by alfredp on 3/19/10, 10:50 PM with 23 comments
by philh on 3/20/10, 4:45 AM
> After a hurried private discussion ("I don't know, you hired him..."), we informed Richard that his assignment would be to advise on the application of parallel processing to scientific problems.
> "That sounds like a bunch of baloney," he said. "Give me something real to do."
> So we sent him out to buy some office supplies.
I love this bit. There's the aspect that everyone mentions, how Feynman is happy to do something as seemingly menial as get office supplies, despite his qualifications.
But the students' reaction is also fun to think about. Like if a regular working guy was given a million dollars, and his first reaction was "man, what am I going to do with this?" It takes him a while to realise what new opportunities he has.
And then I imagine that Feynman recognises this reaction in them, and enjoys watching it. It's a form of good-natured teasing.
I don't know if the actual thought processes were anything like this. But I like to think they were.
by ced on 3/20/10, 5:02 AM
1. Is it still the mecca depicted in that kind of story?
2. Can you audit classes without being a MIT student, or do you need keycard access to even be on campus? Is it "culturally accepted"?
Incidentally, if anyone in Montreal is working on ambitious technical stuff, drop me a line.
by TY on 3/19/10, 11:23 PM
by mark_l_watson on 3/20/10, 12:05 AM
by mark_h on 3/19/10, 11:27 PM
(Worth re-visiting the other side of Thinking Machines too, I suppose: http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Thinking-Machines.aspx)
by danh on 3/20/10, 8:14 AM
"I suspect his motivation was not so much to understand the world as it was to find new ideas to explain. The act of discovery was not complete for him until he had taught it to someone else."
by metaguri on 3/20/10, 9:07 AM
by spot on 3/20/10, 4:58 PM