8 ms·

It's easy to dunk on someone unable to defend themselves. Some basic sanity checks: Personally recruited onto the Manhattan Project by Oppenheimer in 1943. Fey

It's easy to dunk on someone unable to defend themselves. Some basic sanity checks: Personally recruited onto the Manhattan Project by Oppenheimer in 1943. Feynman Diagrams, fundamental to QM and became popular in the early 50s. There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom lecture was given in 1959. The Feynman Lectures on Physics were recorded at Caltech between 1961-1964 and became famous throughout the field shortly after. Nobel Prize for the development of Quantum Electrodynamics shared with Schwinger and Tomonaga in 1965 Richard Feynman: Fun to Imagine Collection came out in 1983 Surely you must be joking Mr. Feynman released in 1985. Any Physics Professor on earth would give both their legs to have the career Feynman did before he was supposedly only made relevant by his Biography.

archermarks 2y ago
The video is not about Feynman's actual career. That's actually the point -- the idea of Feynman people have in their minds is totally divorced from the actual person and his work.
- vonneumannstan 2y ago
  Maybe true in the early 90s but I don't imagine really anyone in the general public is familiar with him anymore. Physicists know of him. >is about Feynman being famous because of this book rather than because of his physics.
  - wholinator2 2y ago
    People still do very much know of him. My mother is the person who introduced me to his book. I was showing some interest in science in school when it was presented to me though. Though he's probably waning from "household name" status he's likely still widely known
  - Xelynega 2y ago
    A lot of the comments on this post are references to the book "surely you're joking Mr Feynman", which was a collection of stories(with a lot of embellishment) told by Feynman. That is the "sham legacy of Richard Feynman", the fact that most people remember him for stories and not his work
furyofantares 2y ago
It's also easy to dunk on someone without watching their content. You should probably watch the video if you want to dunk on it. It does not dunk on his physics. It's extremely thoroughly researched and it's about "the sham legacy of Richard Feynman" which is specifically about the legacy of anecdotes about his personality, and is different from the actual physics legacy of Richard Feynman, and it is extremely clear on this point.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- vonneumannstan 2y ago
  I watched the video months ago and found it pandering and boring.
  - sympil 2y ago
    Was it accurate or not? Who cares if the presentstion was to your liking? The question is whether or not its claims are accurate. You sound like the Feynman Bros she talks about.
  - furyofantares 2y ago
    Frankly, I am extremely confident that you only watched a little bit of it.
  - Xelynega 2y ago
    Pandering to whom?
jcranmer 2y ago
It's not a critique of his work (although to be honest, he's probably not in the top 10 physicists of the 20th century). Rather, it's a critique of the mythbuilding that seems to surround Feynman--and only Feynman, you don't see this stuff around (say) Hawking or Einstein--that turn him into the only physicist worth emulating. As for your later contention that he's less visible to the general public since the '90s, well, I had Surely You're Joking as required school reading in the '00s, the narrator of the video similarly remarks on it being recommended reading for aspiring physicists in probably near enough the same timeframe. Oh, and someone cared enough to post a link today to his blackboard, and (as of this writing) 58 other people cared to upvote it.
- pdonis 2y ago
  > to be honest, he's probably not in the top 10 physicists of the 20th century Who would you put in the top 10 ahead of him?
  - sho_hn 2y ago
    Let's see ... Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Pauli, Heisenberg, Bohm, Dirac, Schroedinger, de Broglie, Ehrenfest?
    - arcadi7 2y ago
      Rutherford, planck , bohr jumpstarted the 20th century physics .
    - pdonis 2y ago
      I'd put Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Pauli, and Dirac ahead of Feynman. I'm not so sure about the others; not that they weren't world class physicists, but so was Feynman.
      - cyberax 2y ago
        Planck? His greatest achievements were a bit before the 20-th century. Feynman also became active in physics right at the end of the heroic era. So he's disadvantaged by it.
Sincere6066 2y ago
You should try actually watching the video before writing a manifesto.
NotAnOtter 2y ago
He is known for being a bad ass scientists and super slick with the ladies. Many decades later we say more accurately, he was a bad ass scientist who either sexually harassed or straight up raped most of his female mentees and was generally kinda racist (I mean, so was everyone back then. Still tho) and a general asshole. I mean I don't really think there is any point in declaring anyone the best scientist ever. But he's firmly in whatever the top tier is when only considering scientific contributions.
roadbuster 2y ago
You can add to the list, "Putnam Fellow." And, not only was he a fellow, he apparently trounced the scores of the other 4 fellows: "Anyway, I was among the first five. I have since found out from somebody from Canada, where it was scored, who was in the scoring division—he came to me much later and he told me that it was astonishing. He said that at this examination, 'Not only were you one of the five, but the gap between you and the other four was sensational.' He told me that. I didn’t know that. That may not be correct, but that’s what I heard." https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/5020-2 https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral... Feynman's grasp of mathematics was astounding
krferriter 2y ago
To be clear that YouTube video is not really a critique of Richard Feynman, especially not his scientific career, it's a critique of people who knew him writing books and making content using his name and making money off it as if it came directly from him. It also critiques some of his behavior around interactions with students or telling what amounts to tall tales or standup comedy jokes and then other people taking it as gospel. Richard Feynman did not write the book "Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman". And some of the content in that book seems like it may greatly exaggerated or even be completely fabricated. And Feynman was not alive to see much of what was published in his name or using his name.
- pkoird 2y ago
  Without having watched the videos, to say that people made content using his name and made money off of it without Feynman knowing is disingenuous. Ralph Leighton recorded the conversations as Feynman was struggling with cancer. There are even portions of those recordings out in the web [1]. Feynman was fully aware of the books because there was apparently a scandal where Murray Gell-mann threatened to sue Feynamn and Leighton because of some mischaracterization. Feynman was apparently hurt and issued a correction in the subsequent version of the book [2]. So it seems that he was FULLY AWARE and actively endorsed the book. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Feynman-Tapes-Research-Chemist-stories/dp/1584900180 https://www.amazon.com/Feynman-Tapes-Research-Chemist-storie... [2] https://feynman.com/stories/al-seckel-on-feynman/ https://feynman.com/stories/al-seckel-on-feynman/
  - gitremote 2y ago
    You should watch the video. People who are not Ralph Leighton published books about Feynman posthumously without his knowledge and made money off of it.
    - pkoird 2y ago
      Many people write books on interesting subjects posthumously (biographies come to mind). I believe it would be up to the descendants of Feynman to sue if due legal etiquettes were not maintained. Having said that, all famous Feynman books like the Feynman lectures, Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman, Please of finding things out, etc are edited pieces of Feynman's recorded audio, no doubt about that. Honestly, my problem with the video in question is that its tone unjustly attempts to denigrate Feynman (starting with the clickbaity title itself, a sham legacy? really?) by trying to frame the narrative that his supposed works were not his to begin with. The comments in that video validate this sentiment to the point that people joke about him not existing at all? If this is the central takeaway of the video then I'm honestly glad that I didn't waste precisious few hours of my life on such misleading content. Feel free to correct me though. To me, Feynman is iconic because of the way he communicates. Of course, there is a disjunction between the man and his ideas and I'm not unwilling to believe that he had some flaws.

