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Great video...atleast it wasnt full of Elon Musk references lol. Browsing this channel would make it appear VERY Musk centric. Definitely believe its Musk backed. Vids about many things on this channel reference Musk, even vids where he's not in title. WTH! lol. Too much... or change channel name to "Muskthink". Just pointing this out because your media is so well done.. do you really need to lean on Musk this much? No. Are you backed by him? Seriously
@@Newsthink Einstein, Newton, Dirac, Schrodinger, James Clerk Maxwell, and Boltzmann were all amazing individuals. Any biography on them would be great.
According to his own account in "You Must Be...." he was seducing Vegas showgirls while his wife was in the hospital-- not saying I would not do the same, unfortunately
It was not just IQ. Feynman had an insane physics intuition. That means he could tell if an idea is right before he did any calculations. It worked even for mathematical theorems as long as he could imagine a physical model to understand it. Allegedly he was never wrong.
@@lynncomstock1255 Oh, it is extremely important in physics. Especially knowing which processes are plausible before even starting to derive the formulas.
He was wrong at least once and wrote so himself: He got the order of the rainbow colours wrong in one oral exam. The examiners did believe him though, he explained it so well that he passed with flying colours. He was also good at bluffing. Of course, that story may have been a bluff too. He was somewhat vain. And a ladies man too. Or so I heard. Could be worse.
@@pardellux7301 I had the same problem with rainbows because the color sequence is inverse comparing to a prism. I think this is because every photon is reflected twice in a droplet before becoming part of the rainbow.
I'm so so happy there's interviews and videos of him to watch on the internet. I wish I could've met him but at least there's videos to revisit every now and then, listening to him talk just brings me so much peace and comfort. He had a great way of explaining things.
A correction: Feynman worked on the Manhattan project throughout WWII, and did not leave Los Alamos until October of 1945. He was of draft age, but there was no mechanism for the ultra-secret Manhattan project to reach down to Feynman's draft board and tell them that he was engaged in war work too important to be drafted, and indeed this might have been a security breach. Feynman's superiors in the Manhattan project suggested to him that the best solution would be for him to fail the draft physical --- he was, essentially, ordered to do it, and he proceeded to make himself out to be a 4F nutcase. The "IQ of 125" is just nonsense. At that time, IQ tests were given to all children in public school in New York City, but those tests had a very limited number of difficult questions and were not capable of measuring IQs more than 3 sigma from the mean. Feynman may have been assigned an IQ of 125 at one point, but the tests were not capable of measuring substantially higher scores. Feynman's sister was assigned a slightly higher score in her year; this became a family joke and tease, and is why this "fact" was remembered. In high school he won the NYU Math Championship and in college he aced the Putnam exam, indications that he was among the very most intelligent and capable students in the entire country. Feynman did not have to boast about his brilliance, it was obvious in his contributions. He could happily talk with people less brilliant than himself, but he had little patience with intellectual show-offs. He told many self-deprecating stories about his own self-perceived intellectual shortcomings, often told to students as parables about how to approach intellectual problems. One of the most remarkable things he did was his informal "Physics X" seminar given in the evenings at Caltech. Feynman would stand in the front of a physics lecture hall with only a piece of chalk in his hand, and would take any question from anyone who came --- questions from "why is the sky blue?" to "what is the cross-section of a Kerr black hole to electromagnetic radiation in the long-wavelength approximation?" He would attempt an answer using only the knowledge in his head (he claimed he only could remember first principles), and would work out the math on the blackboard, using his own private math symbology. It was astonishing.
There is also something else about IQ tests and intellegence. There are people you would call stupid but they have a talent to do some things extreamly well. I believe it is more that people have more or less the same intelligence but it may be directed in a very small direction or be spread out widely. Some so called intelleget people might not know how to fix a dripping tap or replace a wheel on a car. One of the biggest assets one can have is the capability and willingness to learn. One should never stop learning. Curiosity is also helpfull.
@@leonhardtkristensen4093 people do not at all or even have close to the same intelligence. intelligence tests have limits. But smart is smart and not is not. To be good at a single skill does not make a person smart… G or general intelligence that assesses , processes and makes use of new information is. Many tests like the IQ test are not quite accurate especially at the high end Feynman could be an outlier. But that does not make everyone outliers.
@@MikAnimal It has been my experience through life that people that appear to be very intellegent come from families that are wealthier and better educated. I believe that has a lot to do with that they have been surrounded with knowledge right from when they where born and are self confident. Allthough there could be a genetic inheritance there I do actually believe it is more their surroundings that makes them appear smart. There is no doubt that there are some people that are really oustanding but I do believe that is a very small minority. It has also been my experience that there are people that are really very good in their field but then do not know much about a lot of other things. It is also my experience that many people make them self appear to be better than they really are. In many ways I aggree with what you say. I just wouldn't say that smart is smart and not is not because in my experience that often depends on what a person has experienced. Interest also has a big influence on what people learn. Some people could easily learn some thing but just don't want to. To not want to learn is really dum in my oppinion but of cause nobody can know every thing. If a person doesn't have a formal education doesn't mean that they don't know what they are talking about. I have met quite a fev people that knew what they where talking about but didn't have papers to proove it. Personally I consider my self to be average. I went through my studies in a way that only ever 10% of the people that attempted it that way did it without failing and I didn't fail but I started as the best in the class and ended up as the worst. Most of the rest did it an easier way. I would have been better of failing a year but I could not afford continuing. My biggest problem is that I am not good at selling. I have come to believe that for being successful in life one must be a good salesman. One must be able to sell ones good points and strength and there I have failed myself. I am not bad of and compared to others I can't complain but I do believe I could have achived more. That comes from that I have been insecure right from childhood. Not insecure in the way of security but in approaching other people.
@@leonhardtkristensen4093 80 percent of intelligence is genetic. That is why it collects in families. Weather that be wealth and or associated mental illness.
It's just my opinion but I think math requires talent as well. My mother is naturally good at math despite no proper education and hard life growing up. While my sister is weak at math. We all know it and she admits it as well. I used to believe that math is for everyone, you just need a good environment but lately, upon knowing mor people. I realized that math are also for those who talent for it. Just my opinion though based on my experience
@@jehugz yup, just my thoughts. But I'm proud of what you achieved! I guess i still need to consider that some who are hardworkding could still excel at math especially specialized ones like calculus
@@jehugz To be fair intro level calculus isn’t especially challenging the in the first place. I think “being good at math” means being good at real analysis etc.
Nobody else could make sense of, doubt he made any progress, there were teams of researchers working on it since the 19th century, they all used the wrong method, it was until 1952 where yuri knorozov published his findings that people were able to start deciphering it. Stop spreading false information
I cracked some old Mayan code that I found in a box of recipes that I had purchased from Salvation Army for .50 cents. When I saw that ancient Mayan code I was so excited. We hoped in the car and started driving to a local middle school to talk with some very intelligent teachers that I thought could help me. But while sitting at a traffic light I was looking at the ancient code and it just started making sense to me. So I just went home🦯
He was one of the brightest minds America had at the time. The guy worked with Oppenheimer. The things he solved are still used today in classrooms and lecture halls. He was no ordinary man.
I believe his I.Q was much higher than 125. The early astronauts had I.Q.s averaging about 135. Some were Ph.Ds., like Dr. Rendezvous (Buzz Aldrin). But Feyman seemed well above them IMO.
@@daffidavit It's really wrong to think that to be an astronaut you need to be a genius when it's not. What they really ask for is for lots of studies that an average person with dedication and other requirements can get and we're not sure if Feyman was telling the truth about his iq and is he said so why can't we believe him? There are so many people that have score really higher and do nothing with their "intelligence". Either iq is not important anymore to measure intelligence overall or what makes someone achieve greater things is another thing like dedication, passion, discipline, contacts, good environment, money, being in the exact moment, time, with the right people, being creative, luck, etc. And I think this are the factor that make people successful more than intelligence. How many kids aren't scoring more than Albert Einstein and yet get nowhere? I think we should contemplate more this topic that we don't fully understand.
Faynman's textbooks were so different; they were distinguished by his humor and also the acknowledgment that he might not understand something. Can you imagine a textbook writer writing something like this? He stimulated thinking about what it means to "understand" something in quantum mechanics. Without going into details and although it may sound strange, his perspective helped me gain confidence in my studies. RIP dear professor.
if feynman weren't famous, his textbook would not be sold due to him admitting that he might not understand something. people only buys from you if they believe you know everything. admitting that you don't know something when you're not known to the world is a career ending move
Absolutely, and as you eluded to, he was the first to admit that he probably doesn't know everything (he didn't have to, he would figure out the rest) but encouraged others to learn with that constant question that there was more to learn.
Up there ! With Alexander Hamilton, Franklin, George W. Carver, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and many more of a very very very small collection of GREATS.
@@calicoesblue4703 Hear! Hear! Feynman is up there with Tesla, not down there with Edison. (I'm not talking about Heaven and Hell, although that could apply as well...Edison was not a very nice man, witness his friendship with the racist Henry Ford and also his treatment of Tesla.
