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comment by rrrrr
rrrrr  ·  3392 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Watch: Richard Feynman on why he can't tell you how magnets work

But I think what this video shows is that, despite some initial exasperation with the interviewer's muddled question, Feynman comes through as a superb communicator with an acute appreciation of what it is to explain something to someone. He may not be able to explain how magnets work in everyday terms, but he gives an excellent explanation of why there's no such explanation to be had.





user-inactivated  ·  3392 days ago  ·  link  ·  

You're right. Sometimes I'll post comments that are meant in a tertiary, peripheral, aside fashion, like "everyone's talking about this, and that made me think of something related...." Then of course, comment thread can get muddled, as it's likely strangers on the internet do not understand my weird capacity to carry on several conversations at once over an extended period of time, to which people I know look at me curiously and say, "your brain is a strange one." Sorry about that.

Cumol  ·  3392 days ago  ·  link  ·  

At the beginning I felt like he was slightly annoyed by the question, as in "what does this guy want from me?". But then, it switches to this awesome and pretty clearly verbalised pattern of though that doesn't answer the question itself but explains why answering the question in a meaningful way to the listener is hard. I liked it :)