cheesecake4all
07-01-2012, 09:44 AM
A beautiful story about Richard Feynman @<hidden> Thinking Machines. (http://ddcolrs.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/richard-feynman-thinking-machines/) circa the early 1980's
(excerpts below). Note: this was after Feynman had already won the 1965 Nobel Prize for Physics (http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/feynman-lecture.html).
We were arguing about what the name of the company should be when Richard walked in, saluted, and said, 'Richard Feynman reporting for duty. OK, boss, what's my assignment?' The assembled group of not-quite-graduated MIT students was astounded.
After a hurried private discussion ('I don't know, you hired him'), we informed Richard that his assignment would be to advise on the application of parallel processing to scientific problems.
'That sounds like a bunch of baloney,' he said. 'Give me something real to do.'
So we sent him out to buy some office supplies. ...
Many a visitor at Thinking Machines was shocked to see that we had a Nobel Laureate soldering circuit boards or painting walls.
(excerpts below). Note: this was after Feynman had already won the 1965 Nobel Prize for Physics (http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/feynman-lecture.html).
We were arguing about what the name of the company should be when Richard walked in, saluted, and said, 'Richard Feynman reporting for duty. OK, boss, what's my assignment?' The assembled group of not-quite-graduated MIT students was astounded.
After a hurried private discussion ('I don't know, you hired him'), we informed Richard that his assignment would be to advise on the application of parallel processing to scientific problems.
'That sounds like a bunch of baloney,' he said. 'Give me something real to do.'
So we sent him out to buy some office supplies. ...
Many a visitor at Thinking Machines was shocked to see that we had a Nobel Laureate soldering circuit boards or painting walls.