Day 65: Friday 14 April
Thinking about precedent and crossbreeding today I recalled a story Richard Feynman told. I need to dig it out to confirm the details.
This took place either at university or when he started working at Los Alamos, when they were developing the atomic bomb. Quite possibly he always did this.
Whenever he went to the dining hall he noticed that the theoretical physicists would sit with the theoretical physicists, the cleaners would sit with the cleaners, the chemists would sit with the chemists, and so on. Birds of a feather would flock together. He would always resist this urge and would sit at the table that were not his “tribe”. He would take the time to get curious and learn about them. He would sit and ask them questions about their work. He would have involved conversations with those he was sitting with. He started learning more and connecting things that he wouldn’t have otherwise. He had knowledge that would start to inform his work and thinking. Maybe even leading to him rethinking what he believed.
He cross-pollinated.
It’s a valuable insight into what made him such a great thinker. It’s not unlike the metaphor I’ve been using of selective breeding and crossbreeding.
I’ve many threads to be woven together.