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The way you work is more important that what you work on. One can work on either important or unimportant problems and end up in the same place, if the motives

by wissler 14y ago

The way you work is more important that what you work on. One can work on either important or unimportant problems and end up in the same place, if the motives and methods are good. Richard Feynman explains: "In his eccentric collection of autobiographical stories (see reference), Richard Feynman recounts: "I was in the cafeteria and some guy, fooling around, throws a plate in the air. As the plate went up in the air I saw it wobble, and I noticed the red medallion of Cornell on the plate going around. It was pretty obvious to me that the medallion went around faster than the wobbling. I had nothing to do, so I start figuring out the motion of the rotating plate. I discovered that when the angle is very slight, the medallion rotates twice as fast as the wobble rate—two to one. It came out of a complicated equation! I went on to work out equations for wobbles. Then I thought about how the electron orbits start to move in relativity. Then there's the Dirac equation in electrodynamics. And then quantum electrodynamics. And before I knew it… the whole business that I got the Nobel prize for came from that piddling around with the wobbling plate." A replica of the Cornell plate is now part of an exhibit marking the centennial of the Nobel Prize." Feynman didn't have a policy "work on unimportant problems" or "work on important problems." Rather, he worked on problems that interested him.

brianpan 14y ago
And if I recall, Feynman at this point was burnt out on the important problems. Thinking about unimportant problems, where he was essentially playing, is what finally led to the breakthrough. It's like me going for a walk to clear my head, except with him it's complex motion equations.
- MichaelGG 14y ago
  Surely here the issue is not "importance" but "interesting"?
  - niels_olson 14y ago
    I think the issue is not confusing importnant and interesting: it's hacking the relationship between your rain and your world. Important in this sense involves timelines, budgets, and the needs of others. Unimportant is whatever other people don't are about right now. It's a bit like the advice to grad students to work on what's unfashionable, unattractive, forgotten.
spillicus 14y ago
>he worked on problems that interested him Yes, one can only engage with a problem that has personal relevance. Mostly people aren't engaged. They are notionally working on 'important problem X', but their real problem is how to please an authority figure or how to further a career. Which aren't interesting. A study of history shows that objective progress is possible, so it follows that it must come about by lots of Feynman-like people working on their own apparently unimportant problems. This can be explained by the way reality and our knowledge of it are structured. Solutions to problems typically have 'reach'. Thus in order to solve parochial problems people typically create fundamental theories which automatically apply to all sorts of other problems, including important ones. The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch is a fascinating read which has a lot to say about this sort of thing.
- pyoung 14y ago
  Some of the best book recommendations I have ever gotten have come from random comments in HN. I will be adding this one to the queue. Thanks.
SudarshanP 14y ago
"My most important advice here is stark and politically very incorrect: Don't give too much weight to the social importance of the issue; instead, do what captures your intellectual interest and creative imagination. This is not to deny the importance of paying attention to the real world. Nor is it to say that abstract theory is necessarily more valuable than applied work. Nothing could be farther from the truth. But I do believe that mere relevance of an issue will not guarantee good research unless you have a genuine drive to work on it. If not, leave it to someone else. Good work on an apparently unimportant problem will have more long-run value than mediocre work on one of greater intrinsic importance. And one's judgment of importance can always be wrong; concepts of relevance can change over time." - Feynman

by wissler 14y ago

brianpan 14y ago

And if I recall, Feynman at this point was burnt out on the important problems. Thinking about unimportant problems, where he was essentially playing, is what finally led to the breakthrough. It's like me going for a walk to clear my head, except with him it's complex motion equations.

MichaelGG 14y ago
Surely here the issue is not "importance" but "interesting"?
- niels_olson 14y ago
  I think the issue is not confusing importnant and interesting: it's hacking the relationship between your rain and your world. Important in this sense involves timelines, budgets, and the needs of others. Unimportant is whatever other people don't are about right now. It's a bit like the advice to grad students to work on what's unfashionable, unattractive, forgotten.

spillicus 14y ago

>he worked on problems that interested him Yes, one can only engage with a problem that has personal relevance. Mostly people aren't engaged. They are notionally working on 'important problem X', but their real problem is how to please an authority figure or how to further a career. Which aren't interesting. A study of history shows that objective progress is possible, so it follows that it must come about by lots of Feynman-like people working on their own apparently unimportant problems. This can be explained by the way reality and our knowledge of it are structured. Solutions to problems typically have 'reach'. Thus in order to solve parochial problems people typically create fundamental theories which automatically apply to all sorts of other problems, including important ones. The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch is a fascinating read which has a lot to say about this sort of thing.

pyoung 14y ago
Some of the best book recommendations I have ever gotten have come from random comments in HN. I will be adding this one to the queue. Thanks.

SudarshanP 14y ago

"My most important advice here is stark and politically very incorrect: Don't give too much weight to the social importance of the issue; instead, do what captures your intellectual interest and creative imagination. This is not to deny the importance of paying attention to the real world. Nor is it to say that abstract theory is necessarily more valuable than applied work. Nothing could be farther from the truth. But I do believe that mere relevance of an issue will not guarantee good research unless you have a genuine drive to work on it. If not, leave it to someone else. Good work on an apparently unimportant problem will have more long-run value than mediocre work on one of greater intrinsic importance. And one's judgment of importance can always be wrong; concepts of relevance can change over time." - Feynman