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Wow, that's actually deeper than it sounds. I do wonder though: did a lot of famous scientists (like Einstein, Feynman, Turing, etc) use writing as a vehicle fo
by winter_blue 3y ago
Wow, that's actually deeper than it sounds. I do wonder though: did a lot of famous scientists (like Einstein, Feynman, Turing, etc) use writing as a vehicle for learning?
- maxov 3y agoAbsolutely! (also see the article) https://www.colorado.edu/artssciences-advising/resource-library/life-skills/the-feynman-technique-in-academic-coaching https://www.colorado.edu/artssciences-advising/resource-libr...
- mr_mitm 3y agoAlso, see the Feynman algorithm: https://proftomcrick.com/2011/04/26/feynman-problem-solving-algorithm/ https://proftomcrick.com/2011/04/26/feynman-problem-solving-... > 1. Write down the problem. > 2. Think very hard. > 3. Write down the answer. The first step is crucial.
- uncletaco 3y agoFeynman was famous for stealing his coworkers’ pens and pencils so I have to assume he was writing useful thing down.
- simonw 3y agoSee "inventor's notebook": https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventor%27s_notebook https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventor%27s_notebook - some good examples of famous notebook habits are linked to from there (Einstein and Tesla and Edison and da Vinci are all mentioned).
- JJMcJ 3y agoThough he wasn't an eminent scientist, I worked with someone who had gone through engineering school back in the 1950s. He kept volumes of meticulous notebooks and saved a great deal of time because he never had to waste hours on "I know I figured this out in October 2022 but I can't remember how". A real inventor's notebook today has a space to sign and date each page, and you should X out any space you don't use. That helps it have legal force.
- leksak 3y ago> That helps it have legal force Could you elaborate on this point?
- simonw 3y agoPresumably this is about intellectual property claims. If you get into legal issues around patents, being able to prove when you made notes on something could be important. Signing and dating each page helps demonstrate that you've been taking notes at specific times. Crossing out the areas of the page that you don't use helps in case you get accused of deliberately leaving blank space in your notebook so you can backfill it later on a page that you already signed and dated. Of course, this is predicated on the idea that you use pen and paper for notes! All of my notes have been digital for over a decade at this point.
- akkad33 3y agoI thought this was a myth
- wrs 3y agoI still have the bound, page-numbered notebook issued to me by Microsoft in the late 90s for this exact purpose, along with a lecture explaining the methodology above. (A rather misguided effort by an IP attorney who was apparently new to software…)
- JJMcJ 3y agoStill being sold: https://www.amazon.com/BookFactory-Black-Inventors-Notebook-LIRPE-096-LGR/dp/B0065L5F9E/ref=sr_1_7?crid=3CT1R7Z9UK8ZW&keywords=inventors%2Bjournal&qid=1692206002&sprefix=inventors%2Bjournal%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-7&th=1 https://www.amazon.com/BookFactory-Black-Inventors-Notebook-... for example. Notice some of the features: pages are sewn in, so it will be obvious if one is removed, tamper-evident archival paper, space to sign each page. Paper documents I think still have the most standing as evidence. This doesn't look like size for a full notary seal but space for a witness to sign. I suppose a notary could stamp it someplace.
- fasterik 3y agoI wish I was better at thinking in handwritten notes. I've been using computers my whole life, so typing feels very natural to me, while handwriting feels slow and cumbersome. I've become pretty proficient at thinking in code and moving things around in text editors, but whenever I try to do something on paper with equations it feels like there is a mental block there. This has prevented me from learning as much math and physics as I would like to have learned.
- brabel 3y agoEinstein was really good at thought experiments... and if I remember correctly, he said once that he sometimes had "trouble" to express thoughts in words.
- adversaryIdiot 3y agoIf you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
- beltsazar 3y ago> When historian Charles Weiner looked over a pile of Richard Feynman’s notebooks, he called them a wonderful ‘record of his day-to-day work’. > “No, no!”, Feynman objected strongly. > “They aren’t a record of my thinking process. They are my thinking process. I actually did the work on the paper.” > “Well,” Weiner said, “The work was done in your head, but the record of it is still here.” > “No, it’s not a record, not really. It’s working. You have to work on paper and this is the paper. Okay?”, Feynman explained.
- nomel 3y agoFirst we augment/externalized calorie storage from our fat cells to our livestock/crops. Then we augment/externalized our short and long term memory from our minds with writing. You'll always find a symbol covered napkin next to someone who's working out something difficult, without any writing paper.
- tracerbulletx 3y agoI think you could probably consider mathematic notation as a form of writing.
- NegativeK 3y agoYou absolutely can; it's just a formalized shorthand for words. That said, people don't publish papers that are just math notation. There's surrounding words to explain and motivate concepts.
- fnands 3y agoIt's both flippant and surprisingly deep, which I think is a nice combo. It's also the opening quote in my PhD thesis.