Thirty years ago I went on vacation and fell for Richard Feynman.
A friend and I were planning a trip together and wanted to mix a
little learning in with our relaxation. We looked at a local
university’s film collection, saw that they had one of his lectures on
physics, and checked it out. We loved it so much that we ended up
watching it twice. Feynman had this amazing knack for making physics
clear and fun at the same time. I immediately went looking for more of
his talks, and I’ve been a big fan ever since. Years later I bought the
rights to those lectures and worked with Microsoft to get them posted online for free.
In 1965, Feynman shared a Nobel Prize for work on particle physics. To celebrate the 50th
anniversary of that honor, the California Institute of Technology—where
he taught for many years before his death in 1988—asked for some
thoughts about what made him so special. Here’s the video I sent:
In that video, I especially love the way Feynman explains how fire
works. He takes such obvious delight in knowledge—you can see his face
light up. And he makes it so clear that anyone can understand it.
In that sense, Feynman has a lot in common with all the amazing
teachers I’ve met in schools across the country. You walk into their
classroom and immediately feel the energy—the way they engage their
students—and their passion for whatever subject they’re teaching.
-- Bill Gates, 1/27/16
