On learning Physics

"Physics is becoming so unbelievably complex that it is taking longer and longer to train a physicist. It is taking so long, in fact, to train a physicist to the place where he understands the nature of physical problems that he is already too old to solve them.”
— Eugene Paul Wigner

You want to understand the workings of the world, but you lack the skill-set as well as the mental maturity to ask and pursue questions. Maths was always hard for you and you hated yourself for that. Increasingly, physics also turned mathematical where you couldn't even hope to use your intuition. You realise that there’s no other way other than to use up decades of your life. There will be even more physics as you grow older but you have to do your best now. All you can hope is that the future will reward you with some glimpses of truth.

For instance, take the way Feynman concluded his lecture on resonance(Feynman lectures - Vol. I). He wanted to share the examples of oscillations in nature. But instead of giving usual (random) examples from a textbook, he talked about going to his study and pulling out books from the shelves. He tried to find if there are graphs depicting resonance. Lo, behold! There are. How our atmosphere oscillates due to Moon’s gravitational pull. How sound from Krakatoa volcanic eruption oscillated the entire atmosphere. How common salt crystals vibrate due to infrared radiation. How protons of different energies yield different amounts of gamma radiation on hitting an atomic nucleus. There were also examples regarding paramagnetic materials and subatomic particle reactions(which I didn’t understand). Feynman also mentioned that it is not hard to find an example of resonance in every single version of Physical Review Letters.

Let’s revisit the context. All those examples were from arbitrary books, concerning a wide range of matters. Going a bit further, it is quite easy to deduce that some people actually thought about those things. They then proceeded to examine those processes as well.

Well, the next question simply is  - how to reach that level of thinking? There’s no way other than to study hard and read widely. Understanding experiments and the motivation behind them. And, following how those questions came to be asked in the first place(aka history).

Schools and colleges fail to address the above by focussing on results and deadlines. It becomes necessary then to unlearn the way you were moulded by years of academia. You have to become original and follow learning in the way it should be done - follow questions as they come to you. Those questions will lead to even more questions, and you will learn in the way. More importantly, you will begin to have fun.

That’s my two cents for now. As I am young and fairly ignorant, please feel free to add comments/suggestions. If you want to talk to me about what I wrote, please do connect on private channels.