Richard Feynman On ‘How to Live Your Life With No Regrets’
The importance of uncertainty from ‘no ordinary genius’
As brilliant a teacher of science and author, Richard Feynman was equally prolific in the philosophy of life. Even though he kind of hated philosophy and didn’t like the ways philosophers explained things and the ways they looked at the universe (as mentioned in his autobiographical account), he was particularly intrigued by how he perceived his life. From having no respect whatsoever for authorities to having scientific integrity at the workplace, Feynman taught a great deal about how to look up to our lives and left an important legacy to follow. This isn’t my first piece on the great physicist. I’ve written several stories on Richard Feynman that you can read if you scroll down on my page. Most of the previous stories have been associated with Feynman’s scientific works and theological points of view. This story, however, is going to signify the other very important aspect of Feynman’s life and what we can learn from it.
Christopher Sykes recalls Feynman’s statement about a lesson he learned from his father in his book No Ordinary Genius, p. 28
“The most important thing I found out from my father is that if you asked any question and pursued it deeply enough, then at the end there was a glorious discovery of a general and beautiful kind.”
The most important thing is to not kill your inner natural curiosity. We all are curious beings but as we grow up, due to various reasons that natural curiosity gets lost somewhere. One of the very important lessons that Feynman learned from his father and that we can learn from his life is to never stop questioning. The foundation of a profound discovery lies in questioning. Feynman speaks about the value of uncertainty and not knowing things in one of his interviews titled The Pleasure of finding things out [also stated in Sykes’ book, p. 239],
“I can live with doubt, and uncertainty, and not knowing. I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers, and possible beliefs, and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I’m not absolutely sure of anything. There are many things I don’t know anything about…It doesn’t frighten me.”
Why is it necessary to know everything? Why does one feel obligated toward having an opinion about something one doesn’t know much about? Why does one feel that one should be absolutely certain about everything and that certainty is important? Feynman beautifully explains the importance of doubt and uncertainty in this interview. That not everyone needs to know everything, and that life is equally beautiful even if you don’t bother about everything. In science, for example, uncertainty plays a key role in discovery because it provides you with possibilities, gives you insight into what’s right and what’s wrong, and ultimately provides you with a direction to pursue.
Watch the video here:
In 1964, Richard Feynman delivered a lecture at the Galileo Symposium in Italy regarding the role of scientific culture in modern society where he said a profound statement about life,
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”
This statement signifies a sense of self-reflection that we often forget in our lives. To believe things simply because we want them to be true is idiotic. When we do so, all we are doing is just fooling ourselves. It is much more easier to fool ourselves, according to Feynman, than to fool others and the former is what we tend to do most of our lives without even realizing it. The above statement is also mentioned in a book titled The Pleasure of Finding Things Out published in 1999.
In an interview given to the Omni magazine in 1979, the magazine that popularized Feynman as being the smarted man in the world at that time, Feynman gives a profound statement regarding what’s important,
“I don’t know anything, but I do know that everything is interesting if you go into it deeply enough.”
We often question ourselves and tend to compare one thing with another. This happens quite often and quite frequently in a student’s life. So and so is more fascinating than other works, such and such is more interesting and has more scope than other fields. This, however, is something that we realize much later in our lives that every field is important and interesting. Be it science, theology, archeology, literature, poetry, or anything, if you dig deeper into it things will start making much sense to you and you start to find it fascinating. There’s no such thing as having a better subject or a better field of study. You can study the full interview here:
In his autobiographical account titled Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman! Feynman shares a very lesson for life that we often, for some reason, tend to ignore but has a huge impact on how we think and how we live our lives.
“You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It’s their mistake, not my failing.”
If you want to live a regret-free life, you need to stop thinking about what others think about you and your life. We spend our entire lives thinking, and in fact overthinking about people, society, teachers, and others think, who do not know our paths, our struggles, our good and bad, and unfortunately, we allow them to control our lives. It’s you who has to decide what makes you happy and pursue it accordingly. It would be stupid of you to try and stand by someone else’s expectations. Do what you feel is good for you, and right for you, In doing so, it is very obvious that you will come across failures and disappointments, but that will teach you a great deal and the best part would you, it would you and only you responsible for that.
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