Richard Feynman is not a new name for any of us. This physicist is far more than just a physicist. He was an impeccable teacher and widely known for his extraordinary abilities, his ability to simplify complex things in ways that even non-scientific people could understand.
In addition to his interest in theoretical physics, Feynman was interested in almost everything—biology, experimental science, poetry, art, and more. Although Feynman was a brilliant scholar, he was also curious about knowing and learning things. He will not give up any opportunity to learn. In his autobiography, his father asked him a question.
Suppose some Martians come to Earth, and Martians never sleep, but are always active. Suppose they don't have this crazy phenomenon that we have, called sleep. So they ask you the question: "How does it feel to fall asleep?" What happens when you fall asleep? Does your mind stop abruptly, or is it moving less and less? How exactly does thought shut down? ”
Feynman was fascinated by the question, asking himself, "How does the stream of consciousness end when you fall asleep?" Then for the next four weeks, every afternoon, Feynman would pull down the curtains in his room, turn off the lights, and observe what happened after he fell asleep. Then at night, he would go to bed again and give him two times a day to observe, and he was very happy about it!
At first, he noticed a lot of ancillary stuff, but had little to do with falling asleep. He noticed that he had done a lot of thinking by speaking to his heart. He can also visualize things intuitively. Then, as he grew tired, he noticed that he could think about two things at the same time. He also noticed that these thoughts continue as you go to sleep, but they are less and less logically interconnected. You won't notice that they don't have a logical connection until you ask yourself, "What makes me think of this?" "Then you try to think about it, and often you don't remember when it made you think of this!"
"So you get all sorts of illusions of logical connections, but the reality is that these ideas become more and more arrogant until they're completely disconnected, and beyond that, you fall asleep." After four weeks of constant sleep, I wrote my subject and explained my observations. At the end of the topic, I point out that all of these observations are made while I'm watching myself fall asleep, and I don't really understand what it's like to fall asleep while I'm looking at myself. ”
He ends the subject with a small poem that points out the problem of this introspection:
I want to know why. I want to know why.
I wonder why I want to know
I want to know why I want to know why
I want to know why I want to know why!
It shows how curious his character is, how charismatic the way he discovers things. When he lectured at caltech and Cornell University, he always tried to instill the same spirit in his students. In this article, I'll explain five strategies or lessons learned from Richard Feynman that can make your life more productive.
See each issue as an opportunity
"Every problem is an opportunity in disguise." - Benjamin Franklin
If we take an optimistic approach to our problems, work becomes more interesting and leads to increased innovation, creativity, and productivity. What is holding us back is a problem, an obstacle, a challenge that needs to be addressed. How you deal with this problem or how to meet a challenge is a skill that you can apply to many situations in your life.
If you're really committed to learning how to overcome problems, a good strategy is to write things down. Find a notebook and start writing a journal where you will be working on this topic. Feynman has a similar approach to the problem. Whenever he had a problem, he scribbled down the problems on paper and then spent hours trying to solve them. He reportedly invented feynman diagrams when he was just scribbling down a question in his notebook.
Understanding is more important than memory
I've talked about this in previous articles as well. During a visit to Brazil, Feynman realized and pointed out a huge mistake in the modern education system. While visiting a university there, he said:
I found a very strange phenomenon: I could ask a question and the students would answer it immediately. But the next time I ask this question again – the same subject, the same question, as far as I know they simply can't answer! That's why my students are reluctant to answer. For example, one time I was talking about polarized light, and I gave all of them some polarized light bars.
He mentioned further.
After a lot of research, I finally found out that the students had memorized everything, but they didn't know what anything meant. When they hear "light reflected from an exponential medium," they don't know that it refers to materials such as water. They don't know the "direction of light, that's the direction you're looking at things, and so on. Everything is completely remembered, but nothing is translated into meaningful words.
I don't see anyone being educated through this self-propagating system, where people pass exams and teach others to pass exams, but nobody knows anything.
To sum up, if you want to recall information at a specific time, memorization is helpful. Memorization helps you remember concepts. And if you understand a concept, you can not only remember it for a long time, but also express it in your own language at any time, and you can explain it to others. Memorization limits the memory of what is written "recalled," while understanding concepts helps to generate creative ideas. Memorization is very helpful for passing the exam. But beyond that, memorization is useless.
Feynman at the California Institute of Technology
Embrace uncertainty and doubt
Feynman believed that all scientific knowledge is uncertain, and uncertainty is a very important part of it. If you think you're getting the right thing, if you've made up your mind, you probably won't consider other options and won't really be able to fix the problem. He went on to say that if we did not have doubt and ignorance, we would not get any new ideas and we would not make any progress. Others hold a similar view, supporting uncertainty as one of the most important defining characteristics of science.
In the course of science, absolute certainty is often difficult to achieve. Uncertainty is a factor in the process and does not mean that an outcome, hypothesis or theory is wrong. Scientific uncertainty usually means that there is a range of possible values, and the true value of the measurement is within this range. Further study of a topic or theory may reduce the level of uncertainty or the range of possible values. But skepticism and uncertainty are key to discovery.
Feynman once came up with a wonderful idea about the importance of doubt and uncertainty
I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think life without knowing is much more interesting than having answers that can be wrong. If we only allow, as we progress, we remain uncertain, and we will leave an opportunity for alternatives. We are not passionate about facts, knowledge, absolute truth, but always uncertain... In order to make progress, the door to the unknown must be left open.
Keep thinking and focusing
Concentration is so important because it is the gateway to all thinking: perception, memory, learning, reasoning, problem solving, and decision-making. Without good attention span, all aspects of your ability to think will suffer. Research from Stanford University found that multitasking is less efficient than doing just one thing at a time. The researchers also found that people who were often bombarded with several streams of electronic information could not pay attention to, recall, or switch from one job to another as those who completed one task at a time.
Feynman once said that there is a computer disease that anyone who works in computers knows. This is a very serious disease that completely interferes with work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' them!.
He would rather solve his problems with pen and paper than use electronic devices. Sure, not everyone will be distracted by the kind of technology we use in our daily lives, but they will certainly have a negative impact on our overall productivity.
Feynman lectures at CERN. Image. CERN Archives
Learn from your mistakes and start over
We all have a fear of failure and making mistakes. Most successful people find value in their mistakes; they openly acknowledge and discuss their mistakes and failures, and admit that without those mistakes, they wouldn't have learned what they know now, or ended up where they are. They know it's possible to laugh at mistakes and then try to correct them.
Making mistakes is not as bad as they teach you in school. It's an opportunity to learn!
Failure is an incredible learning experience. It teaches you to be humble. It teaches you to work harder. It is the first step towards understanding. One common thing that tends to hinder students' development is the fear of failure. They don't dare act because they are so worried that they will make mistakes. Ask yourself if you're procrastinating, making excuses, or taking action on your academic or career goals. Mistakes are what you are trying to prove that without mistakes, you have no growth or learning. In Feynman's words:
In order to effectively develop my work ideas, I try to fail as quickly as possible.