N*t Even Wr*ng to a greater extent than oft than non focuses on criticisms in addition to "bad lessons" to depict from Feynman's life.
First, Peter W*it agrees amongst Clifford Johnson that "Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman" is a user manual for "how to live a jerk". Well, I don't retrieve so. At almost all times, Feynman behaved good towards the people around him – those that possess got at to the lowest degree slightly deserved it. Joseph Conlon joins Johnson in addition to W*it every bit the 3rd politically right fanatic:
And spell on this topic, the anecdotes inwards the Feynman books close his visits to strip clubs in addition to the similar read strange on offset reading in addition to fifty-fifty to a greater extent than so today. Powerful homo tells stories close how he got laid; non a genre that has aged well.On the contrary, comrade Conlon. It's a constant fact of Nature that inwards well-functioning societies (or fifty-fifty ecosystems), men who possess got achieved something in addition to who stand upwards for something acquire laid, in addition to oft after some amusing in addition to creative events. These stories of Feynman possess got aged rattling well; it is your society, comrade Conlon, which nurtures lots of MeToo-style perversions, lies, in addition to hypocrisies that has been fudged up.
N*t Even Wr*ng praises the "disrespect for authority" in addition to "a total aversion to bullšit" – which is foreign indeed given the fact that the main purpose of the whole N*t Even Wr*ng website is to brand thousands of readers mindlessly worship scumbags such every bit Mr W*it himself who possess got emitted naught else than bullšit inwards their lives every bit if they were authorities, non exactly the pieces of šit that they are.
But the "bad lessons" that nosotros shouldn't depict – according to Mr W*it in addition to those scumbags who retrieve it's a goodness thought to hear to him – are "his hostility to abstract math" in addition to "trying to climb Mont Blanc barefoot". Concerning the Mont Blanc metaphor, it was invented past times Sidney Coleman who has said (and that comment was repeated past times John Preskill at a recent event) that Feynman had a pleasance to climb Mont Blanc exactly to present that it tin live done – in addition to that he tin do it.
Coleman has said that "Dick could acquire away amongst a lot because he was so goddamn smart, he really could climb Mont Blanc barefoot." Coleman also got away amongst a lot, fifty-fifty amongst things i didn't demand to live smart to do them, e.g. amongst smoking inwards the classroom.
Well, the fact that he could acquire away amongst some things depended non exactly on Feynman but also on the fellowship inwards which he lived. It was a fellowship that has valued the actual skills in addition to achievements – including the climbing Mont Blanc barefoot. These days, we're much closer to a fellowship driven past times politically right spiritual midgets of W*it's or Conlon's or MeToo's type.
Yesterday, when I was inwards an Albert supermarket, a 10-year-old daughter was exactly riding her scoobike inwards the whole store – possibly the speed of upwards to 10 miles per hour. I flora it pretty cool. Obviously, I didn't retrieve it was threatening or harmful to me or someone I cared about. But at the end, after she has gotten out of the shopping expanse amongst her scoobike, I couldn't really avoid a contact amongst her. I didn't similar the complete indifference of the Czechs, either, so I at to the lowest degree asked her whether she thought it was allowed to ride a scoobike at that topographic point (I honestly don't know whether at that topographic point are such laws anywhere). She answered "no" in addition to unsuccessfully tried to invent an excuse. Maybe I made her invent a improve excuse for the side past times side time. ;-) She clearly seemed happy she encountered a homo who has some agreement for joy involving some adrenaline – instead of a sourball who could do existent problem for her.
Riding a scoobike inwards a supermarket isn't every bit cool in addition to impressive every bit climbing Mont Blanc barefoot but I even so flora it refreshing because the whole fellowship almost resembles an obedient flock of sheep these days. As Bernd Felsche said, the whole Western civilization seems to resemble Pilsen during the Nazi occupation – most people are bribed past times some relatively simple things but they outsource an increasing fraction of their liberty every bit they're beingness increasingly manipulated.
