It amazes me that a guy with a nobel prize was willing to be told to go run to the store to pick up office supplies because a 20-something told him to. Or be willing to learn a whole new field (EE/CS) on a whim.
And this really amazes me: "Since the only computer language Richard was really familiar with was Basic, he made up a parallel version of Basic in which he wrote the program and then simulated it by hand to estimate how fast it would run on the Connection Machine."
With no CS background he wrote a version of Basic that scaled up to 16,000 CPUs ... most CS PHd's would find that non-trivial. And he did it in a few weeks.
> It amazes me that a guy with a nobel prize was willing to be told to go run to the store to pick up office supplies because a 20-something told him to.
Another is (apparently) Fermi, from WP: "Walking into the lab one day, Smyth saw the distinguished scientist helping a graduate student move a table, under another student's directions." He seems to be among the awesomest people to ever walk the earth.
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It amazes me that a guy with a nobel prize was willing to be told to go run to the store to pick up office supplies because a 20-something told him to. Or be willing to learn a whole new field (EE/CS) on a whim.
And this really amazes me: "Since the only computer language Richard was really familiar with was Basic, he made up a parallel version of Basic in which he wrote the program and then simulated it by hand to estimate how fast it would run on the Connection Machine."
With no CS background he wrote a version of Basic that scaled up to 16,000 CPUs ... most CS PHd's would find that non-trivial. And he did it in a few weeks.
I guess that's what makes Feynman Feynman.
Oh, this is pretty funny too: http://www.fleen.com/uploads/2007/11/what-would-richard-feyn...
> It amazes me that a guy with a nobel prize was willing to be told to go run to the store to pick up office supplies because a 20-something told him to.
Another is (apparently) Fermi, from WP: "Walking into the lab one day, Smyth saw the distinguished scientist helping a graduate student move a table, under another student's directions." He seems to be among the awesomest people to ever walk the earth.
As a former ~11-year-old radio repairman, I don't think Feynman picked up EE at the age of god knows how old on a whim.