B. F. Skinner (Uncle Fred) was probably the greatest scholar of human behavior of the last century. He said a lot of smart things.
Including: "Faced with very positive behavior, we should experience a sense of wonder and not of admiration."
In other words, when we find people like Richard Feynman, we should not admire their intelligence, but rather try to understand what has contributed to building such a wonderful brain.
And Feynman left us some clues to understand what "produced" him.
For example, when Feynman was a child and was walking around in the woods with his father and asking him what the name of a certain bird was, his father would tell him something like: "It's the nightingale of ... Boh! And you can learn it's name in all languages of the world, and you will never know anything about that bird! Rather, let's observe it, let's see how it lives. "
Instead of the notion, empirical observation. The curiosity. The desire to understand.
And a few decades later we find a Nobel Prize. And, more importantly, a happy person.
This is just a small example of environmental factors (in this case, the father) that can help us understand how to create other brains so well made. In any field.
Admiration is a bit of a dead end. I think I'm dealing with something inexplicable, and here I stop.
The wonder,instead, is curiosity, desire to understand, which sometimes expands to the point to pleasantly fill even a whole existence.
For example, in front of a painting by Tintoretto like this,
Uncle Fred invites us to try to understand what led to such of an artistic talent. Looking at a work like this has pleased many people for half a millennium. How to become Tintoretto? A question that brings others, and others. There is no certainty or fundamental illumination. One's curiosity is cultivated as one could navigate in an infinite ocean. There are no definitive landings, but maybe it does not matter. It does not really matter.
To conclude, two things. You can find this Tintoretto's painting here
Uncle Fred, before ceasing to exist, left a simple intellectual testament: "Experiment!". Do not give anything for sure. As we said above, sailing in the infinite ocean of curiosity.
Including: "Faced with very positive behavior, we should experience a sense of wonder and not of admiration."
In other words, when we find people like Richard Feynman, we should not admire their intelligence, but rather try to understand what has contributed to building such a wonderful brain.
And Feynman left us some clues to understand what "produced" him.
For example, when Feynman was a child and was walking around in the woods with his father and asking him what the name of a certain bird was, his father would tell him something like: "It's the nightingale of ... Boh! And you can learn it's name in all languages of the world, and you will never know anything about that bird! Rather, let's observe it, let's see how it lives. "
Instead of the notion, empirical observation. The curiosity. The desire to understand.
And a few decades later we find a Nobel Prize. And, more importantly, a happy person.
This is just a small example of environmental factors (in this case, the father) that can help us understand how to create other brains so well made. In any field.
Admiration is a bit of a dead end. I think I'm dealing with something inexplicable, and here I stop.
The wonder,instead, is curiosity, desire to understand, which sometimes expands to the point to pleasantly fill even a whole existence.
For example, in front of a painting by Tintoretto like this,
Uncle Fred invites us to try to understand what led to such of an artistic talent. Looking at a work like this has pleased many people for half a millennium. How to become Tintoretto? A question that brings others, and others. There is no certainty or fundamental illumination. One's curiosity is cultivated as one could navigate in an infinite ocean. There are no definitive landings, but maybe it does not matter. It does not really matter.
To conclude, two things. You can find this Tintoretto's painting here
Uncle Fred, before ceasing to exist, left a simple intellectual testament: "Experiment!". Do not give anything for sure. As we said above, sailing in the infinite ocean of curiosity.
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