Every now and then you enjoy something that you know that very few people in this world would enjoy as much as you do. Sometimes it’s bad, such as making customers or superiors suffer. Sometimes, though, it’s because you’re just a weirdo. I’ve just started listening to the physics lectures given by Richard Feynman at Cal Tech in 1961. It was the only time he every taught such a comprehensive course on physics. Because Cal Tech knew it, they had the wisdom to record these lectures. They were recently released.
For those of you who aren’t weird, you can read a brief summation of his biography. What the biography doesn’t mention is that he has a great sense of humor. For example, he was describing the fact that we don’t, and arguably will never, know all of the laws, or rules, of physics.
“…actually, we do not have all the rules. We know that we do not have all the rules. Every once in a while, something like castling or something is going on that we still don’t understand.”
My love for physics came mostly from my father, who inspired me early on not to accept the mediocre physics education haphazardly offered by the public school system. After taking every physics course offered to farmers at Kansas State University, I became so frustrated that I started reading Stephen Hawking. The derivations of the theories presented were quite over my combine, but I couldn’t help but enjoy not only the purity of the science but the fact that I knew of things that a large majority of the general public didn’t. It’s funny how powerful and addictive knowledge can be. I’m certainly not claiming that I’m smart…I am claiming that I’m weird.
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