You know, what should affair are the achievements, in addition to climbing Mont Blanc is a metaphor for achievements. If someone tin move into barefoot, it is his ain way to demonstrate his skills in addition to possess got some extra joy from it – in addition to that only has to be tolerated, to say the least. In a salubrious society, it is celebrated past times some in addition to this celebration has to live tolerated past times the society.
It doesn't hateful that everyone should seek to climb Mont Blanc barefoot. Clearly, most people can't fifty-fifty dream close it. But that's really the point. H5N1 salubrious fellowship must tolerate rare things that only special people may accomplish because these out-of-equilibrium deviations are damn of import for the evolution of the civilization every bit a whole.
I possess got oft (hundreds of times) been asked past times students the next query (I exaggerate their linguistic communication exactly a picayune bit, inwards monastic enjoin to move into clearer what I regain crazy close it):
Please, professor, tell me which books I should memorize to live exactly similar Feynman in addition to whose aßes I should lick.Well, this job has no solution. If y'all demand to live "led" past times someone in addition to y'all desire to do progress past times beingness subordinate to someone, past times memorizing things, past times licking aßes, in addition to materials similar that, so y'all are only naught similar Richard Feynman! It's that simple.
The rattling fact that Peter W*it in addition to N*t Even Wr*ng impose internal rules that y'all can't climb Mont Blanc barefoot; in addition to the rattling fact that they facial expression for "lessons that all of them should draw" agency that they're naught similar Feynman, they're lesser minds. But the fact that they're lesser minds doesn't hateful that everyone else is a lesser hear every bit well.
On a to a greater extent than mundane level, people move along on hollo for close the right textbooks where they tin acquire X or Y. There are diverse books, some of them are better, some of them are worse, some of them are improve for a sure purpose or for a sure variety of a reader or for a reader amongst a sure background. But whoever approaches the noesis amongst some genuine curiosity in addition to creativity, similar Richard Feynman did, unavoidably learns lots of the things past times himself – past times reinventing or rediscovering the wheel.
I am sure that Feynman hasn't really reinvented "everything" he needed – although he may possess got sometimes liked when people imagined it was the case. Sometimes, he "reinvented" or "rediscovered" things past times only agreement what someone else was proverb or writing. But at that topographic point are lots of things that he did rediscover, in addition to fifty-fifty though that materials that he learned from others, he learned it at rather random places. The collection of sources from which he has learned was for sure motley – in addition to for obvious reasons, so was mine. There's no argue to await move past times experts inwards an actual bailiwick to live experts inwards the literature written past times others close the discipline. The genuine move past times experts are really above everyone else, or at to the lowest degree the mass or its average, at to the lowest degree if nosotros facial expression at them from a fundamentally of import perspective.
In most contexts, at that topographic point are rattling goodness reasons why most professionals should acquire things systematically, from the same textbooks in addition to manuals, in addition to avoid the reinvention of the wheel. It would for sure live a giant waste materials of resources to await everyone to reinvent the wheel or rediscover America (which is what Czechs work instead of the innovation of the wheel). And the to a greater extent than conventional people who acquire from standardized sources inwards prescribed ways may accomplish large things, too. However, sure genuinely revolutionary advances are much probable to come upwards from the people who do reinvent some wheels – in addition to who regain it natural to approach the wisdom inwards this way. Some of these people only possess got the mental capacity to do really amazing things – in addition to they oft prefer the reinvention because they're so smart that this reinvention is easier for them than to hear to (and emulate) someone else. If you're really into this variety of business, so you're almost certainly non hollo for the questions "whom should I follow".
At the end, people of both kinds – in addition to folks of many other types that are separated past times similar criteria – are needed. Everyone who tries to impose the same personality in addition to attitudes on everybody is doing a disservice to the mankind, particularly if his ain personality in addition to mental attitude sucks.
