>Fundamentally it's about using everything at your disposal to find out the truth of things. Nice statement. Also, great story. It's not just Feynman either.

>Fundamentally it's about using everything at your disposal to find out the truth of things. Nice statement. Also, great story. It's not just Feynman either. I've seen the same thing (family members getting the diagnosis before doctors because they care more and take the time to get it right) several times in my own family. As a graduate student I find myself continually astonished by the fact that narrow expertise comes quickly. That is, if you start out with a specific question it will not take too long before you understand it better than your adviser and then better than anyone you can find and finally better than anyone in the world, as far as you can discern. Basically, the world is so broad that if you specialize on a specific, well formed question (as Feynman did) you can probably become a world expert on that question if you put in the time and are actually looking to learn.