Comment by specialist
3 days ago
IIRC, Feynman said something like "I can't explain magnetism to a layperson in terms they can understand."
> ...causing a growing rift between scientists and the normal population.
True.
3 days ago
IIRC, Feynman said something like "I can't explain magnetism to a layperson in terms they can understand."
> ...causing a growing rift between scientists and the normal population.
True.
The full quote is better.
Ie: “I can’t explain it in terms of something else you’re more familiar with because I don’t understand it terms of anything else you’re more familiar with.”
Yet Einstein said something like "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough". So maybe Feynman didn't understand it "well enough"
That was a pretty classical point of view. Quantum mechanics has gone so deep by now, there simply is nothing in a layperson's world that could accurately represent what is really going on. This was not a limit of Feynman, it's a limit of humans.
Einstein was giving a rule of thumb, not a law of nature.
I sometimes listen to Jordan Peterson's podcasts (and have read the "12 rules.."). I understand the dude. Then I found on YT a speech/discussion he had with/for psychologists, and they were still speaking English, and I couldn't understand half of what they were saying.
Now, to my 'craft' (GRC). I lately catch myself speaking like Peter Thiel, taking 20-30 second 'silences', build in my mind what I want to say, 'translate it' to simple(r) English, and then slowly say it out loud to make sure I pave the path with mental & verbal stepping stones without using any jargon.
I very well understand what I want to say, but the gap between in the knowledge and the use of language puts the onus to the explainer.