Feynman is one of my inspirators in physics and it is humbling but also quite frustrating to hear someone like that call themselves ordinary. It definitely makes me feel a lot less than ordinary.
Yea geniuses calling themselves ordinary is like steroid users pretending to be natural lmao. Like AnyBoDy CoulD dO thIs JuSt nEeD HaRd WorK. So frustrating to me they do it as a sort of self defense mechanism so people can't write off their accomplishments because they had an advantage.
@@Laocoon283 You aren't taking into account that it is exactly because they are so gifted that it doesn't register that it could be hard for others to attain. Yes they worked hard, extremely so, so they think anyone can accomplish the same results.
@@78tag meaning... ordinary in every sense of the word. Sometimes, I feel like I either need to explain everything, when its obvious or repeat myself for no reason, which in itself, is pretty ordinary. There you go! Usage example even.
This is an excellent video overall. I find it hilarious to think that Feynman’s self-reported IQ of 125 might have been accurate, though. (The number appears in James Gleick’s biography of Feynman, but the citation indicates that Feynman himself was the source.) Among many other data points, as a senior at MIT Feynman got the highest score on the Putnam Competition math exam. This indicates mathematical ability of around 5-7 standard deviations above the mean, the IQ equivalent of 175-205. Even if his verbal IQ was only 125 (doubtful), on a professional-grade, high-normed IQ test Feynman would probably have scored something like 160-190. It might sound nice and humble to take an attitude like “I’m just an ordinary guy who was curious and worked hard”, but when you think about it there’s an unintentional cruelty in it. I used to tutor students at Caltech who were in danger of failing the Physics Core curriculum despite working as hard as they could. Imagine telling such students that “there’s no miracle, just be curious and study hard!” No one disputes that hard work is necessary to understand, say, quantum mechanics, but it’s definitely not sufficient, at least not for an “ordinary” person. Alas, we can’t all be Feynman!
There are a lot of popular IQ tests out there, that probably aren't very accurate. I don't put any stock in that test at all (it was probably on a cereal box). Anyway, he's famous for his math abilities, especially his creativity in math and physics.
I don't think IQ test are the most viable way to determine the quality of a physicist. It's really more about visualisation (hence, spatial reprensentation) to understand and imagination to create. I would say the students you're talking about would've have been far better off watching some visual representation of what an identity in a vector space says, than studying 5 hours a day the rigourous proofs mathematicians are required to understand to prove certain advanced identities, for instance... I believe IQ is about helping you understand faster, for you pick up on the patterns better, not a requirement to see it
Maybe. The science of genetics... especially of the mind is not what you think. For example it's very possible for someone to develope eidetic memory in specific taskings. So it's quite possible that it can be extended to general usage.
Yes, you are talking complete devotion there. Have you read the stories about their communications while he was in the "project" and she was in the hospital ? Very interesting look at the two of them.
11:44 the Challenger hearing was more complex than Feynman "making a discovery". He had been recruited expressly because he could say out loud (in the hearing) what many engineers had known for a long time. He was a great sport about this and it was absolutely pivotal to getting the truth out, but it wasn't his own research or investigation.
Exactly. The engineers knew the problem existed before the launch and advised NASA not to launch. When I hear glossy generalizations like in this video I typically want to turn it off. But how many viewers have the background knowledge to make that assessment? They come to these channels for the knowledge. Videos like this inspire me to scour the comments for corrections like yours, just to make sure I'm getting accurate information.
@@nidurnevets IIRC it was a NASA scientist who had Feynman over for dinner. He took him to the garage where he had a carburetor on the workbench. He remarked to Feynman that it didn't work properly if it was cold out. "Why do you think that is ?"
Don't forget that Ronald Reagan was President at the time and was counseled to call off the launch as a precaution, but *he insisted* it go on - for the PUBLICITY VALUE!! Well, he certainly got his wish in that regard...
There may be better scientists, more intelligent scientists, more accomplished scientists, more famous scientists, but his down to earth personality, his sense of fun, his manner, his humility, his humor and his scientific honesty make him my favorite scientist.
There are tens of thousands of scientists in the world, if not a hundred thousand, so to be awarded with the Nobel prize signifies being on a far higher level than the top 1 percent. Here is what a mathematician, Mark Kac, said about him: "In science, as well as in other fields of human endeavor, there are two kinds of geniuses: the “ordinary” and the “magicians.” An ordinary genius is a fellow that you and I would be just as good as, if we were only many times better. There is no mystery as to how his mind works. Once we understand what he has done, we feel certain that we, too, could have done it. It is different with the magicians. They are, to use mathematical jargon, in the orthogonal complement of where we are and the working of their minds is for all intents and purposes incomprehensible. Even after we understand what they have done, the process by which they have done it is completely dark. They seldom, if ever, have students because they cannot be emulated and it must be terribly frustrating for a brilliant young mind to cope with the mysterious ways in which the magician’s mind works. Richard Feynman is a magician of the highest caliber. Hans Bethe, whom [Freeman] Dyson considers to be his teacher, is an “ordinary genius,”.
Remember the Nobel Prize community gave the Nobel Prize to Einstein for his explanation of the photoelectric effect and not for his discovery of the general relativity
Richard Feynman was one of the rare scientists who was incredibly curious, funny, and yet a very very deep thinker. We loved the Feynman Lecture series in college as it was considered the bible for a deep understanding of physics based on the fundamentals. He was revered as a great teacher when I was in college back in the mid 60ties.
I've heard, that if you were in one of his classes, it was one of most important part of your entire studies. He left a mark on everyone he encountered.
Feynman's case is unusual because it has far more to do with his upbringing. Feynman's father was a real rebel. He made uniforms for the military and yet criticized the whole system of military rank and authority. He shared this with his son and it left Richard Feynman with a lifetime belief in questioning authority. There were probably lots of people who were as academically brilliant as Feynman, but few of them risked disagreeing with the group's orthodoxy. In a sense, he was like Einstein or Tesla, but for different reasons.
The reason he could disagree with authority so freely is that he was right a lot. It's not just an independent spirit, but seeing errors. Almost pure IQ.
I think you're partially correct but Feynman himself wrote how respected senior military figures who had to make life-or-death decisions quickly. He certainly rebelled against empty authority based on meaningless rule-following but he respected real authority when it was wielded wisely.
Your interpretation is great but it leaves out his limitless ability look at everything from a unique and cheerful point of view. He loved being an observer of nature while being a part of it. He just had a different understand of things.
@@78tag Not my personal interpretation. Actually, his own words from at least a couple of documentaries (which I believe you can find on TH-cam). He also spoke of what you mention. Also a product of his upbringing. Personally, the former quality is what I see as pivotal. Lots of brilliant freethinkers in the world, especially in wartime. Few are willing to defy the power structure to do it.
I was so much waiting for an episode on Feynman. Could you do an episode on Ludwig Boltzmann or Max Planck, please? I think they are very underrated and less known scientific figures in physics who made significant contributions in the field. I greatly appreciate your channel and its contents.
Max Planck? If you've studied a little bit of physics you should instantly be able to recognize the name. Schiwinger and Boltzmann I understand, BUT PLANCK?
i hate people who think they can bring hope through lies. how the hell is an IQ of 125, ordinary? you're right about him being extraordinary and humble but i don't like that just because mensa doesn't accept people with his IQ, it automatically means he's an ordinary person. what kind of logic is this?
@@Dave_of_Mordora person with a 125 iq couldn’t even grasp what Feynman made light work of. The average iq for a person with a bachelors in math is 120-135. The bright ones who take the Putnam exam have a median score of 0. Feynman got the highest score in the country by a large margin and prepared the least on the MIT team.
This was beautifully rendered. I read a couple of Feynman biographies, and adjacent works, so I only know enough to be dangerous. But I didn’t expect a 15-minute video to capture him in such exquisite detail. Very well done, much appreciated.
IQ Tests are very limited. As a child I scored really high on all types of tests with math or text, but was not very good at the ones with visual puzzles to solve. This was a beautiful story, even though I knew a lot about it, the flowers was my favorite part.
Yes, I.Q. tests are justifiably controversial. A specific mental capability may be measured with broadly meaningful accuracy, but I suspect general intelligence encompasses such a diverse array of innate abilities and learned skills that its measurement is a much more pretentious exercise.
@@fred_2021 IQ scores also assume that you were raised in a particular environment, with exposure to the same things. Some people may have had plenty of practice doing a particular task, others may not.
@@ZahidHasan-ri9tk I doubt if Feynman ever really took an IQ test. The truly intelligent don't join Mensa. They have no need to pay $79 a year to show how clever they are. I worked at a university. It always amused me that administrators always listed more qualifications on their email signatures than the academics.
but he's not an ordinary man! everyone needs to stop with this bs. just because you disagree with IQ doesn't mean it's not a part of the reason why he's successful in his field
"Please excuse my not mailing this - but I don't know your new address." Thank you for reminding me of this quote from Feynman. It's one of my favourite quotes ever that I had kind of forgot during my last few years of battling depression.