Hostility towards mathematics
Some people, including IAS manager in addition to my in i trial co-author Robbert Dijkgraaf, emphasize that Feynman was "very hostile towards abstract mathematics". Well, he was hostile towards the civilization in addition to the shape of that community. But he was enthusiastic close actual deep mathematical structures in addition to insights – the pure hormonal joy that is hiding within the bureaucratic materials that sometimes dominates within mathematics.
So I know lots of people who are much improve at the noesis of abstract mathematics than I am (and my grade is comparable to Feynman's). And they possess got written some amazing papers that I only partly understand, but I couldn't quite bring together the concern of mass writing papers that facial expression the same – in addition to they know it exactly similar I do. On the other hand, I ever demand at to the lowest degree some evidence that their papers are to a greater extent than than almost pure bureaucracy. I demand at to the lowest degree some evidence that some actual amount of hormonal joy is hiding within the complicated in addition to disciplined jargon in addition to annotation etc. I am primarily (or only) interested inwards the actual beef or hormonal joy inside, non the form, in addition to so was Feynman. And I retrieve that I possess got extracted the joyful essence of numerous papers that are impenetrably complicated. Like he was, I am annoyed past times the people who focus on the social conventions – e.g. how they should call some things inwards monastic enjoin to acquire a postage stamp (or a labor or a grant) from some "experts" or some "community". I am annoyed past times excessively formal, abstract, in addition to powerful tools used inwards contexts inwards which we're really finding exactly answers that are comprehensible within a to a greater extent than intuitive, physical framework.
Is that mental attitude what they telephone yell upwards "hostility towards abstract mathematics"? If it is, so Feynman was in addition to I am hostile towards abstract mathematics. However, Feynman did appreciate the evidence that the beef of mathematics is extremely useful for learning close the laws of Nature. So to some extent, the query whether Feynman was "hostile towards abstract mathematics" is a terminological query close what nosotros hateful past times "abstract mathematics". Do y'all hateful the content, beef, hormonal joy? Or do y'all hateful the shape in addition to the cultural or behavioral habits of the community that is called the community of abstract mathematicians? Feynman loved the offset thing; but disliked the other.
So it's subtle to determine whether Feynman was "hostile towards abstract mathematics". Dijkgraaf's in addition to other people's unambiguous "Yes" reply seems disrespectful towards the actual beef of mathematics – or towards Feynman in addition to his belief system. Why? Because this reply either indicates that past times mathematics, nosotros hateful almost alone the form, the social conventions, non the "wow" discoveries; or it indicates that Feynman didn't realize how essential some non-trivial mathematical findings or structures were for physics. He did realize that.
When people work sheaves in addition to derived categories often, I rest skeptical close the claims that this mechanism is really needed for agreement something important. As far every bit I reckon it, the people work this mechanism only because they've learned it, they did it sufficiently before long in addition to sufficiently easily, in addition to they commonly learned it every bit mindless in addition to obedient students of a sort. Now they know it in addition to desire to seek to themselves that the materials is important. So they piece of work for contexts to apply this mechanism fifty-fifty though they could oft capture most of the pure mathematical joy past times less powerful, less formal, less esoteric tools.
Some people only house the shape in addition to the bailiwick close the pure content. I may abide by some of them every bit rattling goodness professionals but almost none of them (or none of them) are Feynman's equals. On the other hand, what I wrote to a higher house doesn't hateful that I denounce the people who are to a greater extent than formal than I am. There are advantages of that in addition to I appreciate them. But that approach is inwards no way "universally needed".
QCD in addition to string theory
They hash out Feynman's skepticism towards the validity of QCD which lasted for several years – in addition to his analogous skepticism towards string theory that lasted for several years every bit well; unfortunately, Feynman did the serious error of dying during these years.
