The text mentions one of the quotes, the other is "What I cannot create, I do not understand" which I assume refers to his ability to create the solution to a problem from scratch.
Although I cannot speak to Feynman's mind, it is also possible that he was referring to creating the problem. When someone poses you a problem, he is asking you to think of it as he does; but you might have more success by figuring out why you might be interested in the problem—a trick of which Feynman was a master.
In Gleick's book he mentions that, for instance, Feynman talked about inventing his own notation for various mathematical operations when he was young, and that the habit of thinking things through on his own, without reference to other people's approaches, persisted throughout his career. You see that in his famous Lectures: he expressed disappointment that his approach in the third book is the standard one, that he was not able to come up with his own, because he must not understand it well enough.
Comments
Although I cannot speak to Feynman's mind, it is also possible that he was referring to creating the problem. When someone poses you a problem, he is asking you to think of it as he does; but you might have more success by figuring out why you might be interested in the problem—a trick of which Feynman was a master.
In Gleick's book he mentions that, for instance, Feynman talked about inventing his own notation for various mathematical operations when he was young, and that the habit of thinking things through on his own, without reference to other people's approaches, persisted throughout his career. You see that in his famous Lectures: he expressed disappointment that his approach in the third book is the standard one, that he was not able to come up with his own, because he must not understand it well enough.