[Editor’s note: The full video of the Richard Feynman documentary The Pleasure of Finding Things Out is no longer embeddable, but you can watch it here. You can also view clips from the series on YouTube.]
Many times in the last five years, I’ve been asked: “If you could have dinner with anyone in history, who would it be?”
My answer is always the same: Richard Feynman.
Right alongside Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic, Feynman’s book Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) hugely impacted every aspect of my thinking when I first read them circa 2005. Since then, I have studied Feynman’s letters, teaching style, discoveries, and beyond. How many Nobel Prize winners also safe crack and play bongos in bars for fun?
The above video will give you an taste of why I love Richard Feynman. It was forwarded to me by Brew Johnson and J.R. Johnson, whom I owe huge thanks, as I’d somehow missed it. About the program, Professor Sir Harry Kroto, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, said:
“The 1981 Feynman Horizon is the best science program I have ever seen. This is not just my opinion – it is also the opinion of many of the best scientists that I know who have seen the program… It should be mandatory viewing for all students, whether they be science or arts students.”
Feynman’s makes me want to be a better teacher and, ultimately, a world-class parent (you’ll see what I mean). A few notes on the video:
- I first watched this in 10-minute bites before bed. There’s no need to watch it all at once.
- :30-:38 is fascinating physics, but physics nonetheless. He does a masterful job of getting lay people excited (his cadence helps a lot), but skip if needed, rather than missing what follows.
- :40+ explains part of his teaching philosophy, which greatly influenced how I outline my books.
- His concept of “active irresponsibility” is worth remembering.
May you all experience the pleasure of finding things out, starting here with a closer look at a most curious character: Richard Feynman.
If you could have dinner anyone from any time in history, who would you choose and why? Assume you can’t tell anyone about the dinner, so bragging rights don’t apply. What would you want to learn, know, or experience?
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Odds and Ends:
Tim Ferriss on Reddit AMA (answering some controversial questions, too)
The 4-Hour Chef site – Brand-new and soon getting more. Some of the copy is placeholder text, but it give you an idea.
The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.
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Thomas Jefferson. I’d hope to be erudite enough to be invited back, and not talk his ear off about books, wine and gardening.
Thanks for this video, Tim.
Love your reasons Tim for him being “the one” you would meet out of all the people in history
I would probably choose pro snowboarder Craig Kelly. Just a perfect of example of living life on his own terms and always doing what he loved. He constantly sought adventure and pushed his limits.
Trailer for his biography (awesome movie)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnv7lRKVYDg
Yes, I’ve seen these before. I recommend all videos from Feynman accesible on YouTube. Other than that, Carl Gustav Jung is somebody I’d love to have dinner with.
Steve Jobs, Tim Ferriss, Jimmy Buffett, and Paul Newman
We’re being hypothetical, right?
I would want to ask them one single question:
“What kind of person would you be if you where born 100 years before your time?”
Feynman videos are great because he explains abstruse physics and mathematics with an accent like a Brooklyn cab driver.
I think Shakespeare would be a good person to have a chat with over a beer and a burger. I think his intellect is so voluminous, that we could talk for hours, and I would be more enriched for the experience.
As far as someone who is alive now, I can’t think of a more creative person to share ideas with than Bob Dylan. If you pick up a volume of his lyrics, you would be amazed at how vast and beautiful his writing is.
Thanks for sharing this! I’m happy that the autodidactic trend is continuing to spread. Hurray for the Internet’s ability to pick up the slack of a failing education system.
I’m very much looking forward to the 4-Hour Chef angle of “learning how to learn!”
Best two quotes from the video:
03:30 min mark “I have a limited intelligence, and I’ve used it in a particular direction”
40:10 min mark “My theory is, that the best way to teach is to have no philosophy, is to be chaotic and confusing … to catch this guy or that guy on different hooks”
Fantastic video. Thanks for sharing Tim.