Well, yes, such hesitation – that may mail individuals on the incorrect rail – is a revenue enhancement i pays for his originality. Feynman's skepticism towards string theory was summarized inwards i interview. It was clear that his skepticism was technical, due to some Feynman's misunderstanding of how some technical features are derived. It had naught to do amongst the would-be philosophical bullšiting close Popper. Feynman didn't acquire how hard it was to build a consistent theory of quantum gravity, in addition to believed that string theory wasn't the right attempt. He exactly had an intuition that a consistent theory should live mathematically simpler in addition to inwards \(D=4\) in addition to materials similar that – which is why a to a greater extent than esoteric theory inwards \(D=10\) looked incorrect to him. So he also made fun of John Schwarz inwards the Caltech elevator. "How many dimensions do y'all alive inwards today, John?" ;-)
When he was similarly skeptical close QCD, he insisted on partons. Because of the influence of Feynman, people kept on talking close partons in addition to quarks for quite some time. Well, nosotros even so work the give-and-take "parton" sometimes. But the implicit message of the give-and-take "parton" was that i should live skeptical towards QCD. No sensible particle physicists are skeptical today – Feynman bought it after a few years, too.
W*it criticized Feynman past times the next comment:
Looking at Feynman’s career, his swell accomplishments were inwards the years 1947-58, in addition to it’s somewhat surprising that he didn’t brand major contributions (besides the partons…) to the evolution of the Standard Model inwards the years from 1958-73.Sure, it was a affair of Feynman's personality that he was probable to brand genuinely revolutionary advances than some systematic discoveries that require some patient piece of work amongst the details in addition to the meticulous elaborations on the shoulders of giants. Feynman has spent much of the 1960s etc. past times enjoying life, teaching, in addition to similar simpler stuff.
Feynman in addition to pillars of our agreement of all 4 forces
But the disputation that he "didn't brand major contributions (besides the partons...) to the evolution of the Standard Model inwards the years..." is deceitful. This judgement implicitly if non explicitly says that the Standard Model was only beingness built inwards 1958-73; that Feynman didn't do of import things inwards 1958-73; in addition to that Richard Feynman hasn't made deep contributions to the Standard Model.
Please, give me a break. All these 3 statements are false.
The Standard Model has been nether construction from 1930 or so. The Standard Model is a relatively straightforward extension of QED, for which Feynman has rightfully shared a Nobel prize. The Standard Model is a guess theory of 3 forces, the electromagnetic one, the weak nuclear interaction, in addition to the potent nuclear interaction.
Feynman has done a lot on the systematic calculation inwards QED in addition to whatever quantum champaign theory – Feynman diagrams, the calculation of the integrals that they Pb to, the removal of infinities, renormalization etc. These tools – diagrams, their calculation, renormalization – are of import inwards the whole Standard Model in addition to tons of other quantum champaign theories.
The potent in addition to weak nuclear forcefulness demand the improver of leptons in addition to quarks, inwards some representations of guess groups, non-Abelian guess groups, in addition to chiral (left-right-asymmetric) interactions. One could struggle that less profound people than Feynman are plenty for those things. Except that it isn't fifty-fifty truthful that Feynman hasn't contributed to those things.
He proposed the parton model for the potent force. That was essential for the agreement of the existence of quarks in addition to gluons every bit simple particles. The proposal was made inwards 1969 – inwards the menses that W*it indicated to live unproductive for Feynman.
Now, bring the weak force. In 1958, Feynman in addition to Gell-Mann cracked the \(V-A\) grapheme of the weak interaction. That meant that this particular novel twist of the electroweak theory, the chiral (left-right-asymmetric) grapheme of these interactions, could possess got been added thank y'all to both of these life-long rivals.
Feynman has filled the electromagnetic, strong, in addition to weak forcefulness amongst his vital discoveries. These 3 forces combine to the Standard Model. The 4th forcefulness is gravity. Feynman has said skeptical things close string theory. But he has previously made deep contributions to quantum gravity – that string theory really builds upon.
