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Comment by plantain | Hacker News Reader

#178: "the applicant's wife was suing him for divorce charging him with 'playing the bongo drums too much and studying physics the rest of the time'"

#184: "a deeply ingrained belief that he had a superior intellect and that he could do no wrong. <redacted> self-centered, opinionated, dogmatic and extremely egotistical. <snip> She said that her personal feeling is that FEYNMAN is without character or acceptable moral fiber." Seems not everyone was a fan of Mr. Feynman.

Multiple references to The Communist Party and statements from anonymous informants within the party around #170. More about the Young People's Socialist League at #245

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It seems like the divorce suit was less about his bongo playing than it was his choking her when she interrupted his bongo playing.

Playing the bongos is a quirk. Choking your spouse is assault.

EDIT: that said, Feynman's divorce happened before no-fault divorce existed. At the time, a married couple wanting to divorce would often fabricate a story of spousal abuse, in order to establish grounds for granting one. This could be an instance of that practice.

> Seems not everyone was a fan of Mr. Feynman

Oh. Many people didn't really like him (in spite of acknowledging his ability). For example, Murray Gell-Mann - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnMsgxIIQEE

That's a terribly fun and interesting video for a couple of reasons, but what I note is that Gell-mann after explaining how eventually he felt Feynman spent too much effort creating anecdotes about Feynman then launched into several anecdotes about Feynman that were really wonderful.

To stand out, it often pays off to be different, especially when it comes to 'normal' things. The reasons for doing so are, I suspect, often a murky combination of on the one hand truly wanting to be different and applying that in all areas of life, and on the other hand just a need to signal how different you are.

Whatever the reasons, it can be really irritating to those close to you, but it pays off when it comes to those further away and your 'legacy'. And those close to you get used to it anyways and might even sort of like it despite the superficial frustration.

I have quite a few friends who are 'different', and without exception their 'differentness' at times crosses over into what I'd consider bullshit territory. But even the bullshit differences seem to be worth the drawback of minor irritations to those close to them, at the greater benefit of signalling their differentness in an obvious way.

> Acquaintances state appointee and wife divorced over year ago and have no reason to question moral character of either. Pertinent news articles re appointee set forth including article reporting divorce result of appointee's interest in calculus and African drums and his choking wife and smashing furniture when interrupted by wife.

I kind of have to wonder if Feynman would have been diagnosed with ADD in this day and age. ADD folks tend to hyperfocus on stuff like that, and unfortunately it jars relationships (ADD people have a 50% higher divorce rate)

In the present day war on boys and brains, our institutions would have had Feynman locked up and medicated at age 5.

"War on boys and brains" and "locked up" are rather florid characterizations of the ADHD condition and its treatments.

You don't say! Especially given all his experiments on radios, chemistry and other gadgets. I have little doubts that he would have been a prankster computer hacker if he were in school today.

Is it possible to hyperfocus the way Feynman did when you have ADD though? From my limited understanding, the 'hyperfocus' is really just a focus on smaller things, not sustained obsession with specific, difficult problems.

I recognize many symptoms of ADD in myself, but most of these have to do with boredom. I just cannot sit through a lecture if it doesn't capture my interest, and I get distracted. I find it difficult to converse sometimes, because an argument is one I've heard once too often, or it's with one of those people where I can finish most of their sentences.

But when I find the right topic, I can easily spend days obsessed with specific things. In fact, it seems that it's all or nothing for me. Is that a characteristic of ADD?

> Is it possible to hyperfocus the way Feynman did when you have ADD though?

I wouldn't say everyone with ADD can come up with the same results Feynman did, but I would say they can generally focus effectively on "the right topic," if it really interests them. The problem is they can't choose what this will be: in other words, their mind still gets set on tasks, but they can't set their minds to tasks.

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