I was thinking of his dad describing a giraffe to him from a book when he was really young, and then describing the length of its neck and how it would allow it

I was thinking of his dad describing a giraffe to him from a book when he was really young, and then describing the length of its neck and how it would allow it to poke its head into his upstairs bedroom window. He said things like this put him on the path to visualize things. Maybe when you're a kid, certain things set you off on certain paths that you take, and some of those paths are profitable (I don't mean this in a strictly monetary sense). Feynman latched onto that and rode it (with some natural ability) for his whole life. Other people might have been able to do the same thing, but they never would have latched onto it as a kid and refined it. I think we'd have better thinkers in the future if we put more focus on refining abilities in kids like visualization of problems, or giving them different tactics to approach things they don't understand.