The key dot is that gravitons are roughly analogous to photons – they're quanta of gravitational in addition to electromagnetic waves, respectively. The electromagnetic in addition to gravitational forces may live analogously interpreted every bit the telephone commutation of virtual photons in addition to gravitons, respectively. At to the lowest degree when y'all start to calculate things, the differences betwixt photons in addition to gravitons are relatively tiddler technical "details" – spin-1 photons vs spin-2 gravitons etc.
In 1963, also inwards the midpoint of the "unproductive" menses according to W*it, Feynman wrote the newspaper Quantum Theory of Gravitation that really derived some Feynman rules for quantum gravity every bit good in addition to that introduced the Faddeev-Popov ghosts.
As a Scholarpedia article reviews rather nicely, Feynman did empathise that unitarity in addition to analyticity could possess got been reconstructed past times omitting a portion of a loop diagram or equivalently past times introducing a wrong-statistics novel particle, currently called the Faddeev-Popov ghost. He did it barefoot every bit an practice inwards quantum gravity – which nosotros consider much harder than Yang-Mills theory today – but clearly, the same uncovering is also (or especially) of import for calculations of Yang-Mills theory, e.g. inwards the potent in addition to weak interactions of the Standard Model.
So fifty-fifty when y'all retrieve close the "technical advances" that were needed to become from QED to the whole Standard Model, Feynman has been responsible for an incredible fraction of the deepened agreement of the QFT description of all forces. Partons clarifying a lot close the short-distance demeanour of the potent forcefulness (and afterward QCD); the chiral grapheme of the weak interactions; in addition to the key concept for the mechanism to calculate loop (Feynman) diagrams inwards non-Abelian guess theories such every bit Yang-Mills theory or (with a generalized interpretation of the term "gauge theory") quantum gravity.
Which other physicist has really matched Feynman's contributions to our agreement of the iv key forces? Some people mightiness desire to move into mandatory to possess got shoes spell climbing Mont Blanc. But it remains a fact that a huge pct of our agreement of the key interactions inwards Nature has been flora past times several barefoot climbers such every bit Feynman. It's harder, in addition to so less likely, for a given soul to acquire to the peak barefoot; on the other hand, it's to a greater extent than probable for a genuinely talented soul to acquire there, in addition to for a genuinely talented person, the shoes are much less essential than for others. So some people only do their discoveries barefoot. Get used to this historical (and logically understandable) fact, lesser minds.
As Gell-Mann was telling me at the 2005 Sidneyfest, Feynman was rattling skeptical close toothbrushes although his teeth were decaying away, in addition to other things. Maybe it was a mistake, possibly not. But it even so seems clear to me that inwards many cases, the speedy credence of some ideas is to a greater extent than oft than non the trial of grouping retrieve – an instance of grouping retrieve inwards activity when the members of the grouping retrieve are only lucky enough.
It is absolutely right if in addition to when some genuinely independent minds be in addition to they may live skeptical close sure ideas – fifty-fifty right ideas – a picayune longer. As Feynman ever emphasized, what's plenty for doing scientific discipline right is to brand sure that y'all don't possess got absolute dogmas. As long every bit you're open-minded at to the lowest degree to some extent, you're ultimately forced to modify your hear past times the growing heap of evidence – which was the instance of Feynman in addition to QCD, in addition to would likely live the instance of Feynman in addition to string theory if he managed to alive longer.
But tons of the mediocre people similar to W*it in addition to his "community" promote something different, a "maximum" open-mindedness inwards which people exactly okay everything that lots of others do. This is naught else than a recipe for unlimited grouping retrieve – in addition to for the terror against all genuinely independent thinkers. They are edifice a pathological, left-wing community where some self-appointed in addition to self-anointed mediocre apparatchiks prescribe what others possess got to believe. Others believe it in addition to retrieve how swell in addition to master they are past times next the worthless aßholes-in-chief.
To some extent, the contemporary waves of criticism directed against Richard Feynman is a symptom of the neo-Marxist degeneration of the Western society.
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