THE 60-YEAR JOB: FREEMAN DYSON
Found via Paul Kedrosky.
The distinguished quantum physicist, who worked with Einstein at Princeton, tells Charles Nevin three things he's learnt ...
Thank you very much for your friendly invitation. I am delighted to share with Her Majesty the distinction of hanging on longer than expected. Here are brief answers to your questions.
1. I continue working because I agree with Sigmund Freud’s definition of mental health. To be healthy means to love and to work. Both activities are good for the soul, and one of them also helps to pay for the groceries.
2. In my younger days my work as a scientist was deep and narrow. Now, as I grow old, my work grows broader and shallower. As a young man, I solved technical problems of interest only to a few specialists. As an old man, I write books about human affairs of interest to a broad public. In both halves of my life, I tried to make the best use of my limited abilities.
3. (a). Advice to people at the beginning of their careers: do not imagine that you have to know everything before you can do anything. My own best work was done when I was most ignorant. Grab every opportunity to take responsibility and do things for which you are unqualified.
(b). Advice to people at the middle of their careers: do not be afraid to switch careers and try something new. As my friend the physicist Leo Szilard said (number nine in his list of ten commandments): “Do your work for six years; but in the seventh, go into solitude or among strangers, so that the memory of your friends does not hinder you from being what you have become.”
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Related previous posts:
The Civil Heretic
HERETICAL THOUGHTS ABOUT SCIENCE AND SOCIETY - By Freeman Dyson
Freeman Dyson on Charlie Rose
Freeman Dyson on EconTalk
TED Talk (2003) - Freeman Dyson says: let's look for life in the outer solar system
Robert Wright interviews Freeman Dyson
- Links
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- Robert Wright Interviews Freeman Dyson
Link .................... Related previous posts: Freeman Dyson on EconTalk Freeman Dyson on Charlie Rose ...
- Ted Talk (2003) - Freeman Dyson Says: Let's Look For Life In The Outer Solar System
Related previous posts: Freeman Dyson on Charlie Rose The Civil Heretic HERETICAL THOUGHTS ABOUT SCIENCE AND SOCIETY - By Freeman Dyson ...
- Freeman Dyson On Charlie Rose
A conversation with theoretical physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson: VIDEO .................... Related previous posts: HERETICAL THOUGHTS ABOUT SCIENCE AND SOCIETY - By Freeman Dyson The Civil Heretic- ...
- The Civil Heretic
Here is a follow-up article to yesterday’s link on Freeman Dyson. THIS is a more comprehensive article from The New York Times that goes more into Dyson’s background, and gives more insight as to why Charlie Munger thinks we should listen more to...