– Richard P. Feynman (11 May 1918 – 15 Feb 1988)
From the Manhattan Project to the Challenger investigation, the physicist and Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman loved to shoot down what he called “lousy ideas.” Today, the world is awash in lousy ideas — so maybe it’s time to get some more Feynman in our lives?
Credit: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/the-curious-mr-feynman/
This is a year of Feynman – week 9 of 52.
In a letter to physicist Koichi Mano, dated 3 February 1966, Feynman says, “You say you are a nameless man. You are not to your wife and to your child. You will not long remain so to your immediate colleagues if you can answer their simple questions when they come into your office. You are not nameless to me. Do not remain nameless to yourself — it is too sad a way to be. Know your place in the world and evaluate yourself fairly, not in terms of the naïve ideals of your own youth, nor in terms of what you erroneously imagine your teacher’s ideals are.”
Mano was one of Feynman’s former doctoral students
Also quoted in Dyson, Freeman (2005-10-20). “Wise Man“. The New York Review of Books.
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PS: I love coffee. BuyMeACoffee, leave a message with a date and time and we can share it, remotely, at the same time, and think about the Cosmos.
In the meantime, take care of yourself and if you can, someone else, too, because as Adam Smith said, “we naturally desire not only to be loved but to be lovely”.
Remember, hope lives here.
Opening image credit: unknown
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