I don't usually read Tim Ferriss, but he managed to cite two of my favorite books in the same sentence, Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic, and Richard Feynman’s book Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character). An interview with Feynman is embedded. It's almost 50 minutes long, but beginning at about 38:24 he talks of developing a myth about himself that he is completely irresponsible, thus avoiding the administrative work associated with being a professor and allowing unbroken time to do physics. I think this is a useful tool for those who want to break free; not all chains are monetary:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/20 ... hings-out/
Watching the video reminded me how much I like and miss what used to be called "characters". Not enough of them in a sanitized world.
Richard Feynman-Active Irresponsibility
I remember Professor Feynman from my undergraduate days. He taught an optional "class" called Phys-X where you could basically just go and ask him whatever you wanted and then whoever was there would talk about it. So the conversations ranged from lock-picking to black holes. He also liked to play the bongos.
His death in my senior year kind of marked the end of the era of "Legendary Physicists" who captured the public imagination that began with Einstein and passed through Oppenheimer down to Feynman. (We dedicated the yearbook to him that year.) He was one of the youngest ones to actually work on the development of the atomic bomb.
He is also kind of the Elvis of physics -- even more popular after his death than when he was alive. And people have kind of "adopted" him as a symbol like they did to a greater extent with Einstein. (We should do a better job doing that with Mandelbrot IMO.) Although there is a lot of hagiographic material out there about him, Surely You Must Be Joking is still a good read. I haven't read it since it came out in the 80s, but maybe I should read it again.
Thanks for the link and the walk down memory lane.
His death in my senior year kind of marked the end of the era of "Legendary Physicists" who captured the public imagination that began with Einstein and passed through Oppenheimer down to Feynman. (We dedicated the yearbook to him that year.) He was one of the youngest ones to actually work on the development of the atomic bomb.
He is also kind of the Elvis of physics -- even more popular after his death than when he was alive. And people have kind of "adopted" him as a symbol like they did to a greater extent with Einstein. (We should do a better job doing that with Mandelbrot IMO.) Although there is a lot of hagiographic material out there about him, Surely You Must Be Joking is still a good read. I haven't read it since it came out in the 80s, but maybe I should read it again.
Thanks for the link and the walk down memory lane.
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boltzmannsbrain
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@Dragline
Oh wow, so cool that you had Feynman as your professor! He's on the top 3 of my list of all-time inspiring scientists and is also an excellent example of the renaissance man - bongo drums, safe cracking, learning languages, great teacher, fantastic scientist, and above all, unlimited curiosity (even trying drugs in order to study consciousness).
TED talk about Feynman by Leonard Susskind, one of his former collegues and friends: http://www.ted.com/talks/leonard_susski ... ynman.html
Oh wow, so cool that you had Feynman as your professor! He's on the top 3 of my list of all-time inspiring scientists and is also an excellent example of the renaissance man - bongo drums, safe cracking, learning languages, great teacher, fantastic scientist, and above all, unlimited curiosity (even trying drugs in order to study consciousness).
TED talk about Feynman by Leonard Susskind, one of his former collegues and friends: http://www.ted.com/talks/leonard_susski ... ynman.html