(Sorry, no specific heroes that I’d like to have dinner with. Just a bunch of them that I already have breakfast, lunch and dinner with through their books 🙂 )
Tim, I love the new 4-Hour Chef site and I look forward to receiving my book in the mail any day now. Who did the web design? By the way, I started the cold showers regime eight months ago and i’ve never looked back…anything to “eat like Santa and look like Jesus.” Thanks again.
I’ve been a huge fan of Dr. Feynman since you recommended the “Surely You’re Joking…” book years ago. Aside from Richard Feynman, I’d like to share a meal with Teddy Roosevelt, Chris Sharma, Seth Godin, yourself… many more. I’m interested in how others perceive the world and what thought processes, belief systems, and motivations each has that’s transformed their living experience.
I’m pretty sad that Surely, You’re Joking… isn’t on Kindle. Maybe a trip to Foyle’s is in order.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003V1WXKU/
For Joel: Check out the audio version of Surely You’re Joking Mr, Feynman. He reads it and that’s half the fun. I use Audiobooks.com
Winston Churchill, because he was just simply a badass (and a genius).
I would love to ask him what he thought were the best methods one could use to change the world 🙂
Tim
My two top dinner candidates would be:
Alexander Hamilton: Despite being an orphan, he become one of the most influential founding fathers, yielding incredible influence over the economic policies/future of the country.
Jeff Bezos: Founded the world’s largest and most successful e-Commerce company, a field I’m really passionate about.
Any chance to dine with them both? 😉
Jesus, Siddhartha, Einstein, J. Krishnamurti.
And Feynman and that book are awesome.
Was it Feynman’s classes that were so popular that non-students would sneak in just to hear the lectures? Too many teachers have the opposite effect…
For dinner:
Herodotus & Josephus – for the stories
Rasputin – because WTF is up with him?
VIP Dinner Guest – Nassim Taleb – because I think we are yet to see his best work and I want to be there when it happens.
Apparently, Feynman even had Friday afternoon lectures that were packed…but that isn’t the interesting bit: these were “unofficial” lectures for courses that were not part of the university curriculum!
Instead, he just had informal science lectures which students attended because they found them interesting- not because the needed the credit for graduation. Amazing!
Other recommendations: “Genius”, a biography of Feynman by James Gleick
“The pleasure of finding things out” a collection of pieces by Feynman (including a transcript of the video above and a piece called “Cargo cult science” which is available online).
“What do you care what other people think” also by Feynman
Great thing about your blog, Tim, is that it doesn’t just get me thinking, it gets me doing. A lot. As always, thanks.
Dinner (and drinks):
Theodore Roosevelt. I’m pretty sure I could just be a fly on the wall of any room he was in and it would be educational and immensely entertaining.
Kurt Vonnegut. I think a lot of writers are at their best on the page and not in person. I think Vonnegut would be a charming, fun guy to hang out with. I have a feeling that he was a great example of how a human being should live.
Ernest Hemmingway. Who cares if he didn’t live up to the myth. It’s freaking Hemmingway. He could teach me how to REALLY drink.
Rasputin. One of the most interesting and mysterious people in history. We could talk beards.
Will Wright, the greatest game designer in history and a man who plays with systems as effortlessly as an eagle maintains flight.
Hey Tim!
Thanks for the video. I am watching it for less than 10 min and it’s already full of gems!
From reading the encyclopedia with…translation to understanding what is really knowledge (e.g., bird example)…golden nuggets keep coming!
Hope all is well!
Albert Einstein.
A friend of mine in Chicago learned how to safe crack when he found a safe in his apartment. Most of the apartments in his building have one hidden in one of the rooms. He’s gone around to different people’s apartments cracking their safes for them and giving them what’s inside. All filled with stuff about 100 years old. Sounds like a really fun real world adventure, definitely a skill I’d like to learn about.
