well on him in context.
On the other hand the books intended to teach physics for lay audience are really good. Feynman had teaching skills.
QED is maybe the best of these. The Character of Physical Law is also good.
QED is maybe the best of these. The Character of Physical Law is also good.
[deleted]
“Feynman Bro” is a great label for a real, observable phenomenon. Occasionally charming, vicious when his intellectual superiority is threatened, misogynistic, generally a jerk when he’s drunk, Feynman Bro shows up in physics departments and adjacent fields like EE and aerospace engineering. Quoting liberally from Surely you Jest is a red flag.
>If you love Richard Feynman you've got to watch this video...
>... where Angela Collier will ruthlessly dissect the mythology he built around himself. You probably won't agree with everything she says, and you may hate some of it, but it will still be thought-provoking.