One of the NASA engineers tried to bring up the O ring issue many times, even having nightmares about it if I remember correctly. So Feynman basically just repeated what that guy and others had already been saying
I don't miss an episode because like today I always learn so much. However today was different in that you made me tear up when you read the letter to his wife. He was exceptional if for no other reason than to have such a rich Love for his wife and being able to express that Love in such an elegant way. Thank you so much.
Yeah Feynmann was a special one. His “iq” is not in the state so called “genius” but his mind is so fun and full of passion and love. His imagination, visualizaion, and understanding of concepts in a fun and comprehendable way was unmatched.
I have admired Richard, from the time I came across his books and lecture notes when I was in the 1960’s. What an amazing person and teacher he was then and still is in his works that are available in libraries and online.
Regarding Feynman's discovering the "O" ring failure. By his own account, he was told the cause in the same 'phone call inviting him to join the investigation into the failure. Also, he found that those people on the shop floor understood the risk of failure but as the the hierarchal importance of an individual increased their appreciation of the risk decreased. The launch occurred in spite of a written notice to not launch at temperatures less than 52ºF because the "O" ring would fail.
Richard died in 88 and I was born in 84 and didn’t know about him till the breaking into safes, and I loved his curiosity, I watched so much videos as I can of Richard Feynman. One of my hero’s
Just want to let you know that every video you create is so compelling and clear. I love the format and clear narratives. You’re on to something great here!
My business partner had Richard as his math professor and told me many stories about him. This is a 😮favorite he would walk in the hallway reading a book and with his other hand he would rub against the wall and count the doors so he knew when he was his classroom. If a door was open he would walk into the room circle the periphery and walk out the door and continue down the hall never paying attention to what he did and never lifting his eyes off the book.
i've always adored his modesty and his dedication to inspiring kids to study difficult subjects, but at no point in time was richard feinman ever an "ordinary man".
"You have to do the best with what God gave you." Mrs Gump. And Richard Feynman did ... to an amazing degree. I love people that are mentally alive and have INSATIABLE curiosity ...
Two close friends of mine studied at Caltech with Richard Feynman. Both of them became physicists after earning their doctorates. I envied them tremendously! Fortunately, in 2011, I became very well acquainted with Murray Gell-Mann at the Santa Fe Institute. Gell-Mann had an office just two rooms down the hall from Feynman at Caltech. Both of them were incontrovertibly brilliant.
Dear students, from formal to self-education, there is a tremendous amount of discussion in the comment section about IQ and the ability to grasp certain concepts. I have tutored countless students in college-level physics, from electromagnetism to quantum, and I would like to add my experience. Some of my students struggled greatly with physics to the brink of failure. Had I attributed the ability to learn the subject to a specific IQ threshold, like some of my colleagues, I'd have sunk them. Instead, I tweaked my teaching methods or tried different approaches. I saw a significant turnaround in all of my student's understanding. This led me to acknowledge that intelligence had little to no weight (barring a disability), and finding the proper method that resonates with a particular student is the key. There is such a thing as raw intelligence. However, it does not determine one's ability to grasp a subject, only possibly the rate at which one learns it. If you struggle, try a different source or method. Your tenacity and willingness to try other processes matter most. "You just keep pushing. You just keep pushing. I made every mistake that could be made. But I just kept pushing." -Rene Descartes
Anyone who judges him when it comes to his post love life needs to keep in mind that the half of those relationships had reasons for their choices also.
Feynman won the Putnam competition in college. Not an ordinary person by any means. He would not have been invited to study at Princeton or brought onto the Manhattan project if he were merely ordinary. He would have been drafted and fighting like most other young men at the time. An outstanding person, and it’s a gift that we have so many recordings from his lifetime, unlike many other great minds just a generation earlier.
@@genesis8813 I'm afraid this is not true, it's quite cruel to say it is. I study Physics, and I am with 100s of people who have aced every exam in their life, A*s in everything ever. Plenty of people with 130-140iq (out of 160iq standardized model that is), and work EXCEPTIONALLY hard. No partying. No socials. Just work. And most do not do that well. And that's just getting a degree, yet alone to do what he did. It takes an extremely gifted mind, alongside hard work, to do the things he did.
He is right…. Being extremely good at something it’s not for the special ones.. you just have to be curious and learn how to learn and that’s how you become good at anything, like really good. Anyone with enough will and consistency can achieve this. It is not genetic.
The notion that Richard Feynman had an IQ of only 125 is one of the most insane & completely unbelievable statements I've heard in my life. I'm a regular guy who has a Mathematics Degree - and while at University I met many, many smarter more naturally gifted humans - and I have an IQ of 140-145. Feynman is an absolutely renowned genius - his IQ would be way, way, way up there - close to 200-type stuff. If you told me it was 215 I would believe it.
@@leffersuckit2818 He is questioning based on his personal experience. I know where the 125 (actually, it was 120) came from. When Richard was in high school and wanting to become a physicist, it just so happened that the students were required to take an IQ test, but they were not given the results. Richard just had to know, so he broke into the school one night and found his results. I was 120, a rock bottom number to become a physicist. Fortunately, he was not dissuaded. The rest is history. After he won the Nobel Prize, he used to joke that he was not so proud that he won a Nobel, but that he won it with only an IQ of 120! I doubt Richard thought his IQ was really 120.
@@leffersuckit2818 Didn’t RP say that his school tested his IQ at 125? You appear to have interpreted that as “His IQ WAS 125.” Go with the school test if you like, but don’t expect anyone else to take that more seriously than the fact he invented two new branches of physics, and enjoyed intellectually sparring and problem solving with the brightest and the best mathematicians of his generation at MIT.
Studied hard and enjoyed indulging his insatiable curiousity. I loved his 2 volume biography 'Surely you must be joking Mr Feyman' and 'What do you care what people think'. A lovely man.
You missed some of his greatest achievements. Feynman created the third (and arguably most useful) representation of quantum mechanics (the original two were by Schrodinger and Heisenberg). He made those cute Feynman diagrams that everybody uses for quantum field calculations. And he finally solved the long running controversy whether gravitational waves can be detected at all (even Einstein was not sure about it). In his style, he imagined them travel through space filled with rigid beads in a sticky fluid. It turned out gravitational will exert work on them while moving them which proved they can have real physical effect and thus be detectable.
For generations to come, there will not be another person like Richard who continues to be an inspiration for budding scientists. He is one in 10 billion to have walked this very earth - I am so happy that there are videos of him - wish there were many.
The plate thing had to do with the wobble of the plate vs the spin of the plate (observable by looking at the Cornell stamp on the bottom of the plate). This helped along the way to altering the equation for electrons, by adding a relativistic spin correction.
@@tens0r884 Hi Tens0r... I'm just this guy. ps Hans Bethe Babes initially thought Feynman was wasting his time with 'trivial' physics, but eventually changed his mind completely. ("You have my permission to call me Bethe Babes, but NEVER in my presence." Bethe Babes was so cool.)
His presentation to a group looking for the reason for the shuttle disaster was an epic moment. This country was heartbroken over the death of these brave individuals and he nailed the reason for the failure. What a wonderful brave intellect he was.
He is not a genius because he is a wizard. Here is a quote “There are two kinds of geniuses: the ‘ordinary’ and the ‘magicians’....Richard Feynman is a magician of the highest caliber.” -Mark Kac
IQ scores don't measure creativity and creativity is arguably the most important form of intelligence when it comes to discovering profound new ideas and concepts that improve humanity. Therefore the "mystery" behind how a guy with a non high IQ score became a genius is easily explained by the fact that Richard Feynman had creativity in abundance.
You are right. Also it does not measure curiosity. And Curiosity, I believe , does force the mind to observe, question, study and evolve. So I think both creativity and curiosity are important factors while measuring intelligence.
Who knows what sort of "IQ test" that was. Feynman is so far above the ceiling of an ordinary IQ test (typically 145) that he can't see it from where he is. The Putnam is an extremely high-range IQ test that requires knowing a fairly small amount of mathematics to take a shot at it. (I suspect that knowing more math is helpful though.) He was the national high scorer on that test, twice!
Being a scientist, a really good one, even a revolutionary one, is not that big a deal. You need to be obsessed with your goal - that's it. I was the one with the IQ in my family, but my brother, with an IQ around Feinman's (mine's 18 points higher), is the one with the endowed professorship in his 40s, traveling the world, winning awards at his Ivy League university and elsewhere. He was more used to working toward his goals. I was used to things being easy. Maybe I didn't want it bad enough. I got my PhD easily enough, but I teach in a middle school. I do love my job though. 🙂
@@artichoke60045i feel like competitions like putnam requires a whole lot more practice than anything. I cant see myself knowing a topic immediately upon reading unless i can see where its used
I did a week workshop with him at Esalen Institute in the mid-1980s. I learned much that helped me immensely in life. One interesting thing was that the first night when people were asking questions somebody used the word "paradigm." He said no, don't use words like that, I like to stick with simple words, they're much easier to follow.
Thanks. Oddly enough I am going through "Surely you are joking Mr. Feynman" right now. It seems like the algorithms watching me were able to infer from my online purchase of the audio book that I would be interested in this particular video. I am thankful that it did.
