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Oppenheimer's recommendation letter for Richard Feynman
- signa11 15y agojust like dirac, only human ! here is an anecdote from wikipedia about dirac: According to a story told in different versions, a friend or student visited Dirac, not knowing of his marriage. Noticing the visitor's surprise at seeing an attractive woman in the house, Dirac said, "This is... this is Wigner's sister". Margit Dirac told both George Gamow and Anton Capri in the 1960s that her husband had actually said, "Allow me to present Wigner's sister, who is now my wife."
- techiferous 15y ago"extremely normal" I wonder what he meant. Besides the fact that this is an oxymoron, saying he's normal goes against everything else in the recommendation.
- lpolovets 15y agoThank you for sharing this, it's a neat little piece of history. Two side notes: 1) Letters Of Note has some excellent content. Here are a few more letters that have been discussed on HN previously: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1424324 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1424324 and http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1045311 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1045311 2) I'm a big Feynman fan, and several of my several friends are as well. We've read most of his biographies and autobiographies, and were recently surprised to find that a new biography came out a few months ago. It's supposed to be quite good, and has strong focus on Feynman's scientific accomplishments. http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Man-Richard-Feynmans-Discoveries/dp/0393064719 http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Man-Richard-Feynmans-Discoveri...
- ThaddeusQuay2 15y ago"To label the letter a glowing recommendation would be an understatement ..." "He is ... extremely normal in all respects ..." That doesn't seem so "glowing", unless it's 1943 government employee code for "not gay, not a communist, and not anything else that could get your university into trouble, mister". EDIT: To understand the political climate of that era, consider that Turing and Oppenheimer got into lots of trouble because of actual, or perceived, homosexuality and communist sympathy, respectively. So, it is certainly not a stretch of the imagination to think that something as innocuous as "extremely normal in all respects" could be code for "not gay, not a communist" and not anything else that a university might care about in those days.
- jleyank 15y agoGleick makes the point that this might be code for "Jewish, but not really", as he talks about the bias against such people back then.
- ThaddeusQuay2 15y agoInteresting. I wouldn't have guessed such a connection, given Einstein's apparent popularity in that particular circle. I find it amusing to be reading this important recommendation letter to a university on the same weekend that someone asked me to look into the background of an applicant for an important position at another university. This person might be a homosexual, and the contract for the position states that they cannot be involved in an "alternative lifestyle". In that regard, not much has changed regarding the politics of universities since 1943.
- eschutte2 15y agoThe head of Princeton's physics department wrote, "Is Feynman Jewish? We have no definite rule against Jews but have to keep their proportion in our department reasonably small because of the difficulty of placing them."
- schrototo 15y agoWhat the fuck? That is absolutely horrible! What piece-of-shit university do you work for?
- starpilot 15y agoI like a recommendation letter from a CMU prof of John Nash, This man is a genius. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forbes_Nash,_Jr.#Post-graduate_life http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forbes_Nash,_Jr.#Post-grad...
- steve-howard 15y agoI wonder if such a letter would be available for posterity if it were written today. Technically the student has the right to see what letters are written about him, but most schools want the student to waive that right (if they don't already have a policy of discarding the letters after matriculation). I suppose I am merely deathly curious about the letter I had written before my transfer from the University of Washington (since I only had one instructor I really expected to know anything about me, and I never got to see the letter), as obviously nothing written about me will merit later revisiting. At least not yet.
- danso 15y agoI highly recommend both of Feynman's memoirs: "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!", http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041 http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Char... "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" http://www.amazon.com/What-Care-Other-People-Think/dp/0393320928/ref=pd_sim_b_1 http://www.amazon.com/What-Care-Other-People-Think/dp/039332... He's of course a good writer. But if you didn't know any better, you'd think him to be a sort of adult-Pollyanna, someone of innocent optimism and immense curiosity. It reminds me a lot of reading Woz's autobiography, in fact; I guess it makes sense that this characteristic of constantly questioning and challenging the norms is what leads to great innovation. In a chapter from "Surely You're Joking", Feynman describes how he was curious about the accepted fact that dogs have a much better sense of smell than humans. So he went around sniffing objects held by humans, even getting down on the carpet on his hands and knees to see if he could smell his own footprints: http://goo.gl/WBbw1 http://goo.gl/WBbw1 It's an amusing story, but one that is very telling of Feynman's insatiable curiosity and scientific mind. He did these smell-experiments not as a child, but when he was a scientist at Los Alamos.
- gus_massa 15y agoFeynman didn´t write the book himself. It is an edited version of the taped conversations of Feynman with Ralph Leighton.
- jamesbritt 15y agoThere's an audio recording of him telling some of his tales, as well as him playing bongo drums. Safecracker Suite: Drumming and Storytelling http://www.amazon.com/Safecracker-Suite-Storytelling-Richard-Feynman/dp/1584900199 http://www.amazon.com/Safecracker-Suite-Storytelling-Richard...
- danso 15y agoI'll take your word for it. Though "Surely You're Joking" reads very closely in style to his letter and with "What Do You Care What Other People Think?", in which he's listed as author with Ralph Leighton as editor.
- jpeterson 15y agoEvery time I read something like this, I feel a certain sense of regret for idolizing this man--alas, no one will ever say these kind of things about me.
- ebbyamir 15y agoWhat are the chances Oppenheimer asked Feynman to write it himself. I've had professors do that because they were too busy haha.
- dennisgorelik 15y agoIt's fun to imagine that, but realistically why would Feynman write that recommendation if he didn't want to accept the position?
- ThaddeusQuay2 15y agoBecause he wanted to future prank the historians. We can thus add "inventor of the FuturePrank" to his list of accomplishments.
- ggwicz 15y ago"In these war times it is not always easy to think constructively about the peace that is to follow." Wow. Oppenheimer and many of the other top scientists (then and now) also happen to be great writers. Brilliant, brilliant people.