The best teacher I never had (2016)

I feel like I'm being very negative today, but it feels like this post gets more attention because Bill Gates has become somewhat of a celebrity and he wrote it. I'm not saying I dislike Gates, I'm not saying his celebrity status hasn't been earned, etc. Just saying the content itself is kind of...unremarkable? I feel like every friend I have from highschool absolutely loves Feynman, we all read and discussed his "Six Easy Pieces", he's regularly the subject of submissions and comments on HN, etc. Like, Feynman isn't some hidden gem - thankfully many have come to know and love his work.

Apologize if I'm being unreasonably negative, but something about this post and it being top on HN kind of bothers me (maybe because it feels a little bit like hero worship?). Like, are we marvelling that Bill Gates' admiration of Feynman? Is this the best tribute to Feynman ever written? There's so much written about Feynman on/offline.

Putting Feynman aside, this is how -all- teachers should be. I had maybe two in all my years of public school that came anywhere close. It's sad that teaching is not a highly paid and prestigious job. And it's a two way street, most of the teachers now are the same awful ones I had, latching on to statements like mine, yet demanding more money. It's a race to the bottom, and a detriment to our country.

Discussed at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10992651

Here's what actually happened. Bill Gates acquired the rights and made them unavailable to anyone who wasn't using Microsoft Silverlight. I was sitting in a public library and wasn't able to download these videos to watch later, while I was no longer at the library, because of Silverlight.

This should have (2016) in the title. 'happy-go-lucky, you can probably still change it given the recency of posting.

Feynman lectures are the SICP of physics. And I don't mean that as a compliment.

People say these are the best resources on the respective subjects, however the people who say this have likely not read many other books, especially modern books.

Bill Gates is kinda cool I guess but I'm not going to take physics advice from him.

"...While helping develop the atomic bomb at Los Alamos, he entertained himself by figuring out how to break into the safes that contained top-secret research..."

I did not know he helped develop the atomic bomb. That really nice to know that he helped the States obliterate thousands of people who did not need to die afterall.