I don't think Feymann's IQ was really 125. He tested once, probably didn't do it for serious or payed enough attention. If you read about his life, you can clearly see he was incredibly smart. Really Einstein level smart.
My God, I've been aware of this man for decades. How can you not love a person who is half genius and half...dude, I'm filled with child-like joy. I dance like no one's watching because I'm me. I'm delighted by everything. ...if only we were so lucky
Feynman was *far* from ordinary. Far, far from it. Hell I've made it into Mensa and score higher than something like 90% of Mensa members. IQ tests are a good measure of ... passing IQ tests. And I only took the Mensa test because I thought it would help me find a job somehow. Feyman was remarkable and I think more recognition should come to his father, who I feel really made him who he was. Feynman's life is a delightful rabbit hole to go into.
I have an iq of 121 but honestly got a few screws loose. I am a bit awkward - in social settings! And generally distracted like hell- can’t study for 20 mins with 100% focus. I find that ppl with lower iqs but superior social iqs generally perform much better in life. And it is not much investigated. There is more than one dimension to iq.
Dick Feynman was so beloved on campus. I arrived at Caltech in October 1985. I remember seeing him only once on campus...i was with several other grad students; he was some distance from us but smiled and waved, obviously accustomed to his celebrity.
Feynman is special exactly for the reasons he stated. You don’t need to be brilliant nor talented to accomplish what he did. Devoting the time and effort required to achieve those things is what you need. Not everyone is willing to do that, that’s what makes the difference. There’s also another thing that helped him. He figured out how to approach a problem when he was a kid and perfected it. He did it on a regular basis and enjoyed it. He was wired to be a scientist since he was a kid
He is an ordinary miracle; and that made him a real person with miraculous beauty, the type of beauty that kept spell bound long after his death. He is an unfinished novel that left an eternal urge among us, all the readers of it. Rest in peace, professor!
Well, 125 is the top 5 percent of the world, so, the most trivial conclusion would be that IQ scores are somewhat underestimated due to biases. There are people with scores of just slightly above 110 and have PhDs. Working hard helps in accomplishing a lot. I am not as talented and hard working as him and just barely passed Mensa's test. I am currently studying computer science (which consists of a lot of mathematics) and it is astonishing to realize how much he already knew before entering university and already studying at university. He wasn't a genius in terms of intelligence, but with insane work ethic, determination, focus and curiosity incredible feats are achievable (and of course some brains). In the end the most hard-working people win over people with talent, but with no intention of using it.
I'm the 1% of IQs and I can promise you.. IQ doesn't say shit. Intelligence is incredibly complicates, much more complicated than a simple test can measure. Richard Feynman may not have had an insanely high IQ, but he was definitely highly intelligent.
@@lukecockburn1140 Luke, he didn't specify which end of the 1% he was on..... Judging by the spelling and punctuation I have my assumptions. Btw, sorry about your brother Damien. He was in the 1% of directors.
I was a physics major at U of Md 1967-1971. Remember discovering and buying Feynman Lectures V1 & V2 - amazing stuff. Although, I was seduced by U of Md’s Univac 1108 and really never looked back, I still feel close to what physics gave me and my undergrad Feynman volumes which I still have.
Yeah.... I like Newsthink and Feynman is my favourite person all time by quite a margin, but his IQ was 100% higher than 125. Then again the reason he built this ordinary intellect persona was because the biggest limitation is not IQ, but the psychological limitations people impose on themselves. So fuck IQ, fuck pessimism, just go as deep as you can in whatever you love.
He might have begun as an ordinary kid.. but his interest, concentration,focus and hardwork raised his brain's capability to a high level.. He lived a long part of his life as a high level thinking capable individual
he was born with this level of intelligence. i'm not discrediting his interest, focus and hard work, but you need the IQ as high as his to get your foot in the door. to say iq has nothing to do with his success is insane
Feynman had an ordinary IQ for standard testing (his measured IQ = 125). However, he also had a unique IQ - I call it the Feynman IQ, which does not have standard testing.
Feynman is one of my favorite physicists...his personality, his intuition and his intellect stood out in the world of science and always will. The way in which he viewed physics and how he could change your perspective with his explanations to give you insight into understanding a concept, was purely amazing. How I would of loved to of been taught by Feynman on the workings of our universe...what an amazing mind and soul he had.
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Great video...atleast it wasnt full of Elon Musk references lol. Browsing this channel would make it appear VERY Musk centric. Definitely believe its Musk backed. Vids about many things on this channel reference Musk, even vids where he's not in title. WTH! lol. Too much... or change channel name to "Muskthink". Just pointing this out because your media is so well done.. do you really need to lean on Musk this much? No. Are you backed by him? Seriously
@@2kt2000 No, I'm not backed by them.
@@Newsthink Einstein, Newton, Dirac, Schrodinger, James Clerk Maxwell, and Boltzmann were all amazing individuals. Any biography on them would be great.
What is the name of the background music
Paul Dirac
That letter to his wife was heartbreaking man. Often forget the greatest minds also have hearts
I was wondering why no one was taking about this it is one of the saddest things I have ever seen
You can tell his wife's death really devastated him --- spent many years banging hookers just trying to find that intimate bond with a woman again
@@dminsanebros what was it ?
According to his own account in "You Must Be...." he was seducing Vegas showgirls while his wife was in the hospital-- not saying I would not do the same, unfortunately
@Kieran: NO and NO
It was not just IQ. Feynman had an insane physics intuition. That means he could tell if an idea is right before he did any calculations. It worked even for mathematical theorems as long as he could imagine a physical model to understand it. Allegedly he was never wrong.
Einstein credited his intuition above his logic.
@@lynncomstock1255 Oh, it is extremely important in physics. Especially knowing which processes are plausible before even starting to derive the formulas.
You're right. This is the Key.
He was wrong at least once and wrote so himself: He got the order of the rainbow colours wrong in one oral exam. The examiners did believe him though, he explained it so well that he passed with flying colours. He was also good at bluffing.
Of course, that story may have been a bluff too. He was somewhat vain. And a ladies man too. Or so I heard.
Could be worse.
@@pardellux7301 I had the same problem with rainbows because the color sequence is inverse comparing to a prism. I think this is because every photon is reflected twice in a droplet before becoming part of the rainbow.
Omg that letter to his wife is so touching
Doesn't know her new address
That letter was true to his character she deserved everything he expressed towards her.
That doesn't excuse him being terrible husband. I still appreciate his work tho it's fascinating
I'm so so happy there's interviews and videos of him to watch on the internet. I wish I could've met him but at least there's videos to revisit every now and then, listening to him talk just brings me so much peace and comfort. He had a great way of explaining things.
It sounds like you need to look up all the books about and by him. Every bit of it is interesting reading.
A correction: Feynman worked on the Manhattan project throughout WWII, and did not leave Los Alamos until October of 1945. He was of draft age, but there was no mechanism for the ultra-secret Manhattan project to reach down to Feynman's draft board and tell them that he was engaged in war work too important to be drafted, and indeed this might have been a security breach. Feynman's superiors in the Manhattan project suggested to him that the best solution would be for him to fail the draft physical --- he was, essentially, ordered to do it, and he proceeded to make himself out to be a 4F nutcase.
The "IQ of 125" is just nonsense. At that time, IQ tests were given to all children in public school in New York City, but those tests had a very limited number of difficult questions and were not capable of measuring IQs more than 3 sigma from the mean. Feynman may have been assigned an IQ of 125 at one point, but the tests were not capable of measuring substantially higher scores. Feynman's sister was assigned a slightly higher score in her year; this became a family joke and tease, and is why this "fact" was remembered. In high school he won the NYU Math Championship and in college he aced the Putnam exam, indications that he was among the very most intelligent and capable students in the entire country. Feynman did not have to boast about his brilliance, it was obvious in his contributions. He could happily talk with people less brilliant than himself, but he had little patience with intellectual show-offs. He told many self-deprecating stories about his own self-perceived intellectual shortcomings, often told to students as parables about how to approach intellectual problems.
One of the most remarkable things he did was his informal "Physics X" seminar given in the evenings at Caltech. Feynman would stand in the front of a physics lecture hall with only a piece of chalk in his hand, and would take any question from anyone who came --- questions from "why is the sky blue?" to "what is the cross-section of a Kerr black hole to electromagnetic radiation in the long-wavelength approximation?" He would attempt an answer using only the knowledge in his head (he claimed he only could remember first principles), and would work out the math on the blackboard, using his own private math symbology. It was astonishing.
First we guess...Lol except he was very good at guessing right...
He knew the first principles, but he could pick out the right principles, and all the consequences that followed from them. That's all.
Thank you for correcting that 125 IQ nonsense. The beginning of this video was so fatuous that I had to stop.
I really like your answer.
@@zombywoof1072 Lol iq has nothing to so with success. Many high iq people literally don't so anything in their life.
Anyone who thinks he had average IQ should read his book and they will see how incredibly smart and diverse his brain was. A true talent.
