5 ms·
What Problems to Solve (1966)
- NortySpock 1y agoThis was a beautiful letter to read, with a simple piece of wisdom about life, spelled out for the student. I am grateful that this was submitted to Hacker News, and that I was able to read it.
- mef51 1y agoI read this letter for the first time many years ago when I was in my physics undergrad and thinking about starting grad school. It still crosses my mind pretty often as a postdoc.
- megaloblasto 1y agoYou are not nameless to me. Do not remain nameless to yourself – it is too sad a way to be.
- FredPret 1y ago> "...Do not remain nameless to yourself – it is too sad a way to be. now (sic) your place in the world and evaluate yourself fairly, not in terms of your naïve ideals of your own youth, nor in terms of what you erroneously imagine your teacher’s ideals are..." Wise words
- dumdedum123 1y agoWow. I didn't know about this letter. It's very inspiring.
- b0a04gl 1y ago[dead]
- cocoa19 1y agoThis echoes what I have thought about my career. What to work on. I've been blessed to have a good paying career in software engineering, but I've never really felt passionate about the products I work on. At the end of the day, my job is a paycheck. I do feel joy solving problems for others, improve society, be able to answer colleagues questions when they "come to my office". My family is happy that I can provide and that I am a role model for them. I sometimes think I should work on things that make me happier. Sometimes I think that my career path is a mistake, I should work on problems "closer to god", make more meaningful contributions, build the next Kubernetes/ChatGPT/Google/<insert revolutionary product>, advance AI, climate change. I end giving up, I'm not that ambitious or driven. I'm important to my family and colleagues. That may be good enough.
- nh23423fefe 1y agoThe vast majority of human existence from million years ago to now is toil. I don't spend anytime feeling bad about being well compensated at an air conditioned office working on CRUD.
- apples_oranges 1y agoPerhaps it’s not ambition or drive but just curiosity. „I wonder if we can …“ -type of thinking.
- Psoodu1313 1y agoI don't think so personally, because if its truly from a place of curiosity, then you're in the BEST of place. You're enamored with a specific problem, have some idea of doing it and will slowly explore nooks and crannies to manifest it into reality. The problem here (again, i think) lies in the fact that we don't often see the grander value of our everyday works and yearn to do SOMETHING grander, more impactful, but we don't know which, or how, and in time it will torment us each time we do our normal work. (sorry for the text wall)
- dan00 1y ago> The problem here (again, i think) lies in the fact that we don't often see the grander value of our everyday works and yearn to do SOMETHING grander, more impactful, but we don't know which, or how, and in time it will torment us each time we do our normal work. I think it's a kind of yearning that can't be satisfied in the outside world. It's an inside problem and can only be solved there.
- jebarker 1y agoI’m in a similar career situation and I am trying to beat my ego into submission to adopt a similar mindset
- meristohm 1y agoIn keeping with the list preceding "climate change", consider changing it to: "...advance AI, change climate."
- alganet 1y agoHis words and advice are truly inspiring and I agree with him. However, things have changed a lot. Nowadays we're bombarded with ideas and incredible "opportunities" of stuff we can make. It's almost like ideas are shoved into people's heads. So, I have to add to Mr. Feynman's words an update: _Be sure that the thing you want to solve is really the thing YOU want to solve_ This is specially true for software development and closed platforms. Sometimes, software vendors have this way of making developers work for free for things they won't get back, ever. They'll do conferences, and attract people, and show you all those nice tools you can use to solve problems (as long as you use their paid platform). Don't fall for that shit. Remember Twitter and Reddit closing their APIs, platforms being discontinued, companies cannibalizing successful apps by independent developers. Those people wanted to solve problems, and they got scammed.
- smath 1y agoI agree. IMO understanding what one really wants to work on, leads to an important line of philosophical questioning to understand 'who am I'. There is a surprising amount of clutter and external influence in our minds.
- alganet 1y ago> to understand 'who am I' I don't worry much about that. I can be lots of things, change my mind, etc.
- karussell 1y agoThanks a lot for posting this. I highly recommend having a look into the mentioned flexagons. This is a child toy where Feynman laid the mathematical background and it is very fascinating toy which you can easily build yourself. Try it out - it is really fun. No child required except yourself :)
- hencq 1y agoI didn't realize it until I searched for it, but as a kid I did have one of those. An M.C. Escher one (a quick search found exactly the one [1]). My aunt got it for me when I was little and I was fascinated by it. Fond memories. [1] https://www.jacobsurovsky.com/researchanddevelopment/2020/8/11/3d-hexaflexagons https://www.jacobsurovsky.com/researchanddevelopment/2020/8/...
