michael_nielsen

People quote Feynman's problem solving algorithm--"1. Write down the problem; 2. Think real hard; 3. Write down the solution."--as if it were a joke about how smart Feynman was. That's one reading, but I prefer a different one: there is no one weird trick.

It's very tempting to ask someone like Feynman (or Gell-Mann, who originated the quote): "how do I solve physics problems like you"? But what you're really doing when you ask this is looking for an easy way out. You want fully general advice, but physics is too hard for that!

A lot of the things people (including me) ask for advice on fall into this category. "How can I write good code?" "How can I be more productive?" "How can I have a bigger impact on the world?" Yes, sometimes people suggest basic life hacks like unit testing or getting exercise...

But 99% of the "secret" is tacit knowledge that often can't be articulated any better than "think real hard."

I think the reverse is true. People often ignore huge wins. "Figure out how to sleep well each night" is a +100, for instance. It's not trivial to do, but things like "Have you tried a sleep mask? Getting checked for sleep apnea? Blackout blinds?" etc are all very actionable.

The Feynman thing bugs me a bit. IIRC it was just a flippant remark Gell-Mann made to Ken Wilson (another extraordinary theorist). In practice, theorists have all kinds of detailed tricks, and think about them a lot. I suspect Murray was just feeling tired of all that that day.

Sure, it's a +100 compared to most other pieces of advice you can give people. I don't mean to say the basics aren't useful! Just that no single piece of explicit advice is going to get anyone much of the way from 0 to Gell-Mann.

(as you said yourself, physicists have *all kinds of* tricks--and I'm guessing you need to know lots of them, and learn when to use each one and how they combine/interact, in order to do great physics? At least that's how programming works)