tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post1028175849853152689..comments2024-01-13T18:57:18.243-05:00Comments on Information Processing: Feynman and the secret of magicSteve Hsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02428333897272913660noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-18286948678850671122015-06-29T20:57:32.368-04:002015-06-29T20:57:32.368-04:00Feynman can barely understand Tomonaga, or Schwing...Feynman can barely understand Tomonaga, or Schwinger. Maybe he could, but anyway he seems to have felt it would be more work to try than to try to figure out how to solve the problem himself. And maybe vice versa as well. Nobody figured out Feynman till Dyson and it wasn't easy for him. For the rest of the world, taken together, understanding Feynman or Tomonaga or Schwinger wasn't Nat Philosopherhttp://whyarethingsthisway.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-3684240725249251052013-12-05T13:50:35.564-05:002013-12-05T13:50:35.564-05:00Somewhat relevant: There's an excellent essay ...Somewhat relevant: There's an excellent essay by Rob Phillips in this week's Nature about <em>The Feynman Lectures</em>, which touches on Feynman's reading of the literature outside physics: "Feynman seems to have been hard at work learning anything and everything he could about biology, coloured by physical reasoning." http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v504/n7478/full/Raghu Parthasarathynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-857866562514835292013-12-04T20:41:02.192-05:002013-12-04T20:41:02.192-05:00http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?acti...http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=247807768&m=247812564<br /><br />and in japan, which has one of the least rigid class systems in the developed world. of course london young knows that the prince was lazy and stupid.Diogenesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-90531402502924193382013-12-03T23:30:00.600-05:002013-12-03T23:30:00.600-05:00"...internal discipline (especially the latte..."...internal discipline (especially the latter IMO!), but I think at least some of those abilities are properly classed as intellect..."<br /><br /><br />but discipline to what end? and why any discipline when one has little confidence all the hard work will pay off? why any discipline when one is in a competition such that success entails that others, perhaps almost all others who try,Diogenesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-77448348280762984942013-12-02T03:08:48.602-05:002013-12-02T03:08:48.602-05:00Steve's theory is only that Feynman's math...Steve's theory is only that Feynman's mathematical abilities outstripped his verbal reasoning, relatively speaking. He isn't really saying that Feynman wasn't a well-rounded thinker, or that he didn't have diverse interests. Steve isn't saying, for instance, that Feynman wasn't a renaissance man. He is certainly not saying that humanities types are better 'rounded&tractalnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-57631228740173375032013-12-02T00:47:58.757-05:002013-12-02T00:47:58.757-05:00Feynman was certainly not "extremely uneven&q...Feynman was certainly not "extremely uneven" - he was really a profoundly versatile man.Luboš Motlhttp://motls.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-9721813879198754902013-12-01T23:18:01.099-05:002013-12-01T23:18:01.099-05:00All-time favorite Feynman story:
"But there w...All-time favorite Feynman story:<br />"But there was someone who gave Feynman a taste of his own medicine. The Norwegian-American physicist Ivar Giaever once suffered through a lecture with Feynman. Two years later, he came back to Caltech to give another lecture. This time, however, Giaever not only answered Feynman to the point, but made him look stupid. Obviously, he had done a good job Rastus Odinga-Odinganoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-80565656346926043852013-12-01T19:49:10.358-05:002013-12-01T19:49:10.358-05:00Lubos sheds real light in my opinion. His comment...Lubos sheds real light in my opinion. His comments are illuminating -- and you certainly won't hear them from anyone else's lips.lukeleanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-30453674303568728112013-12-01T19:17:53.933-05:002013-12-01T19:17:53.933-05:00The bottom line is that some of his cognitive func...The bottom line is that some of his cognitive functions were reportedly conspicuously below what might be expected for such an eminent scholar in such a g loaded field. Steve saw evidence of him forgetting how to spell words and failing to grasp the rules of grammar, and his reported IQ on at least one test was nothing beyond the average PhD and perhaps below average for a PHYSICS PhD. How do Iamexpertnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-41635754109350929102013-12-01T18:48:28.821-05:002013-12-01T18:48:28.821-05:00Certainly. Feynman by far had the highest score in...Certainly. Feynman by far had the highest score in the USA on the Putnam math test.Shawnnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-26010871720306268332013-12-01T15:08:50.931-05:002013-12-01T15:08:50.931-05:00A certain degree of heterogeneity is expected, esp...A certain degree of heterogeneity is expected, especially for folks with extreme intelligence, but steve shows in multiple posts that Feynman was exceptionally uneven and that might be useful in understanding his methodsIamexpertnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-34473488359517934422013-12-01T14:02:09.754-05:002013-12-01T14:02:09.754-05:00OK, but wouldn't you agree that this "het...OK, but wouldn't you agree that this "heterogeneity" is pretty much a vacuous tautology? Every person is "heterogeneous" in the sense that you may find something in which he or she is at most "moderately good". You won't find a person whose ranks in all disciplines agree. Pretty much every science Nobel prize winner was significantly better in sciences than Luboš Motlhttp://motls.