@104_Yash Raj Reddy surely you're joking Mr Feynman
There is also something else about IQ tests and intellegence. There are people you would call stupid but they have a talent to do some things extreamly well. I believe it is more that people have more or less the same intelligence but it may be directed in a very small direction or be spread out widely. Some so called intelleget people might not know how to fix a dripping tap or replace a wheel on a car. One of the biggest assets one can have is the capability and willingness to learn. One should never stop learning. Curiosity is also helpfull.
@@leonhardtkristensen4093 people do not at all or even have close to the same intelligence. intelligence tests have limits. But smart is smart and not is not. To be good at a single skill does not make a person smart… G or general intelligence that assesses , processes and makes use of new information is. Many tests like the IQ test are not quite accurate especially at the high end Feynman could be an outlier. But that does not make everyone outliers.
@@MikAnimal It has been my experience through life that people that appear to be very intellegent come from families that are wealthier and better educated. I believe that has a lot to do with that they have been surrounded with knowledge right from when they where born and are self confident. Allthough there could be a genetic inheritance there I do actually believe it is more their surroundings that makes them appear smart. There is no doubt that there are some people that are really oustanding but I do believe that is a very small minority.
It has also been my experience that there are people that are really very good in their field but then do not know much about a lot of other things. It is also my experience that many people make them self appear to be better than they really are.
In many ways I aggree with what you say. I just wouldn't say that smart is smart and not is not because in my experience that often depends on what a person has experienced. Interest also has a big influence on what people learn. Some people could easily learn some thing but just don't want to. To not want to learn is really dum in my oppinion but of cause nobody can know every thing.
If a person doesn't have a formal education doesn't mean that they don't know what they are talking about. I have met quite a fev people that knew what they where talking about but didn't have papers to proove it.
Personally I consider my self to be average. I went through my studies in a way that only ever 10% of the people that attempted it that way did it without failing and I didn't fail but I started as the best in the class and ended up as the worst. Most of the rest did it an easier way. I would have been better of failing a year but I could not afford continuing.
My biggest problem is that I am not good at selling. I have come to believe that for being successful in life one must be a good salesman. One must be able to sell ones good points and strength and there I have failed myself.
I am not bad of and compared to others I can't complain but I do believe I could have achived more. That comes from that I have been insecure right from childhood. Not insecure in the way of security but in approaching other people.
@@leonhardtkristensen4093 80 percent of intelligence is genetic. That is why it collects in families. Weather that be wealth and or associated mental illness.
I recently finished “Surely you're joking mr. feynman". It’s a great book that demonstrates his infinite curiosity and his eclectic interests.
Is "eclectic" a word? I'm not trying to make fun of you if it was a spelling error, I'm just curious if it's a word.
Great book! Read it a long time ago.
@@NRClips3414 you could always look it up.
@@leatherindian lol, why would I do that when I can get the same answer while not changing apps. Laziness? Maybe.
@@NRClips3414 it means like random and unrelated - if you liked rap, classical and country music, you would have eclectic tastes in music.
A man who is "especially gifted at math and physics" is no "ordinary man."
Actually there are no people who are gifted in math
Lagrange was bad in math untill 17
It's just my opinion but I think math requires talent as well. My mother is naturally good at math despite no proper education and hard life growing up. While my sister is weak at math. We all know it and she admits it as well. I used to believe that math is for everyone, you just need a good environment but lately, upon knowing mor people. I realized that math are also for those who talent for it. Just my opinion though based on my experience
@@raicyceprine8953 interesting I respect your opinion 👍 thanks for sharing
@@jehugz yup, just my thoughts. But I'm proud of what you achieved! I guess i still need to consider that some who are hardworkding could still excel at math especially specialized ones like calculus
@@jehugz To be fair intro level calculus isn’t especially challenging the in the first place. I think “being good at math” means being good at real analysis etc.
he really inspires really ordinary people to become something extraordinary just by hard work. thank you, Richard Feyman
Not mentioned, Feynman also deciphered Mayan hieroglyphs in his free time, that nobody else could make sense of
Wow.
Nobody else could make sense of, doubt he made any progress, there were teams of researchers working on it since the 19th century, they all used the wrong method, it was until 1952 where yuri knorozov published his findings that people were able to start deciphering it. Stop spreading false information
WRONG, Who cracked the Mayan code? Yuri Knorozov
Yuri Valentinovich Knorozov19 November 1922 Yuzhny, Kharkov Governorate, Ukrainian
Actually Russian Knorozov did. But Feynman is a great man in every respect.
I cracked some old Mayan code that I found in a box of recipes that I had purchased from Salvation Army for .50 cents. When I saw that ancient Mayan code I was so excited.
We hoped in the car and started driving to a local middle school to talk with some very intelligent teachers that I thought could help me. But while sitting at a traffic light I was looking at the ancient code and it just started making sense to me. So I just went home🦯
He was one of the brightest minds America had at the time. The guy worked with Oppenheimer. The things he solved are still used today in classrooms and lecture halls. He was no ordinary man.
A ordinary guy ,who devloped extraordinary understandimg and way of thinking can also do so
@@devanshverma9024 what you described does not exist.. as a person nor as a process 😊
@@MikAnimal You have no idea about the topic
I believe his I.Q was much higher than 125. The early astronauts had I.Q.s averaging about 135. Some were Ph.Ds., like Dr. Rendezvous (Buzz Aldrin). But Feyman seemed well above them IMO.
@@daffidavit It's really wrong to think that to be an astronaut you need to be a genius when it's not. What they really ask for is for lots of studies that an average person with dedication and other requirements can get and we're not sure if Feyman was telling the truth about his iq and is he said so why can't we believe him? There are so many people that have score really higher and do nothing with their "intelligence". Either iq is not important anymore to measure intelligence overall or what makes someone achieve greater things is another thing like dedication, passion, discipline, contacts, good environment, money, being in the exact moment, time, with the right people, being creative, luck, etc. And I think this are the factor that make people successful more than intelligence. How many kids aren't scoring more than Albert Einstein and yet get nowhere? I think we should contemplate more this topic that we don't fully understand.
Faynman's textbooks were so different; they were distinguished by his humor and also the acknowledgment that he might not understand something. Can you imagine a textbook writer writing something like this? He stimulated thinking about what it means to "understand" something in quantum mechanics. Without going into details and although it may sound strange, his perspective helped me gain confidence in my studies. RIP dear professor.
if feynman weren't famous, his textbook would not be sold due to him admitting that he might not understand something. people only buys from you if they believe you know everything. admitting that you don't know something when you're not known to the world is a career ending move
@nickers7409 what do you mean by "it would add"?
Yes. Absolutely right!
Absolutely, and as you eluded to, he was the first to admit that he probably doesn't know everything (he didn't have to, he would figure out the rest) but encouraged others to learn with that constant question that there was more to learn.
@@Dave_of_Mordor He didn't feel the need to be concerned with that idea.
Feynman is a legend as a scientist, professor and human being. One of the greatest minds of all times.
Up there ! With Alexander Hamilton, Franklin, George W. Carver, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and many more of a very very very small collection of GREATS.
Thomas Edison???? The man who patented inventions he didn’t invent???🤣🤣🤣🤣🤦🤦🤦
@@calicoesblue4703
Yes.... That Edison.
Shooo fly.
@@francus7227 Elon Musk the Modern Day Thomas Edison🤣🤣🤣
@@calicoesblue4703 Hear! Hear! Feynman is up there with Tesla, not down there with Edison. (I'm not talking about Heaven and Hell, although that could apply as well...Edison was not a very nice man, witness his friendship with the racist Henry Ford and also his treatment of Tesla.
Feynman is one of my inspirators in physics and it is humbling but also quite frustrating to hear someone like that call themselves ordinary. It definitely makes me feel a lot less than ordinary.
Yea geniuses calling themselves ordinary is like steroid users pretending to be natural lmao. Like AnyBoDy CoulD dO thIs JuSt nEeD HaRd WorK. So frustrating to me they do it as a sort of self defense mechanism so people can't write off their accomplishments because they had an advantage.
@@Laocoon283 You aren't taking into account that it is exactly because they are so gifted that it doesn't register that it could be hard for others to attain. Yes they worked hard, extremely so, so they think anyone can accomplish the same results.
We're all ordinary. It's just that some people.. are a bit more ordinary than others.
@@mrhassell ...'more ordinary' meaning loving the hard work.
@@78tag meaning... ordinary in every sense of the word. Sometimes, I feel like I either need to explain everything, when its obvious or repeat myself for no reason, which in itself, is pretty ordinary.
There you go! Usage example even.
This is an excellent video overall. I find it hilarious to think that Feynman’s self-reported IQ of 125 might have been accurate, though. (The number appears in James Gleick’s biography of Feynman, but the citation indicates that Feynman himself was the source.) Among many other data points, as a senior at MIT Feynman got the highest score on the Putnam Competition math exam. This indicates mathematical ability of around 5-7 standard deviations above the mean, the IQ equivalent of 175-205. Even if his verbal IQ was only 125 (doubtful), on a professional-grade, high-normed IQ test Feynman would probably have scored something like 160-190.
