Who am I?

Who am I?

I did not read books, not even scientific books. I taught myself how to play drums, to give massages, to train dogs to do counterintuitive tricks and how to tell stories. I taught myself how to experiment.

I was admitted into Princeton’s graduate program eventhough I had the lowest scores in English and History of any student they ever admitted. My history score was in the bottom fifth, my literature score in the bottom sixth; and 93 % of those who took the test had given better answers about fine arts. However, my physics and mathematics scores were the best the committee had seen.

In fact the physics score was PERFECT.

My name is Richard Feynman. I worked besides another Jewish fellow named Einstein. I worked with some guy named Oppenheimer at Los Alamos to create the atomic bomb. I was the architect of quantum theories and considered by Oppenheirmer and others as the most brilliant and influential physicist of modern times.

My scientific methods were a little different though. My kind of discovery is primarily by trial and error. I call it knowledge by DOING. I’ve found that most of our scientific laws are not exact. There is always an edge of mystery, always a place where we have some fiddling around to do yet. Want to read more about me? Check out the book GENIUS, by James Gleick.

One last thing, I’m the guy who solved the Challenger Shuttle “O Ring” mystery. I threw one into a glass of water that was at the launch temperature. I was dying of cancer. I was just playing, really. Playing to my strengths.

Are you playing to yours?

Are you experimenting enough?