Would have loved to meet Osho. Thankfully, he’s as good as alive still if you read his talks. Also would have loved to hear Amalia Rodrigues (Fado Music) and Leo Fuchs (Yiddish Theatre) live.
Bruce Lee without a doubt
hell yeah. bruce lee is my childhood hero.
Defining the meaning of the dinosaur’s head…so valuable.
Knowing the names of things but nothing about them.
The image of organizations doing little but deciding who should heve the honor of being admitted to the organisation.
The integrations and unifications – whence things look simpler than ever before.
Simply put, and how lovely, the pleasure of finding things out!
Lost in the universe without any purpose…
Fascinating, engaging and swell.
Tim, if I could choose a dead pearson, I would dinner with my grandpa. He was one of the most brilliant person I have ever known, altougth I only realized it some time after he died.
In that time I was too young to have ally asked the things I want to know now!
Now I seek the example of other ‘mentors’ like you.
Cheers from Brazil!
Thomas Edison for sure.
But…Edison was not a honourable man…he lied and cheated Tesla out of money he had promised him. Then lied again about alternating current. And he electrocuted dogs and even an Elephant to try and cause a “show” that would support his false position. If it were for Edison we wwould all still be in the dark ages. Lightbulb indeed…he also invented that AFTER Tesla….
Jack Lallane. Here was a guy that showed the world that with an extremely positive attitude, a connection to nature, and using your body the way humans are supposed to can bring a lifetime of health and happiness. Tim, you pretty much preach the same thing. The stuff I learned from you guys (everything from 4HWW, juicing, kettlebells, and cold showers to name a few) has helped me a lot in every area in my life.
My work life is easier, my hair is thicker, my body is lean, and I’m feeling happy.
I didn’t have role models or mentors in my life to help me through tough times. I had you-tube, books, and blogs from Jack, Tim, and few others.
So yeah, Jack Lallane sparked my fire, but Tim Ferriss added fuel along with a very select few. Thanks, really.
Who would I love to dine with?
It sorta depends
Edward Lorenz of the famous Butterfly effect. I would love to talk about chaos theory and weather.
Martin Luther for all his problems, still for me the image of what one man can do.
Mark Twain for his humour and how it was he saw the people he wrote about
Lyle Lovett I would love to sit and talk about his music and his lyrics.
It was hard to continue with this video after he explains his logic for working on the atomic bomb that killed so many people.
I would want to have dinner with N. Tesla, Celia Cruz or Dalai Lama.
My 3 people I’ve wanted to have dinner with have always been:
-Richard Feynman
– Amelia Earhart
– nicola tesla
In that order. All super interesting people. Interesting that Feynman showed up here… I read his book(s) a long time ago and have always loves that guy.
Loved the video from beginning to end.
By the way thanks Tim for being a huge inspiration for many years!
Lao Tzu or Buddha
A better question is why not?
Best regards,
Klaus
Tim, thanks for sharing this video. My grandmother gave me Surely You’re Joking and What do you Care… back in high school and they had a huge influence on my thinking and attitude towards school. I had kind of forgotten how big they were in creating my view of certain systems until I watched this video. I had never actually seen him speak before, so it was a great treat!
My choices are probably:
Mohandas Gandhi -somebody who inspired so many would be worth a few hours of anybody’s time.
Dr. David Simon – co-founder of the Chopra Center. One of the best story tellers and teachers I have ever had the opportunity to meet. Just a compassionate soul.
There is no doubt who my choice would be, Jesus. No one has been written, spoken, and praised more then Jesus. And he fancied himself a teacher. As another plus he had the ability to do miracles. Even if people do not believe the god abilities and powers Jesus had, it would be tough to argue how great someone had to be to be so well thought of so many years later.
My dinner guests:
Anthony Bourdain and George Carlin. Oh, and Tom Waits.
That would be a memorable evening.
Nicola Tesla. I’d ask him for demos 🙂
Averell Harriman. Most powerful man who ever lived and kept it all to himself… fascinating life, all but forgotten by history.
