4 ms·
If we knew ahead of time which tough problems have elegant solutions, it would save us so much time and effort. Alas, that's not the nature of research.
by freyr 13y ago
If we knew ahead of time which tough problems have elegant solutions, it would save us so much time and effort. Alas, that's not the nature of research.
- w1ntermute 13y agoMy point is simply that we should treat Feynman's algorithm as a magic bullet. You have to recognize that it fails a lot more than it succeeds.
- ky3 13y agoIs it even an algorithm though? It's so imprecise a rule of thumb that evaluating it as a failure or a success is utterly arbitrary.
- kerneis 13y agoYou should remember that the Feynman algorithm is a joke told by one of his colleagues (Murray Gell-Mann) to mock Feynman's story-telling. It has never been intended as a real algorithm that should be applied by anybody. Previously on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1520075 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1520075