Perhaps Mano was making a pun on "down-to-earth" and Feynman in his single-minded arrogance simply missed that. The arrogance of physicists is so "normalized"

Perhaps Mano was making a pun on "down-to-earth" and Feynman in his single-minded arrogance simply missed that. The arrogance of physicists is so "normalized" at this point. Perhaps there are exceptions, but the most humble that I've seen (was just watching a presentation by Kip Thorne tonight, etc.) are full of humblebrag. It's seriously a problem. In particular, among a culture that celebrates the Nobel prize. The most non-Nobel prize thing Feynman could've done is instead of saying "take it back, etc, etc." - would've been to keep doing good physics and just ignore it. That's the part so many people miss. It's a culture of obsession over insight. And this letter is more a therapy session for Feynman than anything else. No problem, no discussion.