Book: 20220908 to 20221230, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" by Richard Feynman

20220908 - Part 1 From Far Rockaway to MIT

20220908 - He Fixes Radios by Thinking!

The external world (such as the radio) is actually the imaginary world in our mind. Curiosity and persistence are the keys to move forward. This is similar to the motorcycle in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", and "Allegory of the Cave" from Plato.

20220914 - String Beans

Innovation is a very difficult thing in the real world. Normally there is no room for improvement, and people don't like changes.

Is this the reason that some companies win in competition?

20220913 - Who Stole the Door?

What does folloing the first principle mean? Keep your mind open. Don't preassume anything, such as good or bad, honest or lying, etc.

Can I get along with deaf and dumb people? I doubt it. But what's wrong about them? Nothing. It's my perception/meme is wrong. Maybe, it's because we rely on our subconscious too much. We cannot think about things carefully.

20220922 - Latin or Italian?

Language is in charged by our subconsciou. So normally we don't need to pay attention. But if there is some "fake" language, it may fool us easily. People just don't have courage or humor to joke around.

20220922 - Always trying to escape

It's not really "escape", but more about connection and association. Feynman can connect almost anything together. It makes sense.

The dream analysis comply with what Buddha said, 

20220922 - The chief research chemist of the metaplast corporation

Innovation didn't stop after the Great Depression. But, without the help of computers and Internet, information were not spead to normal people.

It's hard to realize how hard some work is, unless we compare it with similar ones done by others.

20220928 - Part 2 The Princeton Years

"Surely you'are joking, Mr. Feynman!"

It's important to learn what the rest of the world is like. Can we just learn that through books?

Scientists should know engineering and build their own instruments. That can improve the productivity drastically.

20220928 - Meeeeeeeeeee!

Like the song "Like a Rolling Stone" from Bob Dylan, we should try our best to catch every possible oppotunities to experience our lives. There is not to be ashamed if we are embarrassed or failed, it's just experience.

Hypnosis is real. How does it affect our subconscious and conscious?

In USA, universities are similar to the teams in NBA. They compete with each other to create great archivements. Interesting.

20220929 - A map of the cat?

"you do? Then no wonder I can catch up with you so fast after you've had four years of biology." p85

How much knowledge we learned in school is useless? Is it really necessary to memorize so much details?

Experiencing new field is much better than experiencing new place. It surely needs much more effort, but that means more understanding and more memory.

20220929 - Monster Minds

What would I do if I need to do a presentation in front of Von Neumann and Einstein? Let's say software development. Can I keep calm?

It must be similar to a kindergarten child present a story in front of many adults. There is nothing to be ashamed of. Good experience.

20220929 - Mixing Paints

How much should we trust authority? When should we apply the first principle to verify some opinion?

The more we learn, the less we trust authority, and the less we need to verify some opinion. But our perception is always full of errors, the world is full of surprise.

20220929 - A Different Box of Tools

Our IQ and luck are similar, but we have different tools. The one with better tools can go further.

To some extend, reading is preparing more tools in our subconscious, I think.

20220929 - Mindreaders

Science is the code we use to read the mind of the nature.

20220929 - The amateur scientist

Different species of ants have different capability. They are just cells belong to the same organism.

There are so many things we don't know. If we have open mind, be curious, and pay attention, then life is marvelous.

20221008 - Part 3 Feynman, the Bomb, and the Military

20221008 - Fizzled Fuses

The difference between theory and reality is huge. That's why we need to build prototype quickly.

What can AGI do? It can build prototypes in its mind at extremely fast speed.......This is going to shock the world.

If new chip version is developed every 4 years, in 15 years we are going to get Tesla D5. How fast it would be? How smart will Tesla optimus be? Robots can build real protype to verify the prototype in simulation world, day and night. Thrilling!

20221008 - Testing Bloodhounds

Any knowledge we learned from books, should be verified or practice in daily life. Is that the reason that Mr. Feynman has such good memory?

Our lives will be more fun, at least.

20221009 - Los Alamos From Below

When smartest people team up, they really can make miracle.

Von Neumann gave me an interesting idea: that you don't have to be responsible for the world that you'are in. p154

We surely should keep doing something to create value for this world, but if it doesn't go well, we don't really need to take responsible for the result.

If a soldier doesn't want to become a general/leader, can he still be a good soldier? The question is much eaiser to solve if we think about it based on larger scale: if there are 1000 soldiers, and none of them want to become a leader, can they still be good soldiers? The difference is clear. A soldier acts on his own initiative if he wants to be leader. In general , that's much better than only act passively.

It's same to our lives. Our lives are much more wonderful when we act on our own initiative. We should not just wait for changes from the arrangement of fate. We should do something to change it.

20221025 - Safecracker meets safecracker

The strength of a chain is limited to that of the weakest link in the chain.

What's the weakest link in the chain for two factor authentication? I guess it's Software TOTP Tokens, although Geolocation check helps a lot.

https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/cheatsheets/Multifactor_Authentication_Cheat_Sheet.html

Hardware U2F Tokens is much better but expensive.

20221025 - Uncle Sam doesn't want you!

Psychiatric disagnosis is tricky. Maybe, someone with really high IQ always look abnormal.

20221103 - Part 4 From Cornell to Caltech, With a Touch of Brazil

20221103 - The dignified professor

Manhattan Project is a bit like the current Tesla and SpaceX. Everyone works very, very hard; and everything was finished at the last minute. People worked for Manhattan Project are trying their best to save their country, including their families and themselves. People work for Tesla and SpaceX are working so hard for what?

Where do inspirations come from? We need to keep our brain busy in positive activities, instead of wasting time. Read is good, discussion is better.

