The Physics of Life: Richard Feynman on How to Unlock Your Genius

Be curious enough to experiment: you don’t know what works until you try

Richard Feynman was a brilliant, curious and eccentric American physicist. He was one of the most influential physicists of the 20th century, known for his work on quantum mechanics, atomic theory, and quantum electrodynamics.

He believed a better approach to figuring things out and becoming a better version of yourself is to make room for experiments, curiosity and doubt.

“I have approximate answers, and possible beliefs, and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I’m not absolutely sure of anything,” says Feynman.

You can do more, make better progress, discover your authentic self and do more of what makes you come alive if you treat life as an experiment in progress.

We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and there is no learning.

When you think about it, everything about our lives is an experiment. We’re always learning what works and what doesn’t. And we’re constantly trying new things to see how they impact different areas of our lives.

You learn different habits, routines, and rituals, mental models that might help you live a better or more meaningful life, experiment for a few weeks, reflect on your results and what you learned and keep improving your habits accordingly.

It’s based on the same scientific discovery process of seeking the truth and digging deeper, except you are learning for life or applying better behaviours in your life.

“We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.” Richard Feynman said.

“We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.” Richard Feynman

Without habit, routine or new behaviour experiments, we have no way of knowing whether something works or not unless someone had already tested it before us and shared the findings with others.

“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.”