Feynman is great too though.
First of all, it didn’t surprise me at all to see you link a Feynman video. You’ve definitely captured some of his maverick spirit, and I loved seeing this since I’ve always loved Feynman since reading that same book.
I think Andy Kaufman would be a hell of a guy to have dinner with, both for entertainment and to see if I could figure him out. It wouldn’t happen, but would be fun trying.
Awesome video, can’t believe I’ve never seen this before. Thanks for exposing me to it.
For dinner.
#1. Christopher Hitchens. I think he’d be a great dinner companion. The conversation would be lively, and informative. He wouldn’t mind if I smoked. And I’m sure the dinner would last all night, with plenty of spirits to keep it fueled.
#2. Tim Ferriss. Because as awesome as Hitch is. Your writings and books have done more to date to influence my life. Plenty of credit is due to you that right now I am in Koh Samui, Thailand living like a rockstar and have a business that generates a comfortable income while I do almost no work on it.
Cheers buddy
To be honest, if I could have just one person at my dinner table (dead or alive) that would have to be the Buddha himself.
Whow, I didn’t know you where in to Feynman.
Strangely I’ve been thinking about (and reading) Feynman very often lately.
I guess I miss hard science…
Tony Robbins for sure!
Nikola Tesla. He single-handedly changed the world to a degree 99.999999% of people have no idea about. I would pick his brain for the whole dinner. Screw eating! I wouldn’t have time!
Sylvester Stallone for sure. He is far smarter than he appears in many of his movie roles, driven beyond belief, and passionate about living.
From outward appearances, Stallone is always trying to learn about and improve upon himself to a degree few others care about.
There would be so much to learn from him.
Feynman was indeed a fascinating person!
I read his “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman” last year. Actually, I posted several quotations from the book just a couple of months ago. http://zze.st/surely-youre-joking-mr-feynman/
Teddy Roosevelt. He lived more in his short life than dozens of men live in thier lives combined. Still to this day one of the most fascinating (and one of the toughest) men I’ve read about.
Will be checking the video this evening. Thanks Tim!
I would love to meet Benjamin Franklin and talk to him about his ability to process information, and set up a country.
A wise man, someone who could motivate me, inspire me, set an example of how to think and act that suited me. Then I could make more of a difference to the world. A gent I knew called George, very old, very sharp, very wise. There are wise and great men out there that have not achieved much in material terms, but as you can tell from meeting them, they have made themselves into a great person, a person who no doubt impacts many others in various little ways and so achieves in that hidden way. Someone like Steve Jobs I feel I would get nothing from a dinner meeting. Get more from studying why he succeeded, but no, I don;t it would be much fun or teach me much. George was a teacher and it was his job to inspire, as was Feynman’s. He would have picked up those skills as he went along. So yes, a very good, very wise teacher. Making money is not everything so Gandi would be great because of his presence. Or a Buddhist monk who has trained his mind to care, that could be a great inspiring example.
My Grandma – I know she didn’t do anything “amazing” and she certainly wasn’t famous, but I really wish I could have met and spent time with her. I hope she would be making the dinner too because I heard she was a great cook. I never knew her, but she gave me one of the greatest gifts I have in life: my mom.
I would say Tiger Woods. Because I want to know what hes like besides the best golfer ever and really what happened with his infidelities and how hes changing his life because of it. and then I’d like to adjust him (I’m a chiropractic student…adjusting TW is in my top 5 bucket list item..mark my words I’ll get it done!)
Brillat-Savarin.
Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm, Virginia. He is a (grass) farmer and pioneer in multi-species rotational grazing systems using direct marketing for maximum profits and very low inputs/overhead to run an extremely successful farming enterprise. Without planting or harvesting a single crop other than grass.
Marcus Aurelius,
to learn how you can be a just and good person, even when you have to face war and the dark sides of humans.
I am delighted that you like so many things that I like!
