Richard Feynman — "I don't like to be called 'Professor Feynman.' I like to be called 'Dick.'"
I don't like to be called 'Professor Feynman.' I like to be called 'Dick.'
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More from Richard Feynman
"There is no way to learn anything, except by making mistakes."
"I bet you anything that if you asked a hundred physicists, they would all say that the most beautiful equation in physics is Maxwell's equations."
"I would like to add a third possibility, that it might be that, when we die, we just die, and that's the end of it."
"I have often thought that if there is any hell, it must be the place where there are no questions, only answers."
"The first principle of science is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool."
About Richard Feynman (1918-1988)
American theoretical physicist who shared the 1965 Nobel for QED, developed Feynman diagrams, and wrote the Feynman Lectures on Physics. Closely associated with Julian Schwinger (co-Nobelist for QED) and Murray Gell-Mann (Caltech rival and Eightfold-Way physicist). For an intellectual contrast, see Deepak Chopra, physician and quantum-mysticism author — Feynman's Caltech 'cargo cult science' commencement address is the precise template for what he saw as misuse of physics terminology — Chopra-style appropriation of quantum vocabulary for metaphysical claims is the canonical example of what Feynman called 'fooling yourself'.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
The speaker rejects formal titles in favor of his first name, expressing a preference for approachability over institutional hierarchy. He wants human connection rather than academic distance—treating everyone as equals rather than positioning himself above others through credentials or rank. It reflects a disdain for pretension and a belief that real relationships are built on familiarity, not authority.
Relevance to Richard Feynman
Feynman was famously anti-authoritarian despite winning the Nobel Prize in Physics. He played bongo drums in strip clubs, cracked safes at Los Alamos for fun, and gave legendary Caltech lectures in shorts. He believed pomposity killed intellectual honesty. Insisting on 'Dick' over 'Professor' was consistent with a lifelong rejection of prestige as a substitute for genuine understanding and authentic human connection.
The era
Post-WWII American academia was deeply hierarchical, with professorial titles carrying enormous social weight. Cold War institutions like universities and government labs ran on rank and credentials. Scientists held near-sacred cultural authority after the Manhattan Project. Feynman's casual irreverence was a deliberate counter-signal—insisting that curiosity and directness mattered more than the formal structures that defined mid-20th-century intellectual life.
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