Richard Feynman — Unquestionably a Hero.
Richard Feynman was one of the greatest physicists ever. think the most provocative and admirable quality of Richard Phillips Feynman (okay more than one) is:
- The fearlessness, humor, and outspokenness of his voice (when he speaks he just speaks his mind and he’s usually thought about what he says a great deal, so he just projects, barks it out and delivers truthful and illuminating utterances. When he detailed how the O-Ring on the Challenger Shuttle lost resilience below 0° celcius at the Presidential Rogers Commission of 1986, he just dunked the ring in ice water and spoke this discovery. It was the crucial key-pin discovery that explained the Challenger catastrophe, and he just opened his mouth and said it. He didn’t conceal his words nor use trickery nor politics of any kind and it showed in his voice. I aspire to do the same and sometimes recognize (albeit short) pronounced moments where I feel I have the same simultaneous clarity, boldness,and just naturalness of communicating as Feynman. But his “communicational style” is not the interest with this point. Don’t get confused. It’s the clarity, intelligence, self-integrity, and humility that he held that make his voice fearless and outspoken. I think one could say he didn’t care about perceptions, but he was viciously committed to explaining how things worked to people. What I mean by this is if he wanted to explain the details of the weak nuclear force he would just say it like it is, no strings attached, no air of pomposity, no boasting, no bragging. Indeed! That is the very most admirable quality of Feynman’s voice that he DIDN”T try to communicate. See a lot of people, I guess you can bring Reagan, the Great Communicator, into this although he’s a bit of an acception being a pretty solid guy it seems. But a lot of people try to communicate. They focus on pronounciation and delivery and how to stand or when to say what or something and their message is hollow. I guess it’s kind of like trying to build a house and all you do is focus on the where to put the house and the millions of details of placement and foundation etc but you never actually construct anything when you speak. Feynman on the other hand, just seemed to think about things and then just “build the house” to follow this increasingly odd analogy. In other words, he didn’t have an agenda under than making someone understand. Now THAT is extremely, extremely rare. Even people whom I met whom have that agenda, usually their’s some splinter of “I want to look smart so I’ll explain this” or ” I want to have some reputation of a good explainer” or something of the sort.
- 2)His ability to Discover. Feynman said “The thing that doesn’t fit is the most interesting!– (Feynman)” Because it means that that’s some new law of nature (or of the great grand chess game or something which he referenced as an example of figuring things out) and it menas you’re just spotted a hidden (and tip of the iceberg emerging) element of a whole other law of Physics or detail of Nature. He talked about how he loved interpreting Russian and Mayan hierglyphics just because they were this awesome puzzle to work out. I love puzzles because solving them is an accomplishment in itself. ”The reward of a thing well done is to have it done”, wrote Emerson. And Feynman’s discoveries and excitement to intellectually discover earned him man got-it-well-done rewards.
- 3)His intelligence. The guy was wicked smart. Done.
- 4)His adventuresome almost partying personality. If anyone ever thought of the idea of a “Rock Physicist”, Feynman would probably fit the depiction. He frequented a strip club now and then, played the bongoes like no other
and played some excellent pranks, but still — first and foremost — held the dignified and well-qualified demeanor and hosted the cognitive abilities of a Nobel Prize winning theoretical Physicist. - 5)His total and utter lack of snobbiness. He easily could have held the “I know how this works and you don’t” POV, but it he didn’t. He told stories. He was extremely kind (but not in the cheesy “look at my generosity” way), but in a sharp kind of way, mitigating the chances of his intelligence being exploited — of that I seriously admire as well. He made attempts to explain these freakishly complex quantum topics to laymen. He Shared a good laugh and was an awesome gentleman dude.
Man, this guy was just so indescribably awesome! But I will attempt to describe. He was a master of logic. Things he says and describes are always clear and rock-solid in their structure and stability. Meaning, when Feynman described something you also were getting a dose of logic, natural sciences, math, learning process-theory, and probably a dash of humor.
He was clear, pure, genuine. The kind of person from which you could learn heaps of truly worthwhile stuff and trust that you’re in Good company. I distinguish worthwhile learning (actually truthful knowledge of natural sciences and math) from unworthwhile learning (religion, subjective beliefs, New Age bs, most all of psychology — indeed Feynman condemned psychology as a crock, which it is — for starters) because what Feynman knew and taught – Natural Sciences, specifically theoretical quantum physics — was the undeniable truth and quintessentially, inexplicably “worthwhile”. That’s how things worked. That’s how and why the sun rises and sets (okay that’s more of the classical mechanics branch of physics). But the composition of matter is the very stuff in which he explored and made breakthroughs. If anyone thinks that kind of knowledge isn’t worthy to learn, they should get their head checked. I guess he kind of new the underpinnings of matter and energy and as a result of that incredibly electrifying (couldn’t help the pun) knowledge, he always had that never-pompous, always humble, but joyful look in his eye of “I know how this works. I figured it out, and if there’s still more to discover, I’ll enjoy figuring that out too.”. Indeed, if there was any person who directly personified Emerson’s quote of getting a job well done, it was Feynman. I don’t think Feynman saw things as work or play. Of course not. He couldn’t. That capacity of not distinguishing between work and play is something I do (but of course on a much less advanced caliber than Feynman) and it definitely puts you at a different rhythm or cadence with the wolrd (most whom of which lives for the weekly paycheck and operates as a brain drone living paycheck to paycheck never bothering to discover why they don’t atomically sink through the floor when the particles of the floor and their own feet are mostly empty space).
2009/09/29 at 7:18 PM Comments (12)
