#richard-feynman — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #richard-feynman, aggregated by home.social.
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“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled”*…
(Roughly) Daily is, in effect, a kind of notebook, a commonplace book. So it will be no surprise that your correspondent found today’s featured piece fascinating.
Jillian Hess, a professor who studies the history of note-taking, shares the lessons she took from her review of the papers of the remarkable Richard Feynman…
Formal education, at its best, prepares us for a life of learning. After all, we are only in school for a fraction of our lives and there is so much to learn!
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) understood the value of self-education. He was a Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist, a member of the Manhattan Project at the age of 25, and a dynamic public intellectual who never stopped learning.
Often touted as one of history’s greatest learners, Feynman taught himself a dizzying amount of science. I wanted to see his notes for myself—to observe the great autodidact thinking on the page. So, I visited his archives at Caltech in February…
… In the archives, I saw… for myself: Feynman’s notebooks contain imprints of thinking in real-time—the work as it happened. They were instruments for thinking through uncertainty.
What follows is a list of note-taking principles for self-education that I gathered while studying Feynman’s notebooks.
Start with First Principles: Feynman’s “Things I Don’t Know About” Notebook
Discussions about Feynman’s learning process usually draw from this notebook, which he compiled as a Ph.D. student at Princeton. The contents include mechanics, mathematical methods, and thermodynamics. Clearly, he knew something about these topics, but he found his understanding superficial. So, his response was to take the subject apart—to break it down into “the essential kernels” …
[Hess illustrates this principle, then unpacks two others: “create a reading index” and “keep learning.” She continues…]
… Uncertainty is Interesting
This is my biggest takeaway: We should fear certainty more than doubt. Learning to live with uncertainty is an essential aspect of learning, as Feynman said in 1981:
You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.
And then, in an echo of his “Notebook of Things I Know Nothing About,” compiled four decades prior, he adds:
…I’m not absolutely sure of anything, and there are many things I don’t know anything about.
If a man as celebrated for his genius as Feynman felt that way, certainly the rest of us have a lot more to learn…
[And she concludes…]
… Notes on Feynman’s Notes:
Use notes to think: Feynman didn’t think through problems in his head and then turn to his notebooks. Instead, he used his notebooks to think through problems. His thought process required paper.
Start with first principles: “Why” is a very powerful question. And asking why can lead us back to the fundamentals and help us understand them in an entirely new light. This applies to any subject. Feynman has helped me think of note-taking as a kind of expedition. Use your notes to dig deeper into topics you think you already understand.
Never stop learning: How wonderful would it be if we could hold onto the excitement of learning we had as children? After all, the world didn’t get less interesting. It’s worth returning to the note-taking methods you used in school to see if they are still useful in adulthood. I particularly like Feynman’s high school method of taking 30 minutes to understand a subject before he allowed himself to take notes on it.
[Then leaves us with the man himself, “in all his radiant, enthusiastic, brilliance”…]
https://youtu.be/P1ww1IXRfTA?si=_xqkalFg3cpe-NDR
On “Richard Feynman’s Notes For Self-Education.”
Pair with: “Curiosity Is No Solo Act“: “it gains its real power when embedded in webs of relationship and shared meaning-making”… something that Feynman’s life also demonstrated (as you can see in his autobiography and/or in James Gleick‘s biography, Genius)
* Plutarch
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As we light that fire, we might spare a thought for Jeremy Bernstein; he died on this date last year. A physicist who woked on nuclear propulsion for Project Orion and held research and teaching positions at Stevens Institute of Technology, the Institute for Advanced Study, Brookhaven National Laboratory, CERN, Oxford University, University of Islamabad, and École Polytechnique, he is better remembered as a gifted popular science writer and profiler of scientists.
Bernstein wrote 30 books, and scores of magazine articles for “general readers”– for The New Yorker, where he was a staff writer from 1961 to 1995, and for The Atlantic Monthly, the New York Review of Books, and Scientific American, among others.
Of Feynman, Bernstein wrote “[his] Mozartean genius in physics seemed to be combined with an almost equally Mozartean urge to play the clown.” (in which, of course, Feynman was in the good company of Einstein, Claude Shannon, and others :-)
#commonplaceBook #culture #curiosity #education #history #JeremyBernstein #learning #notebook #notebooks #Physics #RichardFeynman #Science -
The idea is to try to give all the information to help others to judge the value of your contribution; not just the information that leads to judgment in one particular direction or another.
-- Richard Feynman -
I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy.
-- Richard Feynman -
You are under no obligation to remain the same person you were a year ago, a month ago, or even a day ago. You are here to create yourself, continuously.
-- Richard Feynman -
Life isn’t what you’re given; it’s what you create, what you overcome, and what you achieve that makes it beautiful.
-- Richard Feynman⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #RichardFeynman #Life
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #BartolomeIsland #PinnacleRock #Galapagos
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I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong.... I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose.
-- Richard Feynman⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #RichardFeynman #Doubt #TheUnknown #Uncertainty
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Stupidity is knowing the truth, but still believing the lies. And that is more infectious than any other disease.
