feynman’s bananas
22May09Down in the comments of an earlier music post I dug up a seminal BBC documentary about Richard Feynman. I must have seen it when it first came out. I recommend you plug your computer into the TV, sit down and watch it with any children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces or godchildren; there may be no greater gift. A few minutes in he says this:
When you are thinking about something that you don’t understand you have a terrible, uncomfortable feeling called ‘confusion’. It’s a very difficult and unhappy business. So, most of the time you are rather unhappy, actually, with this confusion. You can’t penetrate this thing. Now, is the confusion… is it because we are all some kind of apes that are kind of stupid working against this? Trying to figure out to put the two sticks together to reach the banana and we can’t quite make it? …the idea ? And I get that feeling all the time: that I am an ape trying to put two sticks together. So I always feel stupid. Once in a while, though, everything — the sticks — go together on me and I reach the banana.”
When it came to deciding on a business card for the blog, there must have been some spooky action operating at a distance, for this is what we came up with.
Long-time readers will remember my own grappling with bananas only to find that, as usual, I was thwarted. Parce que…
banana photo credit -eko-
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The films I’ve seen of Feynman make him seem easy to love as a human being for his accessible style and intuitive approach to life but he is surely a damn hard act to follow as a thinker. Is it really any consolation to little me that _he_ felt frustrated?
Coming from a mobile back to the web I now see the picture … I’d have liked more context to the French Equicosta 100% fair trade, organic banana advertisements associating themselves with Magritte e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images.
The “efficient markets” solution is to float the prices of both sticks and prodding locations on the sea of consumer demand. With a bunch of price signals flashing in our face we often forget that only we can invest in ourselves, and that this is more profitable in our lifetime. If I am fooled into aping my peer’s rush for the longest stick or highest rock who can win? (I could pun away now but will spare you ‘shoulders of giants’ etc.. blah.. blah..)
@jayprich http:\\www.twitter.com\jayprich
James,
I’d consider it a big consolation. Institutional behaviours (of which Feynman himself complains in the documentary) often default to continuous justifications of their own success, whereas they are in fact built by Feynman-like struggles at all scales. So wherever you are on the ladder, in whatever domain, it is good to know what makes for an interesting life, even if the rewards can be momentary.
I apologize for the absence of context. I did spend a bit of time that day trying to find a news reference to Magritte, that had passed me by on some bulletin.
The question of investing in ourselves has been a central theme in my thinking, and indeed runs counter to the asset-based obsessions of our generation.
Tim