Talks to Watch

Richard Feynman - Names Don't Constitute Knowledge

111K views · Sep 17, 2014 · 2:06 · 0 HN recommenders · 7 mentions · discussed 2017–2022

A short excerpt from a 1973 Yorkshire TV film in which Richard Feynman explains that knowing the name of something is not the same as knowing it.

Why Hacker News points people here: Shared to end arguments over definitions and terminology, and as a reminder that memorizing names is not understanding.

“when people start quibbling over words I like to point them to this feynman video.”HN comment, 2019

What Hacker News said 7

Cites itbraveoApr 2017

Feynman on names not constituting knowledge, used to dismiss definition quibbling

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If there's one thing I definitely don't care about, it's the exact definition of censorship. What I do care about is the idea behind censorship. I will not engage you in any conversation in which you try to use the definition to argue against the point I made. So if you would like to have a discussion about the ideas behind censorship and why the worry is valid for these large websites such as FB and Youtube, I'm all for it. But if you're going to repeat that the definition of the word precludes anything but governments, then I'm not interested. this video

in “YouTube Advertiser Meltdown: An Opportunity for Startups” · view on HN
Cites itjacobolusDec 2017

Feynman's point that names are not knowledge, applied to memorizing facts

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this video > Memorizing state capitals won’t make anybody Governer, but skipping that step early on can be a major derailment from path. “Major derailment”? You can’t be serious. Nobody at my school ever memorized state capitals, and as far as I can tell they’re all doing about as well as you would expect (a couple decades later) in their various careers, including careers as lawyers, activists, policy analysts, journalists, politicians, scholars of political science, ... Anyone who does the real work (reading hundreds of topical books, keeping up with current events for decades, getting involved in political activism, engaging with peers in years of university seminars about related topics, ...) is going to end up having a reasonable grasp of the names of most states and their capitals, but being able to rattle off a list is mostly useless, except as a stunt. > Knowing the names encourages curiosity and inspires asking questions that otherwise could not be asked. Memorizing lists of random trivia engenders boredom and makes kids think school is bullshit. The questions they ask are things like “why are we doing this pointless busywork?” and “why doesn’t my teacher respect kids’ intelligence?”

Cites itvinchucoAug 2018

Feynman's names-versus-knowledge analogy applied to number terminology

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> Do you know any other examples this video Where "complex numbers" is Chinese, "imaginary numbers" is German, and "2D numbers" is English in this analogy.

in “A Visual, Intuitive Guide to Imaginary Numbers (2007)” · view on HN
Cites itcelticmusicOct 2019

“when people start quibbling over words I like to point them to this feynman video.”

Pointed to when people quibble over words

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when people start quibbling over words I like to point them to this feynman video. this video The idea that risk isn't a part of the discussion about why a company is laying off 40% of its work force doesn't seem like it has much merit. The responses made sense, and they've been explained to you. You're just casting about trying to come up with some way to dismiss the other persons point while intellectualizing it for the HN audience. If we were on reddit your tone would be some passive aggressive wiffle waffle about experience or intelligence. The tone might change based upon the site, but the inaneness of the person behind them doesn't.

in “Fair, the SoftBank-backed car startup, lays off 40% of staff, sacks CFO” · view on HN
Cites itP5fRxh5kUvp2thDec 2022

“I'm not willing to argue over the names of things.”

Used to decline arguing over names of things

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this video I don't care what you call it, if person A starts mistreating person B and person B knows how to deal with these situations, person A will quickly stop mistreating person B. Your argument here appears to be that bullying if person A doesn't eventually fight back. I don't agree with that, but I'm not willing to argue over the names of things.

in “Persistent and pervasive impact of being bullied in childhood and adolescence” · view on HN
Cites itP5fRxh5kUvp2thDec 2022

“And now I'm going to leave you with an observation by Richard Feynman.”

Feynman observation offered to end a definitional argument

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Sorry, I'm not reading all of that. I stopped at the second paragraph. The answer to the question doesn't actually matter, not to you, and not to me. It's a ploy to try and confound the conversation. If you and the other poster really feel it needs to be defined, then define cancelled as "the thing that happened to Dorian Abbot". boom, you're done. It now has a definition, tautological, but valid nonetheless. The thing that should be getting discussed is whether or not what happened to him should have happened to him. And the answer is no, it shouldn't happen to anyone. And now I'm going to leave you with an observation by Richard Feynman. this video

in “Letter regarding proposed free expression statement from MIT” · view on HN
Cites itP5fRxh5kUvp2thDec 2022

Feynman clip on names versus knowledge, used in a terminology argument

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Sure, if you find the phrase "common sense" to be less offensive than "blind faith", but in this case they mean the same thing. this video

in “Why on Earth are flowers beautiful? (2018)” · view on HN