3 ms·

IIRC, Feynman said something like "I can't explain magnetism to a layperson in terms they can understand." > ...causing a growing rift between scientists and t

• dbsmith83 2y ago
  Yet Einstein said something like "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough". So maybe Feynman didn't understand it "well enough"
  • cwillu 2y ago
    Einstein was giving a rule of thumb, not a law of nature.
  • sigmoid10 2y ago
    That was a pretty classical point of view. Quantum mechanics has gone so deep by now, there simply is nothing in a layperson's world that could accurately represent what is really going on. This was not a limit of Feynman, it's a limit of humans.
  • HenryBemis 2y ago
    I sometimes listen to Jordan Peterson's podcasts (and have read the "12 rules.."). I understand the dude. Then I found on YT a speech/discussion he had with/for psychologists, and they were still speaking English, and I couldn't understand half of what they were saying. Now, to my 'craft' (GRC). I lately catch myself speaking like Peter Thiel, taking 20-30 second 'silences', build in my mind what I want to say, 'translate it' to simple(r) English, and then slowly say it out loud to make sure I pave the path with mental & verbal stepping stones without using any jargon. I very well understand what I want to say, but the gap between in the knowledge and the use of language puts the onus to the explainer.
• ergonaught 2y ago
  The full quote is better. Ie: “I can’t explain it in terms of something else you’re more familiar with because I don’t understand it terms of anything else you’re more familiar with.”