How Feynman Approached Fermat's Last Theorem

Re:How Feynman Approached Fermat's Last Theorem by Waterluvian on Sunday December 31, 2017 @10:48PM (#16044575)

It's a beautiful way to approach problems. But one problem I find with it is that I get a bit paranoid with my solutions. Sure, it's not being rejected by any of my experimentation, but is it ready for millions of dollars of commitment? How do I know when I'm confident enough? After all, I went into this trying to prove myself wrong, so my mind is in a place where I'm expecting for it to fall apart.

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Re:How Feynman Approached Fermat's Last Theorem by evanb on Monday January 01, 2018 @03:04AM (#16045202)

There's another story about Feynman, somewhat related to this issue. He had worked out the V-A structure of the weak force which had been an outstanding puzzle for some time. At some later point he was visiting CERN and they during the tour the guide said something along the lines of "Oh! Professor Feynman! This [huge experiment and expensive detector] is to test your theory of [such and such blah blah blah]."

Feynman smiled and said, "What, you don't trust me?"

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Re:How Feynman Approached Fermat's Last Theorem by emmelaich on Monday January 01, 2018 @02:48AM (#16045167)

As long as you do some experimentation that's fine. You might be legitimately be criticised for not doing the right experiment or not enough. Take it on the chin, learn, move on.

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