[wsowens]

There were many attention grabbing things (Cold War escalation, civil unrest, etc.) in the world when Feynman wrote those papers. I can't find the exact clip, but I remember seeing an interview where an older Feynman reflected on that time. He described a sense of hopelessness and impending doom hanging over him for years after his involvement with the Manhattan Project. Here's a similar quote to that effect[1]:

  ...I can't understand it anymore but I felt very strongly then. I'd sat in a restaurant in New York, for example and I looked at the buildings and how far away, I would think, you know, how much the radius of the Hiroshima bomb damage was and so forth. How far down there was down to 34th Street? All these buildings, all smashed, and so on. And I got a very strange feeling. I would go along and I would see people building a bridge. Or, they'd be making a new road, and I thought, they're crazy, they just don't understand, they don't understand. Why are they making new things, it's so useless?

Our times are certainly challenging, but I hope we can muster the strength and focus to keep building as others did in the past.

1. https://books.google.com/books?id=WO9D_BaDDhkC&pg=PA91&lpg=P...

[hungryforcodes]

I'm totally on board with this, and I've heard that quote too. But I think the OP was talking more about how our "distraction environment" today prevents us from having even 5 minutes of continued focus, unless we go through herculean efforts. Thus limiting our ability to do deep thinking, create deep work and make deep choices.

But for sure there were many EPIC distractions of a more general nature in that time.

[chevill]

In addition to all of the craziness going on in the world at the time his wife was hospitalized and dying of tuberculosis while he was working on the Manhattan project.

[munificent]

There's a certain category of people who cope with stress by becoming absorbed in work so that they can shut everything else out. Those people likely do their best work because of the tragedies surrounding them.

[chevill]

There definitely is. I'm not sure if that was the case with Feynman, but he sure did produce some great work during this era.

I used to be like that when I was in my 20s, but as I get older if I get depressed it significantly reduces my productivity.

[raziel2701]

Yeah but we're worse today. On top of all the impending doom we have vastly superior weapons of mass distraction in our hands and every computer/phone screen. Our attention spans have decreased.