Inspirational Quotes (From Richard P. Feynman) for Software Developers to Consider

Richard P. Feynman was a professor at California Institute of Technology and worked at Los Alamos on the Manhattan Project. 

I recently read his great book:

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character[^]

He was a genius physicist but managed to stay human. Alas, many engineers forget how important that last part is.

Teach principles not formulas.

#### And, by "teach", he means LEARN. Learn foundational principles in Software Development and you will be able to learn any technology.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.

#### So many developers forget that they can easily fool themselves and begin believing their own lies : "Oh, yes, I understand exactly how that works."  Then things go haywire in production and they remember that they don't know every detail of how it works.

What I cannot create, I do not understand.

#### This is why many of us got into Software Development. We thought if we could build it then we could understand it.

Know how to solve every problem that has been solved.

#### Work to learn the things that are known. Stop worrying about the unknowns.

I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.

#### There are places you will work where "they" have all the  answers and "know" everything. Learn what you can and get out of there.

If you thought that science was certain – well, that is just an error on your part.

We need to teach how doubt is not to be feared but welcomed. It’s OK to say, “I don’t know.”

##### Why are Devs so afraid to say, "I don't know"?

I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there.

I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.

Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible.

#### Remember, ABL, Always Be Learning

And to learn, you have to first know that you don't really understand the thing as well as you could. You cannot believe you know everything.

Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.

#### Science was invented to be doubted. So you'll keep on asking questions and learning more. Doubt your code will work too. It'll make you stronger.

### THIS!!!! 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

There is no learning without having to pose a question. And a question requires doubt.

### THIS!!!! ☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️

Scientists are explorers. Philosophers are tourists.

Be an Explorer, Not a Know-it-all

#### Programmers should always be learners (explorers) too. Sadly, paid work often turns programmers into mimics and hucksters.

The only way to deep happiness is to do something you love to the best of your ability.

If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics.

#### This is very much true for programming too.  

You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It’s their mistake, not my failing.

#### Be what you want to be. Learn the things you want to learn and you'll grow strong and fast.

Yes, a lot of times that means you have to do those things after a complete day of work (what others wanted you to do) but never give up on what you want to learn.

I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.

## Just because you know the name of a pattern or can re-type how to sort numbers with JavaScript, doesn't mean you understand the concepts.

Never confuse education with intelligence, you can have a PhD and still be an idiot.

Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough.

Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter.

##### Stop being so caught up on being happy and focus on something and doing it to the best of your ability and happiness will arise.

The highest forms of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion.

So true in IT. 

So needed in IT workplace. Be the difference.

History

• 22^nd September, 2023: Initial version