The Freakonomics podcast is doing a series of episodes on the physicist Richard Feynman. The first episode is terrific, and I’m looking forward to listening to the rest.
Feynman liked to figure things out from first principles. He didn’t accept received wisdom. This led him to extraordinary breakthroughs in physics and a rich and unusual life. He followed his own path, in science and in life.
But Feynman was a super-genius. You and I are not super-geniuses. If you and I try to apply this principle broadly, that leads to Qanon, anti-vax and other bad outcomes.
Sometimes you have to listen to what the experts say.
However, here in the 21st Century, with institutions breaking down and displaying incompetence, it’s difficult to figure out which self-proclaimed experts to listen to.