Richard Feynman believed in failing fast

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

Was just reading this:

Feynman concluded: “for my money Fermat’s theorem is true”. This is of course not very formal from a mathematical standpoint and is far from the real 110 pages long proof of FLT that took A.Wiles years to put together, notwithstanding it’s a really good example of Feynman’s scientific approach and genius. As Feynman used to say:

the main job of theoretical physics is to prove yourself wrong as soon as possible.

This is another way of stating the fail-fast philosophy that smart computer programmers use to test their systems. I’m posting it here as a note to myself; a reminder of how many different areas of life it is an applicable philosophy.

Post external references

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    http://www.lbatalha.com/blog/feynman-on-fermats-last-theorem
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