- nashashmi 1y ago> You will get the pleasure of success, and of helping your fellow man, even if it is only to answer a question in the mind of a colleague less able than you. > innumerable problems that you would call humble, but which I enjoyed and felt very good about because I sometimes could partially succeed. > You met me at the peak of my career when I seemed to you to be concerned with problems close to the gods. As problem solvers, we need encouragement to face the difficulties that lie in exploring problems. We need to believe that it can be solved but more so that WE/I can solve it. We need to raise our egos to healthy amounts (not sure what is the precise definition of healthy) so we don't back down or give up. And Mr. Feynman alludes to this with "the pleasure of success", "helping your fellow man", "answer a question in the mind of a colleauge", "I enjoyed ... because I sometimes could partially succeed", and "problems close to the gods". I am exploring (and absolutely denouncing) this egotism for it leads to frustration, disconnection, illusion, entitlement, and shielding. I feel that (good) school/university/work environments raise ego levels (with "good job!") and aloof you from _........ (which is a utopian place with a healthy encouragement to do more work and work harder to a point where it does not overwhelm you). The identify of this _........ place keeps occuring to me and flees from me as quickly as it occurs to me. If there is anyone who works without ego, please let me know.
- rusk 1y agoOriginal sin mate. We must suffer an appreciation of the divine while being simultaneously unable to fulfill it. Accept you humanity and be kind to yourself about it.
- pama 1y agoThe best places to work at are full of people that are intrinsically motivated. “Good job” is implied. Feedback, including criticism, is expected, as it helps improve things further or recognise perfection/good enough. Academics do have egos, but typically they compete against academics in other, remote departments, and many of the best ones behave in ego free ways in their groups and collaborations. Same in good industry teams, where having management get out of the way and letting the intrinsically motivated contributors work themselves is key. The competition is the outside world, not the eating of a larger share of the resources of the same team. If you like problem solving, stay humble and help others; you will have a lifetime of fun, even if it feels rocky some bad days.
- agcat 1y agoThis is a great post. Totally resonate with the thought of solving something that gives you the "win" feeling and it doesn't matter whether its small.
- tolerance 1y agoHighly off-topic. But I just want to inform you all that the only entry for Rob Pike on this web page under "texts" is a cheese cake recipe.
- CommenterPerson 1y agoThanks for posting this. Wonderful letter.
- zzbn00 1y ago“studying the Coherence theory with some applications to the propagation of electromagnetic waves through turbulent atmosphere… a humble and down-to-earth type of problem.” -> Ended up being a very important (and largerly solvable!) problem in ground-based astronomy
- StochasticLi 1y agoIn 1 sentence: Do the opposite of trying to solve the Collatz conjecture.
- blks 1y ago[flagged]
- kunley 1y agocitation needed
- bbkane 1y agoI can't comment on the behavior of his students, but his ex-wife told the FBI that Feynman flew into violent rages and choked her on several occasions ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman#Personal_and_political_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman#Personal_and_p... ). I've always felt a bit queasy on reading that.
- rixed 1y agoInteresting link. Another quote from that same link, from that same hateful person whose first grievance was that Feynman was just interested in calculations and playing the drum : "I do not know—but I believe that Richard Feynman is either a Communist or very strongly pro-Communist—and as such is a very definite security risk." I had read many books from and about Feynman, probably even more than the average HNer; first time I encounter such a claim. I do not believe in heroes and like to have my beliefs questioned, but in this instance I will still stand with Feynman. This case does not look like it is about violence.
- Conscat 1y agoAre you serious?
- kunley 1y agoI am. Are you?
- renhanxue 1y agoAstrophysicist Angela Collier's video essay "the sham legacy of Richard Feynman" [0] is a good introduction. Her accounts of her own encounters with "Feynman bros" are heart-wrenching. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKpj2ISQAc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKpj2ISQAc
- sky2224 1y agoMan while Feynman was a genius, I think it's underappreciated just how articulate and philosophical he was. I've always loved reading his work because he just knew how to say things the right way. This letter really allows that side of him to shine through.
