“One of my claims to fame is that for five or six years I had the great privilege of being in conversation maybe two to four times a year with Richard Feynman, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist. We did not speak much about physics, because I am whatever is below amateur as a physicist. We spoke more about ideas. What was great about talking with Richard Feynman was he let absolutely nothing go by him. It had to make sense to him; he had to understand it.

I took notes over the five or six years in which we had these conversations – a lot of notes. He took only one note, but my claim to fame is that when he died, that one note was still on his blackboard. I am going to tell you what that one note was. “There are certain things you can only know by creating them for yourself.”  So the things I share with you are not things I simply can hand over to you, but I can open up something for you to create for yourself.” – Werner Erhard from  “A BREAKTHROUGH IN INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION” Presentation By Werner Erhard At The Eranos Conference, Ascona, Switzerland, 18 June 2006

 

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Richard Feynman’s blackboard at the time of his death.