-- Richard Feynman -
Her Gün Bir Ağaca DOKUNMAK Neden Önemli? - Kimsenin Bahsetmediği Bilim | Richard Feynman
#physics #biology #chemistry #universe #trees #forest #mycorrhizalnetworks #JanBaptistvanHelmont #SuzanneSimard #RichardPhillipsFeynman #RichardFeynman #Feynman #science
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I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy.
-- Richard Feynman -
A quotation from Richard Feynman
If we want to solve a problem that we have never solved before, we must leave the door to the unknown ajar.
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) American physicist
Speech (1955-11), “The Value of Science,” National Academy of Sciences Autumn Meeting, California Institute of Technology, PasadenaMore about this quote: wist.info/feynman-richard/8249…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #richardfeynman #newideas #openmindedness #problemsolving #science #solution #unknown
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İnsan Nedir? sorusunun cevabını araştırmaya 2012 yılında başlamıştım
Çünkü ondan önce Âllah'ı araştırmaya kalkmış ve başaramayacağımı anlayıp, önce "kendimi anlamaya, bilmeye" yönelmiştim
Duyular başta olmak üzere İnsanı oluşturan her şey hakkında araştırmaya başlamıştım.
İnsan bedeni %70'lere kadar çıkabilen oranda SU olduğu için suyu da araştırdım.
SU Feynman'ı da hayret ettirmiş!
#physics #universe #water #RichardPhillipsFeynman #RichardFeynman #Feynman #science
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpqLIspLHqo&list=PLK2SeKwythXji9WiZaxhovgECBTOmPWjC&index=7
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Mıknatıslar Neden ÇALIŞIR? Feynman'ın Açıklamayı Reddettiği Tek Soru
Richard Feynman'ın 1983'teki efsanevi BBC röportajından ilham alan bu videoda; fiziğin neden "neden" sorusuna değil de "nasıl" sorusuna cevap verdiğini ve neden tanıdık açıklamalar beklemenin sizi her zaman tatminsiz bırakacağını inceliyoruz.
Manyetizma Zamanın geriye akmasıdır!
#physics #universe #magnetism #magnets #time #RichardPhillipsFeynman #RichardFeynman #Feynman #science
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Ateş Neden YANAR? Feynman’ın Cevabı Gerçeklik Algınızı YOK EDECEK
#physics #universe #fire #RichardPhillipsFeynman #RichardFeynman #Feynman #science
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Everything we know is only some kind of approximation.
-- Richard Feynman -
Love After Life: Nobel-Winning Physicist Richard Feynman’s Extraordinary Letter to His Departed Wife
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.themarginalian.org/2026/02/18/richard-feynman-arline-letter/
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CW: My #AI Grievance
Okay I happened on a #AI generated video using #RichardFeynman's voice to explain #electromagnetism. But I didn't realize that it was a #deepfake at first. My clue was the "Feynman" in the video kept referred to the "device you're listening to this lecture on" 🤔 I'm thinking that the real Feynman was doing his thing before tablets and personal computers, etc. 🤔 That's when I noticed the disclaimer below the video. In other words, he never said the things in the video. WTF?
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Life isn’t what you’re given; it’s what you create, what you overcome, and what you achieve that makes it beautiful.
-- Richard Feynman⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #RichardFeynman #Life
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Pictographs #RockArt #NativeAmerican #Utah
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Science is a culture of doubt. Religion is a culture of faith.
-- Richard Feynman⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #RichardFeynman #Doubt #Faith #Religion #Science
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #BartolomeIsland #PinnacleRock #Galapagos
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"
How Richard Feynman Found the Root of the Challenger Disaster
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".. O-rings .. these rings were never intended to be used to cover expanding gaps, .. "".. felt frustrated by the slow pace + “time-consuming” public meetings + briefings “of so little use.” He did his own research .. even created his own report .. released publicly. .."
https://nautil.us/how-richard-feynman-found-the-root-of-the-challenger-disaster-1264270/
28.1.2026
#Booster #BurnThrough #Challenger #NASA #ORing #Raumfahrt #RichardFeynman #SpaceFlight #SpaceShuttle #SRB #STS #STS51L
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Here I stand, atoms with consciousness, matter with curiosity. A universe of atoms, an atom in the universe.
-- Richard Feynman -
Life isn’t what you’re given; it’s what you create, what you overcome, and what you achieve that makes it beautiful.
-- Richard Feynman⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #RichardFeynman #Life
⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Pictographs #RockArt #NativeAmerican #Utah
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Everything is interesting if you go into it deeply enough.
-- Richard Feynman -
In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar.
-- Richard FeynmanRT @wisdom
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I don't see that it makes any point that someone in the Swedish academy just decides that this work is noble enough to receive a prize--I've already gotten the prize. The prize is the pleasure of finding a thing out, the kick in the discovery, the observation that other people use it--those are the real things. The honors are unreal to me. I don't believe in honors.
-- Richard Feynman