It might sound nice and humble to take an attitude like “I’m just an ordinary guy who was curious and worked hard”, but when you think about it there’s an unintentional cruelty in it. I used to tutor students at Caltech who were in danger of failing the Physics Core curriculum despite working as hard as they could. Imagine telling such students that “there’s no miracle, just be curious and study hard!” No one disputes that hard work is necessary to understand, say, quantum mechanics, but it’s definitely not sufficient, at least not for an “ordinary” person. Alas, we can’t all be Feynman!
There are a lot of popular IQ tests out there, that probably aren't very accurate. I don't put any stock in that test at all (it was probably on a cereal box). Anyway, he's famous for his math abilities, especially his creativity in math and physics.
Sounds right!
IQ scores not an indication of how smart a person is, they only show how good the person is at taking IQ tests!
I don't think IQ test are the most viable way to determine the quality of a physicist. It's really more about visualisation (hence, spatial reprensentation) to understand and imagination to create.
I would say the students you're talking about would've have been far better off watching some visual representation of what an identity in a vector space says, than studying 5 hours a day the rigourous proofs mathematicians are required to understand to prove certain advanced identities, for instance...
I believe IQ is about helping you understand faster, for you pick up on the patterns better, not a requirement to see it
Maybe. The science of genetics... especially of the mind is not what you think. For example it's very possible for someone to develope eidetic memory in specific taskings. So it's quite possible that it can be extended to general usage.
I think his losing his wife, who was his "other half" in the deepest sense of the term, kind of broke that part of him. It's very sad to read about.
"'Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all."
Sad it may seem, but i'm certain he was full of happy memories of her, too.
yes she had tb
@@mcanderson0bullshit
Which wife? He had at least three of his own and apparently knew other men's wives also.
Yes, you are talking complete devotion there. Have you read the stories about their communications while he was in the "project" and she was in the hospital ? Very interesting look at the two of them.
11:44 the Challenger hearing was more complex than Feynman "making a discovery". He had been recruited expressly because he could say out loud (in the hearing) what many engineers had known for a long time. He was a great sport about this and it was absolutely pivotal to getting the truth out, but it wasn't his own research or investigation.
Exactly. The engineers knew the problem existed before the launch and advised NASA not to launch. When I hear glossy generalizations like in this video I typically want to turn it off. But how many viewers have the background knowledge to make that assessment? They come to these channels for the knowledge. Videos like this inspire me to scour the comments for corrections like yours, just to make sure I'm getting accurate information.
I think he gave the credit to the engineers in his writings about his role in the Challenger investigation.
@@nidurnevets IIRC it was a NASA scientist who had Feynman over for dinner. He took him to the garage where he had a carburetor on the workbench. He remarked to Feynman that it didn't work properly if it was cold out. "Why do you think that is ?"
@@MichaelColombo General Kutyna. Who’d been passed the information by Sally Ride. Who’d been passed the information by engineers.
Don't forget that Ronald Reagan was President at the time and was counseled to call off the launch as a precaution, but *he insisted* it go on - for the PUBLICITY VALUE!! Well, he certainly got his wish in that regard...
There may be better scientists, more intelligent scientists, more accomplished scientists, more famous scientists, but his down to earth personality, his sense of fun, his manner, his humility, his humor and his scientific honesty make him my favorite scientist.
To be awarded a Noble price surely you have to be in the top 1% ?
@@keithlillis7962 He is. But the Nobel prize committee has a long history of awarding the prize to the unworthy.
@@GazzaBoo what do you mean by "unworthy"? what make an accomplishment "unworthy"?
There are tens of thousands of scientists in the world, if not a hundred thousand, so to be awarded with the Nobel prize signifies being on a far higher level than the top 1 percent.
Here is what a mathematician, Mark Kac, said about him:
"In science, as well as in other fields of human endeavor, there are two kinds of geniuses: the “ordinary” and the “magicians.” An ordinary genius is a fellow that you and I would be just as good as, if we were only many times better. There is no mystery as to how his mind works. Once we understand what he has done, we feel certain that we, too, could have done it. It is different with the magicians. They are, to use mathematical jargon, in the orthogonal complement of where we are and the working of their minds is for all intents and purposes incomprehensible. Even after we understand what they have done, the process by which they have done it is completely dark. They seldom, if ever, have students because they cannot be emulated and it must be terribly frustrating for a brilliant young mind to cope with the mysterious ways in which the magician’s mind works. Richard Feynman is a magician of the highest caliber. Hans Bethe, whom [Freeman] Dyson considers to be his teacher, is an “ordinary genius,”.
Remember the Nobel Prize community gave the Nobel Prize to Einstein for his explanation of the photoelectric effect and not for his discovery of the general relativity
Richard Feynman was one of the rare scientists who was incredibly curious, funny, and yet a very very deep thinker. We loved the Feynman Lecture series in college as it was considered the bible for a deep understanding of physics based on the fundamentals. He was revered as a great teacher when I was in college back in the mid 60ties.
I've heard, that if you were in one of his classes, it was one of most important part of your entire studies. He left a mark on everyone he encountered.
Watched so much about Richard Feynman but this story is much more than uncovering the genius mind. Great work.
Feynman's case is unusual because it has far more to do with his upbringing. Feynman's father was a real rebel. He made uniforms for the military and yet criticized the whole system of military rank and authority. He shared this with his son and it left Richard Feynman with a lifetime belief in questioning authority. There were probably lots of people who were as academically brilliant as Feynman, but few of them risked disagreeing with the group's orthodoxy. In a sense, he was like Einstein or Tesla, but for different reasons.
The reason he could disagree with authority so freely is that he was right a lot. It's not just an independent spirit, but seeing errors. Almost pure IQ.
I think you're partially correct but Feynman himself wrote how respected senior military figures who had to make life-or-death decisions quickly. He certainly rebelled against empty authority based on meaningless rule-following but he respected real authority when it was wielded wisely.
Your interpretation is great but it leaves out his limitless ability look at everything from a unique and cheerful point of view. He loved being an observer of nature while being a part of it. He just had a different understand of things.
@@Mathemagical55 He understood who to respect and why.
@@78tag Not my personal interpretation. Actually, his own words from at least a couple of documentaries (which I believe you can find on TH-cam). He also spoke of what you mention. Also a product of his upbringing. Personally, the former quality is what I see as pivotal. Lots of brilliant freethinkers in the world, especially in wartime. Few are willing to defy the power structure to do it.
I was so much waiting for an episode on Feynman. Could you do an episode on Ludwig Boltzmann or Max Planck, please? I think they are very underrated and less known scientific figures in physics who made significant contributions in the field. I greatly appreciate your channel and its contents.
I agree with you on the account of Max plank he is not recognized by many.
Max Planck? If you've studied a little bit of physics you should instantly be able to recognize the name. Schiwinger and Boltzmann I understand, BUT PLANCK?
Is this a joke? Don't you study physics at school (physics constants section)? E=hv?
But make the episode about Planck a reduced episode please.
Max Planck is perfectly rated
Nothing ordinary about Richard Feynman. He was an extraordinary man. And so humble.
i hate people who think they can bring hope through lies. how the hell is an IQ of 125, ordinary? you're right about him being extraordinary and humble but i don't like that just because mensa doesn't accept people with his IQ, it automatically means he's an ordinary person. what kind of logic is this?
@@Dave_of_Mordor Met some Mensa dudes in the past, oh boy what a bunch.
@@suzanned99 what were they like?
Clueless@@andrejrockshox
@@Dave_of_Mordora person with a 125 iq couldn’t even grasp what Feynman made light work of. The average iq for a person with a bachelors in math is 120-135. The bright ones who take the Putnam exam have a median score of 0. Feynman got the highest score in the country by a large margin and prepared the least on the MIT team.
This was beautifully rendered. I read a couple of Feynman biographies, and adjacent works, so I only know enough to be dangerous. But I didn’t expect a 15-minute video to capture him in such exquisite detail. Very well done, much appreciated.
So sad about his hardships. So proud of him and his humbleness. We need more people like him.
IQ Tests are very limited. As a child I scored really high on all types of tests with math or text, but was not very good at the ones with visual puzzles to solve. This was a beautiful story, even though I knew a lot about it, the flowers was my favorite part.
Yes, I.Q. tests are justifiably controversial. A specific mental capability may be measured with broadly meaningful accuracy, but I suspect general intelligence encompasses such a diverse array of innate abilities and learned skills that its measurement is a much more pretentious exercise.
Yeah, that IQ intro made me cringe
@@fred_2021 IQ scores also assume that you were raised in a particular environment, with exposure to the same things. Some people may have had plenty of practice doing a particular task, others may not.
IQ tests does have limitations but it is THE sophisticated method of testing intelligence.
@@ZahidHasan-ri9tk I doubt if Feynman ever really took an IQ test. The truly intelligent don't join Mensa. They have no need to pay $79 a year to show how clever they are. I worked at a university. It always amused me that administrators always listed more qualifications on their email signatures than the academics.