So many times I have read something you wrote or seen things on your site that I love.
I love Richard Feynman, his philosophy, his style of teaching and, especially his attitude.
There are many of these videos online. This might be a conglomerate of all of them, I did not watch it all.
Thank you for sharing with the world.
Great suggestions, guys! And thank you for the kind words. Your recommendations have sent me to Wikipedia a lot this afternoon. Fun to discover new brilliant minds I’ve never heard of or fully appreciated.
Richard Feynman is a 7 in the Enneagram. It explains so much about him!
Amazing… I’ve read 4HWW and generally I visit to your blog for business related topics, the Random Show (Foundation on Rev3 as well), but this really struck me… What an awesome guy.
I’d go with Einstein, there is not going wrong with that choice. We could talk science, music, religion, politics… It everything else fails I’d just ask him to play the violin. Win-win-win-win either way.
Nice! I’ve been a fan of Feynman’s for a while. He did some crazy stuff back in his day
Thanks for this video!
I was lucky to have a dad a lot like his.
I’m now a musician, but with a great love and passion for all things mathematics, nature, science and mind. He taught me to ask all the important questions in life
That video made me appreciate what I had growing up
Thanks again
Also, odd coincidence that it’s my dads birthday today, and this is the first time I’ve fully realized how lucky I am to have him around
Many thanks xxx
If I could have dinner with anyone, I would love to bend the ear of Ben Franklin. His capacity to think is matched only by his capacity to work. Not just to expend energy but to guide and direct it to a specific ends or at least to the point where it would go on in the desired direction without him, leaving him free to do something else, which he almost invariably did. He was both efficient and effective. Not just busy but productive.
Tim,
I can say I have the same answer as you: Richard Feynman.
I’m a huge fan of Feynman and I also have several books of him (including the famous Lectures on Physics).
Sometimes I read again some of them..incredible stories.
He was amazing…
Bill Gates is an admirer of Feynman and created this project which has some lectures:
http://research.microsoft.com/apps/tools/tuva/index.HTML
Also here you can find some more videos of Feynman’s legacy.
http://tedxcaltech.com/
I’m hungry so….
Rumi – wisdom
Oscar Wilde – thinking he’d be fun to party with (stretching dinner…I know)
Picasso – to discuss how to properly practice
Feynman would have been on my list as well (maybe vegas)
Churchill – not sure why
Miyamoto Musashi – curious
Archimedes – work through some designs
Da Vinci – obvious?
Quanah Parker – I’d love to get a first hand account of the greatest light calvary the world has ever known…the Comanche.
I would choose Charles Stross or Cory Doctorow, two amazing authors of speculative fiction with real world implications. Both have inspired me repeatedly — first just getting to think deeply about this stuff, and then later to write about it myself.
Tyler Durden.
tho..hes not real. and also…he’d prob not eat…or sit still long enough to talk to. lol
Leonardo Da Vinci, king of renaissance. We’d be much further ahead in technology if the large percentage of his work was not destroyed. Great painter, great engineer, great anatomist, musician, sculptor, mathematician, and writer amongst others.
Came up with a theory of plate tectonics, solar panels, helicopters, tanks, even down to the humble pair of scissors, even painted something called the Mona Lisa. All of this 500 years ago.
Always been a fan and so he’d be my #1 choice. If he was alive today I imagine he’d be working on teleportation or something 🙂
Jesus. I’m not religious, but I’m fascinated with someone who 2000 years later continues be worshipped and feared. Either he was the son of god or a very believable crazy man, I’d like to know which.
A friend of mine introduced me to Surely You’re Joking in 2008 and I’ve been a fan of Mr Feynman ever since. This video is especially interesting.
Anyway, answering the question, at this moment in time it would be Kurt Cobain. He inspired me to pick up a guitar when I was a teen and I’d just been jamming a bit before reading this article. I’d like to know what his creative process was like and maybe get a little insight into how musical genius comes from someone who seemingly suppressed their pop sensibility.
