Feynman: Knowing versus Understanding
What it is
A short clip of Richard Feynman on the difference between merely knowing how to reason mathematically and understanding why physical theories work. He discusses holding multiple equivalent ideas and guessing new laws.
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN uses it as a reference in threads on physics theories, models and what real understanding means.
- 1 people recommended it
- 1 different months
- 1 strong recommendations
- first 2015, last 2025
What HN commenters said
“Watch the Feynman video and truly grasp what he is saying.”
Feynman on knowing versus understanding and keeping multiple ideas
dframe, 2015-09 · Strong recommendation · in “Visions of Future Physics”
Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.
Topics: richard feynman, physics, scientific method, mathematics, understanding
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