Feyn achievements

I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there.
-Richard Feynman (1918-1988), in a letter to Armando Garcia J,
December 11, 1985

This quote is seen on the commemorative envelope released along with the Richard Feynman stamp on May 20. (The stamps are currently available at post offices across the US. Be sure to get your copy). Dick Feynman, undoubtedly the most brilliant physicist in the second half of the 20th century, makes it quiet clear as to how much we understand the universe.

A similar sentiment is expressed in the following quote:
As the radius of the sphere of our knowledge grows,
so does its contact with the unknown.

However, many people confuse these humble statements to mean that we know nothing about the workings of the universe. THAT is certainly not true. With the discoveries made on each passing day, we have been learning a lot and have been gradually strengthening our basics. Though an individual may not learn much in a life-time, there is amazing power in collective and cooperative ventures. Scientific studies provide a wonderful model for documenting and sharing our knowledge/work so that we all can forge ahead in whatever our domain.


No matter where you stand, remember that there are still miles to go.
At the same time trust the miles that have been covered.

on behaviour - belief connection

You can see the other fellow's behaviour, [but] cannot see his beliefs.
-George Polya, in Induction and Analogy in Mathematics

Polya is amazing at explaining something like Math which many think is one of the most complicated anything that anyone has created. His book "How to solve it" (which later triggered the unrelated but reasonably good "How to solve it by computer") is a must read. He asks (or makes you ask) questions like: Have you seen a similar problem before? Can you break it down? Are there any parallel situations? And so on.

He brings in the study of animal behaviour in the study of analogy: Experience modifies human behaviour as well as human beliefs. Both are related. While behaviour is manifest, beliefs are not.

This has become truer today when most people change masks as they would change clothes. Masks mask - or try to mask - behaviour. But underlying beliefs can not change so frequently. It is important to see through these bahaviours. Often beliefs are directly related to intentions. Watch for behaviour and you could guess what the underlying intentions could be.

So, instead of: never judge a person until you have walked in his moccasins for a mile, one may want to rephrase it.

Never judge a person's beliefs (or intentions) until you have analyzed his behaviour (and even then you could be wrong)

on life

Life! Don't talk to me about life!
-Marvin, the paranoid android, in Douglas Adams' Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy

Marvin is a robot, the first one to be given a human personality (GPP - Genuine People Personality). It is no wonder that he does not think very highly of life, or of humans who are clearly intellectually inferior to him. He brings that out time and again in a series of equally tactless ways earning him the "middle name" paranoid.

Life, loathe it or ignore it, you can't like it.

I won't enjoy it.

Wearily on I go, pain and misery my only companions. And vast intelligence, of course. And infinite sorrow. I despise you all.

Despite that he is a lovable character. Or may be he is lovable because of that. He has summarized the very essence of life so beautifully! Often we are full of life, and then before we know something seeps it out of us. Life is proceeding smoothly and all of a sudden the rug gets pulled. If not today, tomorrow. But we experience this sentiment several times before physical life gets seeped out. Poor Marvin, he stands no such chance.

Life is what we make of it.

on understanding nonsense

I could not trust one who could understand nonsense
-Nessus, the puppeteer, in Larry Niven's Ringworld

Nessus says this when Luis says that he does not believe in telepathy or some such superstition. Puppeteer's are ultimate cowards surviving due solely to their survival instincts. How right he is about trust and its dependence on one's ability to believe nonsense (or put otherwise, ones gullibility).

There are so many of us who learn one thing in books, use it to earn daily bread and then get out of the workplace and trust all kinds of rubbish without, for a moment, using the principles learnt and trying to test the truth in the rubbish (thanks for this angle Anu).

Unfortunately, it is the deceivers who are learning the scientific lingo and using it in a very subtle manner to in fact make the gullible believe that what they are being told is science (sometimes ancient, and sometimes even timeless).

It is important especially for the young amongst us to see where they take this world.

Keep your mind open, but also your eyes, and think things for yourselves