Feynman's Nobel Ambition

Feynman would have made a great hacker. Wasn't into things that made money, he was into things that were interesting, whose solution was neat (and reflected on him, of course). Turns out, things which he could do were more involved than most of us, but doing things for the joy of doing should never be forgotten.

Yeah, you can go into a facility for mathematics and a clarity of vision that was rare. But he stresses his father a lot in his talks, and it's probably not just filial pride - he internalized and appreciated the "look behind the uniform" attitude that he was shown.