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> Richard Feynman himself frequently collaborated with Wolfram By way of a historical note relevant to the current topic, there was a funny exchange between Wo

> Richard Feynman himself frequently collaborated with Wolfram By way of a historical note relevant to the current topic, there was a funny exchange between Wolfram and Feynman recorded in the collection of Feynman's letters edited by his daughter. Wolfram started a letter with "Dear Feynman", I imagine because English public school boys don't use first names that much, and floated the idea of starting a scientific institute. Feynman replied in a letter starting "Dear Wolfram" that Wolfram was unlikely to succeed in any leadership capacity because he regards normal people as "stupid fools", and therefore should stick to academic work. Feynman's daughter added the editorial comment that Feynman was disproved by Wolfram's subsequent entrepreneurial success.

WithinReason 5y ago
The letters can be found here: https://www.cantorsparadise.com/richard-feynmans-advice-to-a-young-stephen-wolfram-1985-d572dc360c18?gi=b37414601345 https://www.cantorsparadise.com/richard-feynmans-advice-to-a... Also worth reading Feyman's recommendation letter at the bottom
daniel-thompson 5y ago
What the letter from Feynman to Wolfram^ actually said was: > You say you want to create your own environment - but you will not be doing that: you will create (perhaps!) an environment that you might like to work in - but you will not be working in this environment - you will be administrating it - and the administration environment is not what you seek - is it? You won't enjoy administrating people because you won't succeed in it. > You don't understand "ordinary people". To you they are "stupid fools" - so you will not tolerate them or treat their foibles with tolerance or patience - but will drive yourself wild (or they will drive you wild) trying to deal with them in an effective way. I've never worked for SW but judging by e.g. the employee comments for WR on Glassdoor^, this seems pretty on-the-nose to me. ^ https://www.cantorsparadise.com/richard-feynmans-advice-to-a-young-stephen-wolfram-1985-d572dc360c18 https://www.cantorsparadise.com/richard-feynmans-advice-to-a... ^ https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Wolfram-Research-Reviews-E14501.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Wolfram-Research-Reviews-E...
anamax 5y ago
I've talked with Wolfram a couple of times about New Kind of Science, in 5-10 minute chunks, at various points in its evolution, spanning 20 years. I listened as he did the same with others. With a couple of exceptions, none of these people were over 0.1 on Wolfram scale when it comes to physics or even math, but I never got the impression that he thought that any of us were stupid fools. If anything, he seemed overeager to help us understand and even seemed interested in what we thought. And no, he doesn't have the social skills to fake this. (He also didn't have any incentive to do so in that context.) He may be more dismissive of folks who are above 0.7 Wolfram. (He wasn't dismissive of the 0.5 Wolfram I know, even though that person was somewhat dismissive of him.)

WithinReason 5y ago

The letters can be found here: https://www.cantorsparadise.com/richard-feynmans-advice-to-a-young-stephen-wolfram-1985-d572dc360c18?gi=b37414601345 https://www.cantorsparadise.com/richard-feynmans-advice-to-a... Also worth reading Feyman's recommendation letter at the bottom

daniel-thompson 5y ago

What the letter from Feynman to Wolfram^ actually said was: > You say you want to create your own environment - but you will not be doing that: you will create (perhaps!) an environment that you might like to work in - but you will not be working in this environment - you will be administrating it - and the administration environment is not what you seek - is it? You won't enjoy administrating people because you won't succeed in it. > You don't understand "ordinary people". To you they are "stupid fools" - so you will not tolerate them or treat their foibles with tolerance or patience - but will drive yourself wild (or they will drive you wild) trying to deal with them in an effective way. I've never worked for SW but judging by e.g. the employee comments for WR on Glassdoor^, this seems pretty on-the-nose to me. ^ https://www.cantorsparadise.com/richard-feynmans-advice-to-a-young-stephen-wolfram-1985-d572dc360c18 https://www.cantorsparadise.com/richard-feynmans-advice-to-a... ^ https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Wolfram-Research-Reviews-E14501.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Wolfram-Research-Reviews-E...

anamax 5y ago

I've talked with Wolfram a couple of times about New Kind of Science, in 5-10 minute chunks, at various points in its evolution, spanning 20 years. I listened as he did the same with others. With a couple of exceptions, none of these people were over 0.1 on Wolfram scale when it comes to physics or even math, but I never got the impression that he thought that any of us were stupid fools. If anything, he seemed overeager to help us understand and even seemed interested in what we thought. And no, he doesn't have the social skills to fake this. (He also didn't have any incentive to do so in that context.) He may be more dismissive of folks who are above 0.7 Wolfram. (He wasn't dismissive of the 0.5 Wolfram I know, even though that person was somewhat dismissive of him.)