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Comment by aazaa | Hacker News Reader

> ... Feynman replied with an enquiry about Mano’s current job, to which Mano responded that he was “studying the Coherence theory with some applications to the propagation of electromagnetic waves through turbulent atmosphere […] a humble and down-to-earth type of problem.” Feynman responded with this letter.

I must be missing something. Feynman's letter is full of good advice about the crucial importance of choosing problems to work on carefully, and how to do that.

But Mano's inquiry doesn't seem to warrant Feynman's response, which seeks to correct an error. I can't find one in the short quote from Mano's letter. Where is the original?

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I think the error was that Mano referred to his coherence theory problem as "humble and down-to-earth". Feynman sought to correct the implicit assumption that there is some natural dividing line between "humble" and "great" problems. I think he would reject that such a thing as a humble problem does not exist.

In one of Feynman's books he talks about being dispirited and in a rut in his career, and breaking out of it by working on a toy problem inspired by something like plates in a cafeteria.

The error mentioned is that Feynman (as PhD supervisor) supplied an important thesis topic to Mano. Mano didn't get the experience of how to evaluate a problem and find motivation within it:

"I accepted [someone else] as a student because he came to me with the problem he wanted to solve. With you I made a mistake, I gave you the problem instead of letting you find your own; and left you with a wrong idea of what is interesting or pleasant or important to work on (namely those problems you see you may do something about)."

Yes, this! Saying that your work is “Humble and down to earth” doesn’t necessarily days that it’s beyond yourself.

Haven’t we all been told that it’s good to be humble? To me, the reply goes way beyond what this statement warrants.

You don't know the entirety of what Mano wrote.

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