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-70654484468221890392013-12-01T13:54:47.809-05:002013-12-01T13:54:47.809-05:00That's fine, except the point of the post is t...That's fine, except the point of the post is the exceptionalism of Feynman in the positive sense, of how extraordinary and original a thinker he was even among his prominent peers. Steve's other points about Feynman not reading the existing literature for example are merely descriptive, written as context for Steve's musings about the nature of this special genius, not as criticism ofMike Schradernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-25323307273088854472013-12-01T13:52:04.195-05:002013-12-01T13:52:04.195-05:00I think by lopsided Steve is simply saying that Fe...I think by lopsided Steve is simply saying that Feynman was cognitively heterogenous: He was "only" moderately intelligent in some areas (i.e. verbal comprehension) but stratospherically brilliant in other areas (abstract math ). Overall he may have been equally intelligent to other Nobel prize winners if these strengths and relative weaknesses negated each other. Cognitive Iamexpertnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-83619754094715420402013-12-01T11:38:34.488-05:002013-12-01T11:38:34.488-05:00Dear Mike, I acknowledge that I am no native speak...Dear Mike, I acknowledge that I am no native speaker and I can't reproduce all the native speaker's emotions about words like "lopsided". To me, it looks like "unbalanced" and opens the possibility to dismiss some principles or even conclusions of Feynman by referring to this alleged "lopsidedness" which surely sounds as a "vice". This adjective Luboš Motlhttp://motls.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-64240888007726892872013-12-01T11:35:57.478-05:002013-12-01T11:35:57.478-05:00Lubos said: "Feynman's approach *was* the...Lubos said: "Feynman's approach *was* the proper science, no-nonsense science without any mysteries or magic, and it would be the dominant approach to science if science were not distorted by its localization to limited environments and lots of sociological myths such as those that you promote (e.g. the constant need to lick asses of the humanities etc.)."<br /><br />Feynman said: &Rickynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-8579254059667435222013-12-01T09:15:12.429-05:002013-12-01T09:15:12.429-05:00Is anyone else perplexed by the personal nature in...Is anyone else perplexed by the personal nature in which Lubos has taken Steve's blog post? I almost feel like Lubos and I are reading two different blogs like an A/B test where Steve surreptitiously changes the text to gauge the reactions of his readers.<br />If Gleick's biography is to be believed, which I do, then numerous contemporaries of Feynman including Schwinger have noted the Mike Schradernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-72795018416719523062013-11-30T22:08:15.343-05:002013-11-30T22:08:15.343-05:00Somewhere Feynman tells a story that goes a little...Somewhere Feynman tells a story that goes a little like this: He was telling his sister (Joan, also a physicist) that he just couldn't understand some new work in the weak interactions. She told him: "No, you mean you just can't figure it all out by yourself. You just need to pretend you are a student again and carefully study the papers." He did, and he did understand and CIPignoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-70411989643943713142013-11-30T21:31:20.532-05:002013-11-30T21:31:20.532-05:00Lubos is excitable (ie, prone to excessive ad homi...Lubos is excitable (ie, prone to excessive ad hominem). Be the better man and don't take offense. Like Chomsky, he's a bright guy with lots of strong opinions, some better than others.efalkennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-15842783509251820612013-11-30T14:11:22.644-05:002013-11-30T14:11:22.644-05:00Dear Lubos, Thank you for a lucid and interesting ...Dear Lubos, Thank you for a lucid and interesting explanation of your concerns with Steve's posts. I'll leave it to Steve to speak to your comments about him if he chooses, but I just wanted to call out one area where I disagree with you because I think it indicates a basic philosophical difference which bears heavily on this conversation.<br /><br />In your last paragraph (after severalRichard Seiternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-33976677102757467882013-11-30T11:28:22.318-05:002013-11-30T11:28:22.318-05:00Dear Steve, all the history of yours is great. And...Dear Steve, all the history of yours is great. And some scientists clearly do lots of progress by crawling on the shoulders of other men, and lots of people save lots of time by not discovering the wheel. All the obvious personality differences may be spun in various ways - and decorated by various emotional reactions and appraisals with both signs. Coleman and Feynman were different thinkers.<brLuboš Motlhttp://motls.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com