I had to say, just watching the first nine minutes of this video showed everything i think a good parent should do. Answer the questions as best you can, demonstrate no shame in not knowing an answer, and kids belong in the woods or the wilderness. I didn’t grow up in the city, but on a mixed farm, and our lessons on nature were just daily answering of questions.
My person to have dinner with would be Hypatia, the last scientist to work at the library of Alexandria, before it was torn apart. Carl sagan had an excellent discussion on the circumstances and lesson of her death (in the cosmos book i think), but i would want to discuss her work and let her know that thousands of years on the work and discovery carried out at that library have been rediscovered and expanded, not lost as it must have seemed in her time.
Dinner with: Graham Chapman (from Monty Python)
Richard Feynman, Nassim Taleb, Steve Jobs would also be up there.
One other thing: Should we worried that most of the “dream dinner guests” listed in the comments above are male? Are we being sexist in our choices is there a shortage of female role models?
Surely it would just be based on history, female oppression etc, women only recently being allowed to vote etc… therefore the history books are showing a higher proportion of men as women just weren’t allowed to do a lot of things?
Hi Falko,
Good question.
I don’t think this is necessarily sexist. Most of the “-ist” words are charged enough to lead the conversation to degrade into an battle of emotions, but women have only in the last few decades really been able to (for a host of reasons) compete with men for the type of visibility that would lead to their selection on such a list.
That said, I don’t believe in collective guilt (or credit), and I certainly don’t have a problem with males, or white males for that matter. We all do the best with what we have, and we should be judged by how far we get from our starting point, not necessarily our ending point.
Hope that makes some sort of sense 🙂
All the best,
Tim
I’d like to meet many for different reasons, but for sure Albert Schweitzer.
“I’m life in the midst of life that wants to live”
thanx for sharing the video.
A’ron
George Carlin for sure.
He spoke his mind always, and what a brilliant mind he had.
He’s one of the few public figures, who always came off as a real person, not covered or hidden by politically correctness or holy words in order to keep his spot safe. Man he had balls, major ones.
Otherwise Jack Lallane.
He was so ahead of his time, and his guidance is timeless, pretty much every single sentence that came out of his mouth, still holds true today.
I would have to flip a coin if I had to choose between those to.
A lot of the heroes mentioned all were humble and just do what they liked doing. And they were not recognised in the early decades of their work, even ignored or passed over for work. Einstein, and Feynman stand out esp. in this way. I think many of us deep down feel pressure to “be famous” or “make an important discovery” (although we rarely admit it). Do what you like / enjoy, forget being famous or being on wikipedia.
Ben Franklin would top my list. It’s not so much that I want to ask him questions about what he knows, but more than anything, I want to get a better understanding how HOW he thinks and processes information. There are ways of thinking that make it easier to gain knowledge and understanding.
I would have dinner with Jesus and ask him about humility. How to be more humble and remain humble whilst achieving great things.
J. Orlin Grabbe – Wikipedia doesn’t really do his writing justice. Start here http://orlingrabbe.com/chaos.htm
Thank you for putting up this video, I’ve been a fan of Feynman’s books for years, but never realised there was a colour video of him, let alone such a gem. So passionate, so down to earth, so without artifice, so clear thinking, what a free and joyful imagination.
He would have been amazing to meet, there are several other great dinner guests above, but here are a few others I would love to have dinner with:
Nietzsche – to tell him he was right, and to talk about the re-evaluation of values.
Queen Victoria – from a time when the monarch had power, and was at the centre of foreign affairs and political strategy, preferably when Albert was still around.
William James – the original psychologist (after Nietzsche) and pragmatic philosopher – enough to talk about for months
Crazy Horse – on a sunny summer’s eve in the Big Horn mountains to understand how it was
Sri Aurobindo – about where we’re going
My great grandfather – to know more of where I came from and life in those days.