"You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish." p199

What's the meaning of life? It's attention. My own attention. No, actually, attention is life itself, not the meaning of it. What's the meaning of the life of a wild animal? We should stop searching for meaning for everything.

Think ahead, think hard. Finally I start to understand "think ahead". We should always think about what we are going to do next.

20221103 - Any Questions?

Maybe Mr Feynman's subconsciousness knew that was the last time he stayed in that bar, so want to do something abnormal.

It's dangerous and not wise. Anyway, he was lucky. Geniuses also need luck to live for long time. They really keep trying abnormal things.

20221103 - I want my dollar!

Patent is tricky, and sometimes it's a more like a joke. Can we patent some thoughts? That's stupid.

Only patent which was or would be turned into product or service should be allowed to patent.

20221104 - You just ask them?

"The Game" has been put into one chapter!

What's the best way to beat this PUA? Slow down, and think about it.

The reason that we fall into this trap is because we let subconsciousness control our body.

20221109 - Lucky Numbers

There are some tricky way to do arithmetic calculation quickly, but normally we need to memorize something in advance. Is that useful to normal daily activities? I think so. We can verify the calculation result quickly, which can reduce accident errors.

And it's fun.

20221110 - O Americano, outra vez!

Everything was entirely memorized, yet nothing had been translated into meaningful words. p243

Whenever learned something, we should think about it this way: how could this knowledge be utilized in real world?

It's not just about the education in school. All reading has the same problem. We need to reach level 4 reading.

20221110 - Man of thousand tongues

20221110 - Certainly, Mr. Big!

I think, in high IQ person's eyes, the world is a maze full of games.

Lucky number is wishful thinking. We can bet it is going to work, or bet it's not going to work. For the former, it's more like the Black Swans. No matter what, don't put too high stake in high risk bet, or we would be knock out soon.

SP500 index fund is a better choice than betting the Black Swans.

20221110 - An offer you must refuse

What's the top priority when we face hard choices? Sometimes we just pick up one, such as chocolate icecream as dessert, and don't think it over. Sometimes we have to consider it carefully. What is really the most important factor? Normally it's not money.

We need to fulfill our time. So we can fulfill our lives. That could be the most important factor to everyone.

20221116 - Part 5 The World of One Physicist

20221116 - Would you solve the dirac equation?

Use typical examples to understand general theory is effective. This is also recommended by Elon Musk: we should associate theory with practical examples.

The politeness in Japanese language is annoying. Maybe Japanese put too much effort on observing other people's feeling.

20221117 - The 7 percent solution

Can we stop relying on other people's opinion? We don't have time to verify all theories, but at least we can keep our mind open, and be patient to hear other people's different/annoying opinions.

For example, I don't agree with a lot of content in book "The End of the World is just the Beginning", but I can keep that in mind, and wait for further opportunities to prove those are correct or incorrect.

20221117 - Thirteen Times

Bureaucracy was already a serious problem in 1970s in US. From government point of view, what's the best solution to solve the problem? I guess, simplify the law system.

20221117 - It sounds Greek to me!

There is quite often some rules/patterns hiding under the surface. They tells us how to solve problems.

We just need to keep calm (don't panic!), then think about it instead of following our subconsciousness.

20221124 - But is it art?

Mr Feynman is curious about art, but he didn't have passion and enthusiasm about it. However, he was willing to practice a lot of to satisfy his curiosity.

Science focus on details. Art focus on the general perception. To some extent, art is about our subconsciousness.

Longivity is a bit like money. If someone can live up to 110 or be a billionaire, people would admire them. But the real important part is the quality of their life. How do they spend their time? That's about "quality"("Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert M. Pirsig).

From this point of view, I need to read 10 times faster, and ignore all distractions.

20221124 - Is electricity fire?

They weren't interested in the world outside, in natural phenomena; they were only interested in resolvin some question brought up in the Talmud. p325

If Mr Feynman could not convince those religious people, most likely I cannot do it either. We cannot use details to beat general conception (many years of mind training). Why did people change their mind and believe that the earth is not flat? Because they got educated when they were young. Old people don't change their mind, they just die out.

20221125 - Judging books by their covers

"Everything goes because the sun is shining." p337

Why did Mr. Feynman succeed? He had a good father, so he got good environment(including formal education) and maybe good gene.

Should we provide receipt and invoice for reimbursement? Not everyone is honest, but it's not bad to make some exceptions for respectable people.

Bribery, corruption and bureaucracy are everywhere. Less in developed countries, but they are inevitable.

20221128 - Alfred Nobel's other mistake

Nobel prize is meme now. The winners are treated icons.

People use narratives to explain whatever they see. When they see a Nobel prize winner, they see an icon instead of a person with great achievement.

Royal members are boring.

How Japan had risen so quickly? Education is surely only one of the reasons.

20221129 - Bringing culture to the physicists

Puzzles means something waiting for us to explorer.

How about errors in ancient documents? It's tricky. We need to get rid of narratives to verify theories.

20221129 - Found out in Paris

Are the people today have similar activities as before Internet and Smartphone?

How is it possible to keep passion with so many things?

To get into top 5% is possible to anyone in a few years. But it needs talent and many years of hard study and training to get into top 1%.

20221129 - Altered states

Hallucination is a bit like lucid dream, but we have more control in it. Can we see it in meditation? Possible. But that doesn't help meditating.

I believe hallucination partly belongs to our subconscious.

20221129 - Cargo Cult Science

Great scientists are very serious about their work, but they are always looking for fun in their daily lives.

Everyone should do that.

Ourselves are the easiest to be cheated on. How? We are almost always affected by narratives. Narratives are the opposite of the first principle.