Reaction to expert lecture by Richard Feynman -- Wk1 Post 1

The expert lecture by Richard Feynman was an interesting piece. I agree to the theme of the whole lecture, which seems to be that intelligence is not knowing the name of a thing or action

but to understand what it is and how it operates. As Mr. Feynman said about what his father told him, you can see a bird and know the name of it in a multiple languages, but that doesn't mean you know what the bird is and its function and habits as a creature. If we all took that approach of seeing things more in depth and understanding how it operates we would see a lot of things differently. This way of looking at things can also be used in looking at human nature. For example, when Mr. Feynman's father was asking him why all those people were bowing down in front of the pope. The uniform and credentials made other people honor him, although he is just a human, just like you and me.

I also found it interesting when he was asked was the Nobel prize worth it. He didn't care about the honors and the praise. The satisfaction comes from the actual discovery of knowing what you didn't know before. People in the intellectual groups that he came across were pompous and arrogant in their intelligence and achievements. They spent a lot of time assessing who was good enough to be among them, instead of discussing and taking in the pleasure of finding things out, as he says. I think when you appreciate the knowledge that you gain from things, the more desire you would have to keep finding things out on a more personal level, for an inner satisfaction. If most of the world would grasp this concept, I think we'd have more advancement in a good way.