archermarks 2y ago

The video is not about Feynman's actual career. That's actually the point -- the idea of Feynman people have in their minds is totally divorced from the actual person and his work.

vonneumannstan 2y ago
Maybe true in the early 90s but I don't imagine really anyone in the general public is familiar with him anymore. Physicists know of him. >is about Feynman being famous because of this book rather than because of his physics.
- wholinator2 2y ago
  People still do very much know of him. My mother is the person who introduced me to his book. I was showing some interest in science in school when it was presented to me though. Though he's probably waning from "household name" status he's likely still widely known
- Xelynega 2y ago
  A lot of the comments on this post are references to the book "surely you're joking Mr Feynman", which was a collection of stories(with a lot of embellishment) told by Feynman. That is the "sham legacy of Richard Feynman", the fact that most people remember him for stories and not his work

furyofantares 2y ago

It's also easy to dunk on someone without watching their content. You should probably watch the video if you want to dunk on it. It does not dunk on his physics. It's extremely thoroughly researched and it's about "the sham legacy of Richard Feynman" which is specifically about the legacy of anecdotes about his personality, and is different from the actual physics legacy of Richard Feynman, and it is extremely clear on this point.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
vonneumannstan 2y ago
I watched the video months ago and found it pandering and boring.
- sympil 2y ago
  Was it accurate or not? Who cares if the presentstion was to your liking? The question is whether or not its claims are accurate. You sound like the Feynman Bros she talks about.
- furyofantares 2y ago
  Frankly, I am extremely confident that you only watched a little bit of it.
- Xelynega 2y ago
  Pandering to whom?