- m463 1y agoHe could would shrink the complex into something that could fit in even my head. I like this one: This particle is a perfect ball bearing that can move at a single speed in one of six directions. from "Feynman the Explainer" in: https://longnow.org/essays/richard-feynman-connection-machine/ https://longnow.org/essays/richard-feynman-connection-machin... also: "Don't say `reflected acoustic wave.' Say [echo]." Or, "Forget all that `local minima' stuff. Just say there's a bubble caught in the crystal and you have to shake it out." Nothing made him angrier than making something simple sound complicated.
- hammock 1y agoThat is the main reason why he is appreciated imo
- dang 1y agoRelated. Others? Do not remain nameless to yourself (1966) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23808400 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23808400 - July 2020 (122 comments) What Problems to Solve - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8030010 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8030010 - July 2014 (45 comments)
- bravesoul2 1y agoBeautiful. Tear to my eye! I think this is a rare mix of deep humanity and intellectual thinking in one essay. Lol then... I saw who wrote it! Good advice for all HN. Often you see a comment and bio shows an amazing career. However they couldnt be amazing without rest of us being average (average of something...). Can't have a max without a median.
- rendall 1y agoI read this letter and then immediately read another discussion on HN, A new pyramid-like shape always lands the same side up https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44381297 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44381297
- godelski 1y ago> No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it. I think we often forget this. Especially in our fast paced world and career. But often it is the little things which are hard to get right and also the things that create the most problems. I think we try to think we can predict what are important problems and what are not. Sometimes this is easy and we're right, but often we aren't. This is true in math, physics, and computer science. In any domain. So do what you like because you never really know. Plus, they say interest is worth an extra 10 IQ points. From all my reading of Feynman I think there's one thing he'd stress: have fun. To never lose the creativity, that child like wonder. In CS we got here because we loved to play around and hack. I hope we never lose that.
- gjvc 1y agoIn CS we got here because we loved to play around and hack. I hope we never lose that. get a job with a few managers and a jira installation and it will dry up pretty quick.
- godelski 1y agoWell that's kinda my point. If you are losing it, push back. I'm betting there are others who feel the same but also feel alone. Remember, they hire us for our skills. They hire us for our expertise. That means not always being a yes man. If you don't stand up for what you think is right, the product will become worse. The reason to question your boss is because you're on the same side: making the best product you can. It's okay to be wrong, it's okay to speak up, it is okay to ask questions. If anyone says anything different, they aren't interested in making the product, they are interested in their paycheck. Frankly, most of this loss we're talking about is because the business people took over and don't understand that an engineer saying "but what about <x>" is not "no" it is "yes, but let's figure out how". This culture needs to be fixed, and it requires every day normal people to make that normal.
- tankenmate 1y agoPick a problem that is big enough to matter, and small enough that you can solve it -- and that's pretty cool.
- amelius 1y ago> I have worked on innumerable problems that you would call humble, but which I enjoyed and felt very good about because I sometimes could partially succeed. For example, ... [list of many problems] ... Plus all the “grander” problems of quantum theory. I'm having difficulty understanding what is meant here. Does he intend to say that his student thinks quantum theory is a humble problem?
- frumiousirc 1y agoI don't know what the student thinks but "[list of many problems]" are in some ways less "grand" as they are less about fundamentals of nature compared to the problems in quantum theory. But then Feynman puts "grander" in quotes to reduce its power and imply that "grandness" isn't all that - well - grand. He does this as his advice is that all problems for which you can find solutions are indeed grand problems. That's how I read it.
- 9dev 1y agoPart of the point here, IMHO, was to show that Feynman himself worked on numerous problems, even small ones, not just those he is famous for, and sometimes even failing to solve them. My interpretation is that he is both meaning to say that getting where he is took a lot of patience and hard work, and also that it is on yourself to determine which problems are worth your time. Which are both very important insights to have if you don't want to feel miserable.
- matiascoin 1y agowow
- quantumgarbage 1y agoLike anyone, I'm always impressed by geniuses displaying hollywood cliché traits. But that's even more impressive when they are great humans too.
- Mouvelie 1y ago[dead]
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 1y agohttps://web.archive.org/web/20121212063351if_/http://genius.cat-v.org:80/richard-feynman/writtings/letters/problems https://web.archive.org/web/20121212063351if_/http://genius....
- divbzero 1y agoHe didn’t mention it in this letter, but in Surely You’re Joking Feynman described how he solved for the motion of plates spinning and wobbling across a cafeteria in Cornell. When his colleague asked what’s the importance of this problem, he responded: “There’s no importance whatsoever. I’m just doing it for the fun of it.”
- rayleighzhong 1y ago看的要哭了，第一次想在hacker上留言。