Good Morning Friends & Digital Neighbors! More fun with physicists! Today's person of notable knowledge but perhaps not so much fame out side the world of science is Richard P. Feynman. A little about the Professor Feynman from his official website.

Richard Phillips Feynman was born in New York City in 1918 and grew up in Far Rockaway, Queens. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an undergraduate, and he received his Ph.D. from Princeton University. In 1942 he married his high school sweetheart, Arline Greenbaum, despite the fact that she was ill with tuberculosis. That same year Richard was asked to join the Manhattan Project; he accepted and went on to become a group leader at Los Alamos, New Mexico. Arline died in 1945. After the war, he became a professor of theoretical physics at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. In 1950 he joined the faculty of the California Institute of Technology and spent the remainder of his career there. He had a brief marriage in the early fifties to Mary Louise Bell that did not work out. He married Gweneth Howarth in 1960. Their son Carl was born in 1962, and their daughter Michelle was born in 1968.

Many consider him to be the father of nanotechnology for two prizes he offered in a 1959 talk entitled, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom,” where he prompted thinking on a very small scale. He offered a prize for the world’s smallest motor, and another challenge involving very small writing; so small that the text of the Encyclopedia Britannica could be contained on the head of a pin. The prize for the motor was claimed almost immediately, but the challenge of the writing wasn’t met for over 20 years. Between 1961-3 Feynman gave a series of lectures on introductory physics for freshmen and the following year, sophomores, at Caltech. The series was edited and published as The Feynman Lectures of Physics, which is thought to be the most popular physics book ever written.

His most public achievement came in 1965, when he won the Nobel Prize in Physics, sharing it with Julian Schwinger and Shin’ichiro Tomonaga for their independent work in quantum electrodynamics. In 1986, he was again in the public eye, this time working on the commission investigating the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle. He died in 1988 after a long battle with abdominal cancer.

ON TO THE QUOTES!🎉🎊🎆

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.

BOOM! When that is the second quote in his section I am going to enjoy exploring his quotes, sometimes the quote even prompts one to considering reading one of his works. However a quote, much like a movie trailer, is the best part of the book, but good authors of course have more meat to their writings.

You are the easiest person to fool. If more of us thought that, there would be a lot less division in the world and in individual cultures. So many good characteristics of self, some would call virtues, grow out of the fertile ground of humility and humor. The opposite is true, and we have seen plenty of foul fruit from the toxic grounds of pride. It is pride that allows us to do the most horrid and imaginable things to another human being. Once we other and de-person them, let the torture & oppression begin. It has happened in numerous cultures throughout history, I doubt any dominate culture has been free of the taint of pride that "freed" the citizens to feel good about acting with malice towards a neighbor. Acts of evil becomes acts of righteousness. Bring on the alien planetary destruction - humanity is such a mess! There are reasons to hope but ones has to search for them, the reasons for black pilling seem plentiful.

Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough.

While I don't completely agree with the first part of the quote, but my figuring is personal and religious, so your milage may vary. Fair enough. I can say what my life is about as a Disciple of the Master and help others on that path or to join that path, but I cannot say beyond doubt that path is meant for everyone. I believe in a convergence of paths ultimately, but not so easily recognized while on our persons paths.

The second part of the quote is GOLD. Life is fan-freaking-tastic! Time is short and there is so much to explore and appreciate before my time here is over. Go into it deeply enough. Dive deep! Hold your breathe and explore what is below the surface of experience and understanding. Good teachers help you understand, great teachers push the bike and send you down the path of discovery. Beth @EBETHMP over at Phetasy was asking myself and @EclecticRPT about this yesterday. I have many good teachers along the path and a few great ones that set my hunger for learning on fire. Under every rock or log I moved as a child and teenager was a fascinating world of insects and other creatures, putting it back without killing some of them was a more difficult endeavor, and also destroying their home is a rather thoughtless thing. That image of moving logs & rocks a child became a good image for both learning new subject and meeting more people. Explore the world deeply. You won't be bored.

And finally . . .

The highest form of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion.

A person immersed in knowledge sees laughter and compassion as the highest form of understanding. Philanthropist or Misanthrope, none of us can go it completely alone. I know many have reasons for being misanthropic, humanity is a train wreck, and when we gather in mobs our rationality, charity and civility are lost to us. Mobs ginned up by fear & anger are the worst. We have had a world full of fear, and we are often told who we ought to honor or rage against. Thinking for yourself is only good until you join the cult, then one must herd-think. That doesn't mean we can't be cooperative and agreeable, but herd-think does not allow for questions, uncertainty or individualism.

Bonus quote:

Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.

More from Professor Feynman tomorrow. Thanks for indulging this rather long post, soon my postings on Rubin Report, Phetasy & Triggernometry will take a break for Lent. I will still do some things on Padre's but I want to take a break from the internet as much as possible during the season. It is next Wednesday, so until then I will be milling around these communities that I so appreciate. Happy Thursday Friends!

Old Prairie barn in Canada by Jernaill Dawn on Dronestagram