jcranmer 2y ago

It's not a critique of his work (although to be honest, he's probably not in the top 10 physicists of the 20th century). Rather, it's a critique of the mythbuilding that seems to surround Feynman--and only Feynman, you don't see this stuff around (say) Hawking or Einstein--that turn him into the only physicist worth emulating. As for your later contention that he's less visible to the general public since the '90s, well, I had Surely You're Joking as required school reading in the '00s, the narrator of the video similarly remarks on it being recommended reading for aspiring physicists in probably near enough the same timeframe. Oh, and someone cared enough to post a link today to his blackboard, and (as of this writing) 58 other people cared to upvote it.

pdonis 2y ago
> to be honest, he's probably not in the top 10 physicists of the 20th century Who would you put in the top 10 ahead of him?
- sho_hn 2y ago
  Let's see ... Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Pauli, Heisenberg, Bohm, Dirac, Schroedinger, de Broglie, Ehrenfest?
  - arcadi7 2y ago
    Rutherford, planck , bohr jumpstarted the 20th century physics .
  - pdonis 2y ago
    I'd put Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Pauli, and Dirac ahead of Feynman. I'm not so sure about the others; not that they weren't world class physicists, but so was Feynman.
    - cyberax 2y ago
      Planck? His greatest achievements were a bit before the 20-th century. Feynman also became active in physics right at the end of the heroic era. So he's disadvantaged by it.

Sincere6066 2y ago

You should try actually watching the video before writing a manifesto.

NotAnOtter 2y ago

He is known for being a bad ass scientists and super slick with the ladies. Many decades later we say more accurately, he was a bad ass scientist who either sexually harassed or straight up raped most of his female mentees and was generally kinda racist (I mean, so was everyone back then. Still tho) and a general asshole. I mean I don't really think there is any point in declaring anyone the best scientist ever. But he's firmly in whatever the top tier is when only considering scientific contributions.

roadbuster 2y ago

You can add to the list, "Putnam Fellow." And, not only was he a fellow, he apparently trounced the scores of the other 4 fellows: "Anyway, I was among the first five. I have since found out from somebody from Canada, where it was scored, who was in the scoring division—he came to me much later and he told me that it was astonishing. He said that at this examination, 'Not only were you one of the five, but the gap between you and the other four was sensational.' He told me that. I didn’t know that. That may not be correct, but that’s what I heard." https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/5020-2 https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral... Feynman's grasp of mathematics was astounding

krferriter 2y ago

To be clear that YouTube video is not really a critique of Richard Feynman, especially not his scientific career, it's a critique of people who knew him writing books and making content using his name and making money off it as if it came directly from him. It also critiques some of his behavior around interactions with students or telling what amounts to tall tales or standup comedy jokes and then other people taking it as gospel. Richard Feynman did not write the book "Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman". And some of the content in that book seems like it may greatly exaggerated or even be completely fabricated. And Feynman was not alive to see much of what was published in his name or using his name.

pkoird 2y ago
Without having watched the videos, to say that people made content using his name and made money off of it without Feynman knowing is disingenuous. Ralph Leighton recorded the conversations as Feynman was struggling with cancer. There are even portions of those recordings out in the web [1]. Feynman was fully aware of the books because there was apparently a scandal where Murray Gell-mann threatened to sue Feynamn and Leighton because of some mischaracterization. Feynman was apparently hurt and issued a correction in the subsequent version of the book [2]. So it seems that he was FULLY AWARE and actively endorsed the book. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Feynman-Tapes-Research-Chemist-stories/dp/1584900180 https://www.amazon.com/Feynman-Tapes-Research-Chemist-storie... [2] https://feynman.com/stories/al-seckel-on-feynman/ https://feynman.com/stories/al-seckel-on-feynman/
- gitremote 2y ago
  You should watch the video. People who are not Ralph Leighton published books about Feynman posthumously without his knowledge and made money off of it.
  - pkoird 2y ago
    Many people write books on interesting subjects posthumously (biographies come to mind). I believe it would be up to the descendants of Feynman to sue if due legal etiquettes were not maintained. Having said that, all famous Feynman books like the Feynman lectures, Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman, Please of finding things out, etc are edited pieces of Feynman's recorded audio, no doubt about that. Honestly, my problem with the video in question is that its tone unjustly attempts to denigrate Feynman (starting with the clickbaity title itself, a sham legacy? really?) by trying to frame the narrative that his supposed works were not his to begin with. The comments in that video validate this sentiment to the point that people joke about him not existing at all? If this is the central takeaway of the video then I'm honestly glad that I didn't waste precisious few hours of my life on such misleading content. Feel free to correct me though. To me, Feynman is iconic because of the way he communicates. Of course, there is a disjunction between the man and his ideas and I'm not unwilling to believe that he had some flaws.