His good upbringing definitely contributed to his positive outlook on life and study. Amazing what a good nurture can produce.
That can have a lot to do with it.... even if it is just producing great members of this planet.
Feynman was a superb asset to humanity.
I cried toward the end. Mr. Faynman is truly an inspiration.
but he's not an ordinary man! everyone needs to stop with this bs. just because you disagree with IQ doesn't mean it's not a part of the reason why he's successful in his field
Cry more 😢
"Please excuse my not mailing this - but I don't know your new address."
Thank you for reminding me of this quote from Feynman. It's one of my favourite quotes ever that I had kind of forgot during my last few years of battling depression.
One of the NASA engineers tried to bring up the O ring issue many times, even having nightmares about it if I remember correctly. So Feynman basically just repeated what that guy and others had already been saying
Shhhh, don't talk about it
Richard Feynnman was a genius who discovered the problem 😉
I don't miss an episode because like today I always learn so much. However today was different in that you made me tear up when you read the letter to his wife. He was exceptional if for no other reason than to have such a rich Love for his wife and being able to express that Love in such an elegant way. Thank you so much.
No way ordinary.. he combined intellect with hardwork and humor and luck helped him in becoming a legend
I'm not sure luck had very much to do with it but he did have a lot going for him in character and being open minded.
Funny thing about luck. The more I apply myself to something, the luckier I seem to be.
@@78tag we all need a bit of luck In our lives.. that's what my grandma would say
@@mrhassell true that
Yeah Feynmann was a special one. His “iq” is not in the state so called “genius” but his mind is so fun and full of passion and love. His imagination, visualizaion, and understanding of concepts in a fun and comprehendable way was unmatched.
I have admired Richard, from the time I came across his books and lecture notes when I was in the 1960’s. What an amazing person and teacher he was then and still is in his works that are available in libraries and online.
Regarding Feynman's discovering the "O" ring failure. By his own account, he was told the cause in the same 'phone call inviting him to join the investigation into the failure. Also, he found that those people on the shop floor understood the risk of failure but as the the hierarchal importance of an individual increased their appreciation of the risk decreased. The launch occurred in spite of a written notice to not launch at temperatures less than 52ºF because the "O" ring would fail.
Richard died in 88 and I was born in 84 and didn’t know about him till the breaking into safes, and I loved his curiosity, I watched so much videos as I can of Richard Feynman. One of my hero’s
Just want to let you know that every video you create is so compelling and clear. I love the format and clear narratives. You’re on to something great here!
My business partner had Richard as his math professor and told me many stories about him. This is a 😮favorite he would walk in the hallway reading a book and with his other hand he would rub against the wall and count the doors so he knew when he was his classroom. If a door was open he would walk into the room circle the periphery and walk out the door and continue down the hall never paying attention to what he did and never lifting his eyes off the book.
Thanks for sharing.
I did that and walked into the Ladies' Room. Oooops.
@@emmettgrogan4217lol
i've always adored his modesty and his dedication to inspiring kids to study difficult subjects, but at no point in time was richard feinman ever an "ordinary man".
"You have to do the best with what God gave you." Mrs Gump. And Richard Feynman did ... to an amazing degree. I love people that are mentally alive and have INSATIABLE curiosity ...
Love this video. Professor Feynman was a legend on his field 🙏 .
Feynman was anything but ordinary. He was brilliant at math with an incredible memory. He taught himself calculus from a book when he was a kid.
Two close friends of mine studied at Caltech with Richard Feynman. Both of them became physicists after earning their doctorates. I envied them tremendously! Fortunately, in 2011, I became very well acquainted with Murray Gell-Mann at the Santa Fe Institute. Gell-Mann had an office just two rooms down the hall from Feynman at Caltech. Both of them were incontrovertibly brilliant.
Dear students, from formal to self-education, there is a tremendous amount of discussion in the comment section about IQ and the ability to grasp certain concepts. I have tutored countless students in college-level physics, from electromagnetism to quantum, and I would like to add my experience. Some of my students struggled greatly with physics to the brink of failure. Had I attributed the ability to learn the subject to a specific IQ threshold, like some of my colleagues, I'd have sunk them. Instead, I tweaked my teaching methods or tried different approaches. I saw a significant turnaround in all of my student's understanding. This led me to acknowledge that intelligence had little to no weight (barring a disability), and finding the proper method that resonates with a particular student is the key. There is such a thing as raw intelligence. However, it does not determine one's ability to grasp a subject, only possibly the rate at which one learns it. If you struggle, try a different source or method. Your tenacity and willingness to try other processes matter most.
"You just keep pushing. You just keep pushing. I made every mistake that could be made. But I just kept pushing." -Rene Descartes
I believe he was heart broken and depressed by the lost of his wife, but kept it to himself. He never got over her. I can relate.
Anyone who judges him when it comes to his post love life needs to keep in mind that the half of those relationships had reasons for their choices also.
He was the neighbourhood boy who “fixed radios by thinking about them.” The IQ test was broken if it only registered 125 for that man.
An IQ test is mostly a measure of how well you can pass an IQ test, it’s not that big of a deal…
Feynman won the Putnam competition in college. Not an ordinary person by any means. He would not have been invited to study at Princeton or brought onto the Manhattan project if he were merely ordinary. He would have been drafted and fighting like most other young men at the time. An outstanding person, and it’s a gift that we have so many recordings from his lifetime, unlike many other great minds just a generation earlier.
he’s just an ordinary man who worked really hard. him having those great feats were due to hard work not talent like a lot of other scientists
@@genesis8813 I'm afraid this is not true, it's quite cruel to say it is. I study Physics, and I am with 100s of people who have aced every exam in their life, A*s in everything ever. Plenty of people with 130-140iq (out of 160iq standardized model that is), and work EXCEPTIONALLY hard. No partying. No socials. Just work. And most do not do that well. And that's just getting a degree, yet alone to do what he did. It takes an extremely gifted mind, alongside hard work, to do the things he did.
It's curiosity entagled with imagination. He was a visual thinker. 100%.
"Six Easy Pieces", and also "Six Not So Easy Pieces" and "Genius". The man, is out of this world. RIP Dr. Ph.D. Feynman. Respect.
He is right…. Being extremely good at something it’s not for the special ones.. you just have to be curious and learn how to learn and that’s how you become good at anything, like really good. Anyone with enough will and consistency can achieve this. It is not genetic.
The notion that Richard Feynman had an IQ of only 125 is one of the most insane & completely unbelievable statements I've heard in my life. I'm a regular guy who has a Mathematics Degree - and while at University I met many, many smarter more naturally gifted humans - and I have an IQ of 140-145. Feynman is an absolutely renowned genius - his IQ would be way, way, way up there - close to 200-type stuff. If you told me it was 215 I would believe it.
Why are you questioning feynmans own words
@@leffersuckit2818 He is questioning based on his personal experience. I know where the 125 (actually, it was 120) came from. When Richard was in high school and wanting to become a physicist, it just so happened that the students were required to take an IQ test, but they were not given the results. Richard just had to know, so he broke into the school one night and found his results. I was 120, a rock bottom number to become a physicist. Fortunately, he was not dissuaded. The rest is history. After he won the Nobel Prize, he used to joke that he was not so proud that he won a Nobel, but that he won it with only an IQ of 120! I doubt Richard thought his IQ was really 120.
@@leffersuckit2818 Didn’t RP say that his school tested his IQ at 125? You appear to have interpreted that as “His IQ WAS 125.” Go with the school test if you like, but don’t expect anyone else to take that more seriously than the fact he invented two new branches of physics, and enjoyed intellectually sparring and problem solving with the brightest and the best mathematicians of his generation at MIT.
Iq/= intelligence
He only devloped deep under standing and different way of thinking in physics and maths , by regularly diving in it.
great documentary - i like how you ended with the letter to his wife
Studied hard and enjoyed indulging his insatiable curiousity. I loved his 2 volume biography 'Surely you must be joking Mr Feyman' and 'What do you care what people think'. A lovely man.
Fineman's story is an encouragment in any field.
*tosses plate in air*
Feynman: QED.
You missed some of his greatest achievements. Feynman created the third (and arguably most useful) representation of quantum mechanics (the original two were by Schrodinger and Heisenberg). He made those cute Feynman diagrams that everybody uses for quantum field calculations. And he finally solved the long running controversy whether gravitational waves can be detected at all (even Einstein was not sure about it). In his style, he imagined them travel through space filled with rigid beads in a sticky fluid. It turned out gravitational will exert work on them while moving them which proved they can have real physical effect and thus be detectable.
I would have loved to have had him as a professor.
He had very unique way of looking at the world. Childlike yet brilliant at the same time.
For generations to come, there will not be another person like Richard who continues to be an inspiration for budding scientists. He is one in 10 billion to have walked this very earth - I am so happy that there are videos of him - wish there were many.
The plate thing had to do with the wobble of the plate vs the spin of the plate (observable by looking at the Cornell stamp on the bottom of the plate). This helped along the way to altering the equation for electrons, by adding a relativistic spin correction.
bro who are you 😹
@@tens0r884 Hi Tens0r... I'm just this guy. ps Hans Bethe Babes initially thought Feynman was wasting his time with 'trivial' physics, but eventually changed his mind completely. ("You have my permission to call me Bethe Babes, but NEVER in my presence." Bethe Babes was so cool.)