Montgomery of Alemain – For his understated class and to hear what the war was like first hand.
Mary Magdelene – for the inside story from someone right in the middle of it and the gossip on the virgin birth – really?
Herbert Kitchener – From the heyday of the British Empire, a man who ‘consistently rose in ability as he was promoted’ – a fascinating life.
Cleopatra – was she really intoxicating
1. Hemingway: I’d go on a bender with him, screw dinner. I’d slap him out of the blue, and challenge him to a boxing match; and then I’d let him win.
2. Mario Benedetti: I would hit up some cabarets with him, maybe share some coffee and watch the beautiful women walking by.
3. Aristotle: I ahve no clue how that would go, but I’m sure it would be epic
Nice post Tim, very cool vid to watch, especially on 420 😉
Wonderful question! If I could have dinner with anyone from any time in history, I would choose Blessed Pope John Paul II. He is an epitome of unconditional love. Even just by looking at him makes me leap for joy. He’s extraordinary.
Toshitsugu Takamatsu, Vera Rubin, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, MLK, Charles Darwin, Feynman, Alan Turing, Benjamin Franklin, Susanna Clarke, Alan Moore, Esther Dyson, Barack Obama, T. Ferriss…
And, of course, Ray Kurzweil!
Jesus, hands down! That’s an easy one.
Ghandi, Jesus, Ghengis Khan and Adolph Hitler would make for an interesting evening…
Paul Graham and just try to learn as much wisdom as possible
Sorry he died before you had a chance to meet him.
I don’t like people’s tendency to deity gurus or heroes. It hinders critical thinking which most probably the guru/hero’s most famous feature for in the first place. I always worked from the assumption that gurus/heroes can be incredibly wrong, which I assume tim ferris and seth godin can be incredibly wrong too. (seth godin just snuffed me by email) To do otherwise will be an insult, plus praise gets boring and it is not constructive in nature.
Personally, I would be meet Warren Buffet, the face of the US economy. I know that I cannot learn anything from him. He plays in an arena that very few people can. Since a man can only say sure say what he has done and everything else is hearsay, most likely none of he has to say will apply to me, my skill set, my goals in this day and age. I do not expect him to be a nice old man portrayed in the media. However, I would like to convince him to write something as there aren’t many things he has authored. He recently came out that he has cancer. So time is of the essence.
Tim, agree regarding Richard Feynman. Have you seen the video of his lecture: The Sir Douglas Robb Lectures, University of Auckland, 1979
And this story from James Randi regarding Richard?
http://rcd.typepad.com/personal/2008/01/james-randi-abo.html
Chuck Norris… “the four hour body – a guide to become chuck norris “should the title be 😉
Gustavo Rol first of all and Aleandro Jodorowsky among all those who are alive
Is there a specific reason for the order buttons being gray instead of the usual orange on the 4-hour-chef site? Amazon uses less colorfull buttons for items that are on preorder
I’d want to hang out with Jesus and ask:
Does he really consider himself to be God in the way that Christians today think of him?
Did he intend Christianity to grow into the type of institution that it is today?
Are all the bible stories about him true?
What did he really mean by all the things he supposedly said that people interpret in 1,000 different ways?
Does he actually think he’s “coming back” someday?
Could/would he prove to modern scientists that he can do miracles like raising dead people just by telling them to get up?
What does he think of the countless insane things that God supposedly did and said in the Old Testament?
What are his thoughts on the afterlife, really?
1,000 other things!
Feynman is/was one of the most brilliant men in history and his infinite curiosity about the world, nature and the universe as well as completely unaffected manner put him at the top of my dinner companion list along with Einstein, Ben Franklin, Nicolas Taleb, Ray Kurzweil (we’ll agree on much but argue about “uploading” !), Helen Keller, David Deutch and maybe Morris Berman (“Coming to Our Senses”, “ReEnchanment of the World”, Dark Ages America ) if he is in a good mood…
Why these folks? Because they are deep thinkers, their imaginative curiosity and genuine love of humanity (Taleb cares more than he lets on)
Just got “The Very Best of the Feynman Lectures” last week just because I can’t listen to him often enough. There is an entire track of him speaking, including a portion from this clip, set to music on SoundsForChampions…really miss that man…
A Neanderthal, to find out the deal with the Cro Magnons, winter survival tips, and early religious lore.
