I guess I'm just mischievous. I just love to do that to people. Well especially when they're so gleefully happy that it's been going to cost 13 signatures haha.
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
"I think that when you're doing science, you're trying to find out something that nobody knows."
"I'm not a humanitarian. I'm a scientist."
"I don't have to be polite when I'm doing science."
"I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell, possibly. It doesn't frighten me."
"The thing about science is that it's all about discovery. It's all about trying to find out what's going on."
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'.
Reflecting on his prank of limiting signatures for a lecture payment
Date: Unknown
RelationshipsFound in 1 providers: gemini
1 source checked
The speaker takes playful delight in disrupting someone's smug satisfaction — specifically when that person was gleefully anticipating bureaucratic difficulty for others. There's a streak of impish contrarianism here: the more someone relishes a petty obstacle, the more satisfying it is to puncture their glee. It's humor rooted in deflating pomposity and exposing the absurdity of rigid procedural gatekeeping.
Feynman was famously anti-authoritarian and delighted in exposing bureaucratic absurdity throughout his career. At Los Alamos he picked locks on classified safes to demonstrate security flaws. He openly mocked credentialism and red tape in academia. This quote captures his lifelong persona: the trickster-physicist who found genuine joy in revealing how arbitrary and self-important institutional rules could be.
Post-WWII American academia and government institutions were deeply bureaucratic, shaped by wartime administrative sprawl and Cold War security culture. Universities, laboratories, and government agencies multiplied signature requirements, clearance procedures, and committee approvals. Feynman emerged as a counterculture figure within science — his irreverence resonated because institutional bloat was a lived daily frustration for researchers and citizens alike.
AI-generated insights based on extensive research and information for context. Factual errors? Email [email protected].
Your cart is empty
