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Every Problem is Worth Solving - by Alex Kondov

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In 1965, Richard Feynman won the Nobel Prize in Physics and got a pile of congratulatory letters. One of them was from his former student Koichi Mano. While his exact letter wasn’t preserved, we know that among the praise for his teacher, Koichi mentioned that he himself was working on "more humble and down-to-earth type of problems". You could hear the regret in his voice, the feeling of inadequacy, seeing someone achieve great heights in a field while you're stuck working on things you consider trivial. Every person cursed with ambition has felt like this at least once in his life. I certainly had. I think I read too many books about rocket builders, tycoons, and geniuses in my formative years. I wanted nothing short of the hardest problems I could work on. I wanted to learn how to configure CDNs. I wanted to work on the critical services. I wanted to solve performance issues that no one could root out. If there was a challenge, I'd find a way to be on the project so I can get closer

Every Problem is Worth Solving Lessons from Richard Feynman on finding pleasure and success in work Alex Kondov Sep 03, 2025 23 5 1 Share In 1965, Richard Feynman won the Nobel Prize in Physics and got a pile of congratulatory letters. One of them was from his former student Koichi Mano. While his exact letter wasn’t preserved, we know that among the praise for his teacher, Koichi mentioned that he himself was working on "more humble and down-to-earth type of problems". You could hear the regret in his voice, the feeling of inadequacy, seeing someone achieve great heights in a field while you'

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