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Actually, if you read enough about him, you'll find Feynman did actually think some stuff he did that was quite original was obvious; to the point that he didn'
by gnaritas 16y ago
Actually, if you read enough about him, you'll find Feynman did actually think some stuff he did that was quite original was obvious; to the point that he didn't publish it and someone would come in later seeking his opinion on their original research only to find out he'd already already happened upon the idea and moved past it.
- xenophanes 16y agoI have read about his notebooks with ideas. I don't think people write stuff down b/c it's super obvious to them... His motivation for not publishing all of it is hard to guess. You suspect it's b/c he didn't know that other people were ignorant of it, but he never stated that. My first guess is it's b/c it'd have been a lot of work to help others but not himself. When you have millions of great ideas, writing them all up for publication would be a huge chore and it's more fun to just work on more new ideas. Feynman cared a lot about fun.
- gnaritas 16y ago> I don't think people write stuff down b/c it's super obvious to them... Sure they do, if it's a thought in a chain of thoughts leading to something. People make mind maps all the time full of obvious ideas because it helps the find the non obvious ones. Hell people write down obvious stuff just to organize their thoughts. Also, I do recall him stating that he hadn't considered publishing some stuff because he didn't realize it was original until someone else got credit for publishing it. I wish I had a reference, but I don't, I've read a ton of his stuff and couldn't pinpoint where I read it if I had to.
- xenophanes 16y agoKnowing what ideas are original is very hard. I have many ideas I consider far from obvious, which I don't know if they are original or not. It's a separate issue.