A young Stephen Wolfram thought he was being treated “increasingly badly” at the Institute for Advanced Study, so he wrote a letter to Richard Feynman, asking for advice. Feynman wrote back:
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
CHARLES C. LAURITSEN LABORATORY OF HIGH ENERGY PHYSICSOctober 14, 1985
Dr. Stephen Wolfram
School of Natural Sciences
The Institute for Advanced Study
Princeton, NJ 08540Dear Wolfram:
1. It is not my opinion that the present organizational structure of science inhibits “complexity research” – I do not believe such an institution is necessary.
2. You say you want to create your own environment – but you will not be doing that: you will create (perhaps!) an environment that you might like to work in – but you will not be working in this environment – you will be administering it – and the administration environment is not what you seek – is it? You won’t enjoy administrating people because you won’t succeed in it.
You don’t understand “ordinary people.” To you they are “stupid fools” – so you will not tolerate them or treat their foibles with tolerance or patience – but will drive yourself wild (or they will drive you wild) trying to deal with them in an effective way.
Find a way to do your research with as little contact with non-technical people as possible, with one exception, fall madly in love! That is my advice, my friend.
Sincerely,
(Signed, ‘Richard P. Feynman’)
Richard P. Feynman
RPF;ht
Wolfram went on to form Wolfram Research, the company responsible for releasing Mathematica in 1989 and, more recently, Wolfram Alpha.