Hi Tim, thanks for the tip-off …
To answer your question, I’d love to have dinner with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
To me, Dr. King’s success in pushing a stubborn establishment toward a greater recognition of Civil Rights, is one of the great achievements of our time, and his successes in achieving those goals is ripe for questioning!
Even though a lot of information is circulated about Dr. King, I would love to learn more about how he thought his own struggles could inform the lay populace in our own (less pressing) lives … ways to deal with challenges (for example), and how he he overcome hate without subjecting himself to the same agenda.
Also, I’ve always been impressed that all of his achievements came before the age of 40 – incredible – what is THAT like? And what about his family and daily (normal) life … what was that like!?
Keep up the good work … haven’t commented in awhile … hoping you’re having fun with the cookbook!
Cheers,
Doc
Queen Victoria, Jane Austen or Steven Spielberg.
Tesla – Da Vinci – Hadrian – Eric Blair
“Pinky!… Are you pondering what I’m pondering?!”
Two people I’d like to have dinner with would be Paul Graham (YCombinator) and Bruce Lee. Both are guys who have such deeply-rooted sets of values and just such a different insight to the world around them, you could learn so much from just five minutes talking to them and it’s people like that that I love.
I find his character and charisma very, oddly compelling. Surely, he knows what it means “to know something”. [video clip 43:25-44:45].
St. Joan of Arc. I don’t buy a lot of Christological arguments, but almost all of them also apply to Joan in spades. Things like “Either she was crazy, lying, or actually assisted by visions of heavenly angels.” If she was crazy, France (and everywhere else) needs more god damned crazy. She reversed a war, overturned Agincourt, crowned the French king when all thought it impossible, and lifted the Siege of Orleans (running time seven months) in four days. If she was lying, she outfoxed a hell of a lot of people who wanted her dead or, better, discredited, and deserves a place in the history books as one of our best liars. And if she was telling the truth…that opens up a whole can of worms.
I’d like to sit down, eat, chat, and play a game with her. Just to see what happens.
Also, posted that before reading Falko. Nice to know my mother raised me right. 😀
This keeps me thinking, so another comment, all good.
A Tim Ferriss BEFORE he was famous. Why? BC he would be exactly the same guy before everyone else saw what he was about through his book, AND I could actually get to meet him. As I don’t have much chance now, not being famous myself. Unless he reads this and thinks “I like that guy, thinks different” lol. and invites me on an all expenses paid trip to SF. In the meantime though, until he takes me up on that, I will look out for interesting people I meet in everyday life! People not rich, etc, but still a good convo with many interesting ideas. There are enough of them about! But would have to make myself interesting enough for them to want to meet me, so I may start a blog, being better able to express ideas that way. It could lead to all kinds of interesting adventures! We will see..
I think I would like to have dinner with myself when I was 4 years old.which is the age in which I last recall that I really went for life with full gusto. I had no fear of asking,. I didn’t mind being questioned. And I consitently acted silly. I was not afraid to upset the apple carts and others thoughts or judgements seemed kind of funny.Most of all I had fun and life was an adventure and an endless quest of how I could make the great escape from my home and parents.
The next person to have dinner with would be Tim Ferriss. I would ask him how he can be in the matrix of life and yet somehow above it. I would also ask him if he were to redisgn the world like a start up company what would the structure look like.Oh yea, I would also ask him how he get his teeth to be so shiny white.
Best Regards,
Ailson
haha, I bet you are a creative person, yourself worthy of a meal with!