Read Gleick, who (I think) covers Feynman's approach and other's reaction to it well. He didn't read the literature as he liked to be surprised. His sister to

Read Gleick, who (I think) covers Feynman's approach and other's reaction to it well. He didn't read the literature as he liked to be surprised. His sister told a story where she made him do so in one instance; preferred to figure things out himself. Was it inefficient? Certainly, but it added to his legend, satisfied his curiousity and often yielded a more-general solution. Perhaps it was clarity of thought coupled with his (partially?) hidden self-training and toolkit. Perhaps it was a less-mechanical approach to physics, more intuition than perspiration? To me, Einstein falls into this category as well - the ability to ask pertinent questions and not worry about the answer and the number of apple carts being upset. Certainly there was an ability to focus that was not common.