Such a beautiful video, you have put mindful effort in the production of the video. This is exemplary!
Thank you so much!
His presentation to a group looking for the reason for the shuttle disaster was an epic moment. This country was heartbroken over the death of these brave individuals and he nailed the reason for the failure. What a wonderful brave intellect he was.
He is so humble.
He is not a genius because he is a wizard. Here is a quote “There are two kinds of geniuses: the ‘ordinary’ and the ‘magicians’....Richard Feynman is a magician of the highest caliber.” -Mark Kac
He was positive.
Humane.
Later comes IQ.
"Surely you are joking Mr. Feynman"
IQ scores don't measure creativity and creativity is arguably the most important form of intelligence when it comes to discovering profound new ideas and concepts that improve humanity. Therefore the "mystery" behind how a guy with a non high IQ score became a genius is easily explained by the fact that Richard Feynman had creativity in abundance.
You are right. Also it does not measure curiosity. And Curiosity, I believe , does force the mind to observe, question, study and evolve. So I think both creativity and curiosity are important factors while measuring intelligence.
Great video! Hands down one of my favorite videos on Richard. I have been studying his thoughts for years.
The guy: *Sees a plate falling*
"Well now I understood Quantum Electrodynamics."
Richard Feynman was by no means an ordinary man. Regardless of his IQ score he was an absolute genius.
he’s not ordinary, he’s still incredibly intelligent. his form of intellligence just doesn’t work well with scoring high on iq tests
Who knows what sort of "IQ test" that was. Feynman is so far above the ceiling of an ordinary IQ test (typically 145) that he can't see it from where he is. The Putnam is an extremely high-range IQ test that requires knowing a fairly small amount of mathematics to take a shot at it. (I suspect that knowing more math is helpful though.) He was the national high scorer on that test, twice!
Being a scientist, a really good one, even a revolutionary one, is not that big a deal. You need to be obsessed with your goal - that's it. I was the one with the IQ in my family, but my brother, with an IQ around Feinman's (mine's 18 points higher), is the one with the endowed professorship in his 40s, traveling the world, winning awards at his Ivy League university and elsewhere. He was more used to working toward his goals. I was used to things being easy. Maybe I didn't want it bad enough. I got my PhD easily enough, but I teach in a middle school. I do love my job though. 🙂
@@artichoke60045i feel like competitions like putnam requires a whole lot more practice than anything. I cant see myself knowing a topic immediately upon reading unless i can see where its used
He is a inspiration for all students.
I did a week workshop with him at Esalen Institute in the mid-1980s. I learned much that helped me immensely in life. One interesting thing was that the first night when people were asking questions somebody used the word "paradigm." He said no, don't use words like that, I like to stick with simple words, they're much easier to follow.
What a genuine guy. When the world begins to understand that the thirst for knowledge and understanding comes from the darkness
a great person. we need more real characters like him.
“Slept with the wives of his friends” yeah, great person
@@iansun42 unknown circumstances?
@@porta_patrols and the undergrads...
@@brixan... no human is "only good" or "only bad", such a clear person doesn´t exist.
@@porta_patrols I agree. A complete change of topic, but I do agree
Thanks. Oddly enough I am going through "Surely you are joking Mr. Feynman" right now. It seems like the algorithms watching me were able to infer from my online purchase of the audio book that I would be interested in this particular video. I am thankful that it did.
I don't think Feymann's IQ was really 125. He tested once, probably didn't do it for serious or payed enough attention.
If you read about his life, you can clearly see he was incredibly smart. Really Einstein level smart.
My God, I've been aware of this man for decades. How can you not love a person who is half genius and half...dude, I'm filled with child-like joy. I dance like no one's watching because I'm me. I'm delighted by everything. ...if only we were so lucky
This story bought "tears" to my eyes. I am so interested in learning more about Prof. Fey. not about what he did, but who he really was.
Like so many truly brilliant people, Dr Feynman is profoundly modest. Indeed, a Fine Man.
Very inspirational. I planned to keep learning till the day I die, there are so many interesting things in the world.
Feynman was *far* from ordinary. Far, far from it. Hell I've made it into Mensa and score higher than something like 90% of Mensa members. IQ tests are a good measure of ... passing IQ tests. And I only took the Mensa test because I thought it would help me find a job somehow. Feyman was remarkable and I think more recognition should come to his father, who I feel really made him who he was. Feynman's life is a delightful rabbit hole to go into.
"People who care about IQ scores are losers." -- Stephen Hawking, a guy who didn't care about knowing his IQ.
.. you don’t “pass” IQ tests.. yeah I doubt you score higher than ‘90% of Mensa members”
I love how he states that knowledge you gain, only adds to the beauty of a thing, and takes nothing away. Spot on.
Glad that you made this video
I have an iq of 121 but honestly got a few screws loose. I am a bit awkward - in social settings! And generally distracted like hell- can’t study for 20 mins with 100% focus. I find that ppl with lower iqs but superior social iqs generally perform much better in life. And it is not much investigated. There is more than one dimension to iq.
I'm reading 'Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman' his biography and you came up with this. What a coincidence.
Most likely not a coincidence, Cookies track your internet usage
You make such inspirational and beautiful videos! Thank you so much for your effort!
Dick Feynman was so beloved on campus. I arrived at Caltech in October 1985. I remember seeing him only once on campus...i was with several other grad students; he was some distance from us but smiled and waved, obviously accustomed to his celebrity.
Feynman is special exactly for the reasons he stated. You don’t need to be brilliant nor talented to accomplish what he did. Devoting the time and effort required to achieve those things is what you need. Not everyone is willing to do that, that’s what makes the difference. There’s also another thing that helped him. He figured out how to approach a problem when he was a kid and perfected it. He did it on a regular basis and enjoyed it. He was wired to be a scientist since he was a kid
He is an ordinary miracle; and that made him a real person with miraculous beauty, the type of beauty that kept spell bound long after his death. He is an unfinished novel that left an eternal urge among us, all the readers of it.
Rest in peace, professor!
Well, 125 is the top 5 percent of the world, so, the most trivial conclusion would be that IQ scores are somewhat underestimated due to biases. There are people with scores of just slightly above 110 and have PhDs. Working hard helps in accomplishing a lot.
I am not as talented and hard working as him and just barely passed Mensa's test. I am currently studying computer science (which consists of a lot of mathematics) and it is astonishing to realize how much he already knew before entering university and already studying at university. He wasn't a genius in terms of intelligence, but with insane work ethic, determination, focus and curiosity incredible feats are achievable (and of course some brains).
In the end the most hard-working people win over people with talent, but with no intention of using it.
I'm the 1% of IQs and I can promise you.. IQ doesn't say shit. Intelligence is incredibly complicates, much more complicated than a simple test can measure. Richard Feynman may not have had an insanely high IQ, but he was definitely highly intelligent.
Evidently not if someone in the 1% uses authority as a argument to people who don't know him
@@lukecockburn1140 My IQ just computed that you are salty cuz you're disappointed with your own IQ
@@lukecockburn1140 Luke, he didn't specify which end of the 1% he was on..... Judging by the spelling and punctuation I have my assumptions. Btw, sorry about your brother Damien. He was in the 1% of directors.
If youre saying it like that, its either you don't have that high IQ or it is that youre lying.
@@ArkansasBassMan MTG is the Rock Bottom 1%
He was an incredibly modest guy. Being a genius to start with enabled him to achieve absolutely stellar results.
I was a physics major at U of Md 1967-1971. Remember discovering and buying Feynman Lectures V1 & V2 - amazing stuff. Although, I was seduced by U of Md’s Univac 1108 and really never looked back, I still feel close to what physics gave me and my undergrad Feynman volumes which I still have.
Yeah.... I like Newsthink and Feynman is my favourite person all time by quite a margin, but his IQ was 100% higher than 125. Then again the reason he built this ordinary intellect persona was because the biggest limitation is not IQ, but the psychological limitations people impose on themselves. So fuck IQ, fuck pessimism, just go as deep as you can in whatever you love.
He might have begun as an ordinary kid.. but his interest, concentration,focus and hardwork raised his brain's capability to a high level.. He lived a long part of his life as a high level thinking capable individual
he was born with this level of intelligence. i'm not discrediting his interest, focus and hard work, but you need the IQ as high as his to get your foot in the door. to say iq has nothing to do with his success is insane
Feynman had an ordinary IQ for standard testing (his measured IQ = 125). However, he also had a unique IQ - I call it the Feynman IQ, which does not have standard testing.
Feynman is one of my favorite physicists...his personality, his intuition and his intellect stood out in the world of science and always will. The way in which he viewed physics and how he could change your perspective with his explanations to give you insight into understanding a concept, was purely amazing. How I would of loved to of been taught by Feynman on the workings of our universe...what an amazing mind and soul he had.
Great job covering my favorite scientist:)