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Feynman: How to think 1 of 2 FUN TO IMAGINE 11

Christopher Sykes · 388.2K views · 2009-01-24 · 6:24

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Overview

An excerpt from the 1983 BBC series Fun to Imagine in which Richard Feynman describes how he and a mathematician friend counted in their heads in different ways, one verbally and one visually. It shows that people can reach the same goal through quite different mental methods.

On Hacker News

HN points to it constantly in threads on inner monologue, visual versus verbal thinking and communication as the classic, entertaining demonstration that minds work differently.

Recommended by 5 HN people across 5 months · HN mentions 2011–2024

Topics

Consciousness & cognitionPsychology & human behaviorTech pioneers & interviews
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richard feynmancognitioninternal monologuecountingmental imagery

What people said

oxplot · 2020-01 · Recommendation

Relevant bit from Feynman talking about how he found that a simple act of counting in one's head can be different and all its implications. I suggest watching the other videos from the same interview. Lots of fun. [VIDEO]

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chii · 2019-04 · Recommendation

If you have a few minutes spare, you should watch this video of richard feynman, who talks about how he thinks "thinking" happens in people, and how communication is very lossy : [VIDEO] i think the fact that you thought a certain way of learning is more appropriate is actually correct - some people learn one way better than another, and that's because in their brain, they model the world in a different way to other people (who also find a different way of learning better). It just so happens that sometimes a person's model happens to suit the sort of teaching method being used in a school, and he ends up looking like a genius.

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DavidVoid · 2018-04 · Recommendation

You'll probably enjoy this video with Richard Feynman about how different people think differently even for something as basic as counting. [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Christopher Sykes, played through YouTube.

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