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Darwin8u's Reviews > Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character
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“You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It's their mistake, not my failing.�
� Richard Feynman, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
I've been circling this book, The Feynman Lectures on Physics, and Gleck's Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman for awhile. This one seemed the most fun and easiest place to start. I was driving from Taos/Santa Fe back to Phoenix last week and as I drove past Los Alamos, it was just the particle collision in my brain I needed to start on Feynman.
Often, memoirs are hard to read because you know a bunch of it is façade. A person is showing you a part of them for a purpose. They want to be viewed as smart, important, funny, etc. They carefully guide you through a Potemkin village of their life. Richard Feynman's memoir is different. Not that I don't think Feynman had an ego. He might have even had an agenda with the book. But, for the most part, he seemed much more interested in the stories he wanted to tell, rather than on how they would make him look. He wasn't all that worried about how he looked so much. His entire life was built around doing what he wanted, exploring what he found interesting, violating taboos, beating his own drums and cutting his own path.
He was a Nobel-prize winning polymath physicist whose other talents included playing drums, teaching, drawing naked girls, picking locks, making atomic bombs, practical jokes, and telling stories. He wasn't interested in the usual trappings of success. Many of those things annoyed him. He was curious. He was a risk-taker. He was a genius.
� Richard Feynman, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
I've been circling this book, The Feynman Lectures on Physics, and Gleck's Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman for awhile. This one seemed the most fun and easiest place to start. I was driving from Taos/Santa Fe back to Phoenix last week and as I drove past Los Alamos, it was just the particle collision in my brain I needed to start on Feynman.
Often, memoirs are hard to read because you know a bunch of it is façade. A person is showing you a part of them for a purpose. They want to be viewed as smart, important, funny, etc. They carefully guide you through a Potemkin village of their life. Richard Feynman's memoir is different. Not that I don't think Feynman had an ego. He might have even had an agenda with the book. But, for the most part, he seemed much more interested in the stories he wanted to tell, rather than on how they would make him look. He wasn't all that worried about how he looked so much. His entire life was built around doing what he wanted, exploring what he found interesting, violating taboos, beating his own drums and cutting his own path.
He was a Nobel-prize winning polymath physicist whose other talents included playing drums, teaching, drawing naked girls, picking locks, making atomic bombs, practical jokes, and telling stories. He wasn't interested in the usual trappings of success. Many of those things annoyed him. He was curious. He was a risk-taker. He was a genius.
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Janie wrote: "I love that quote!"Yeah, it's a good one. And perfectly captures Feynman. Dude always danced to his own drum beat.
The world is now so awash with bullshit and irrational/populist mumbo jumbo, that we urgently need one thousand free thinkers of the intellectual calibre of Richard Feynman. Great quote and lovely review.
He seemed as proud of his drumming and his conquests as anything in physics. Maybe because those things seemed less destined for success.
Steve wrote: "He seemed as proud of his drumming and his conquests as anything in physics. Maybe because those things seemed less destined for success."Yeah, I think his drumming and his art and his puzzle/lock-picking skills were all just different outlets for his curiosity. Certainly his ego enjoyed his place in physics, but he was also enough of a subverter of things, that he would often play against his own ego if it suited him.
I attended Caltech for 1.5 years starting in 1966. "Lectures in Physics" was the textbook for freshman physics, and the year before Feynman himself taught the course. Maybe I'd have done better in the class if he had been the instructor.
Kirk wrote: "I attended Caltech for 1.5 years starting in 1966. "Lectures in Physics" was the textbook for freshman physics, and the year before Feynman himself taught the course. Maybe I'd have done better in ..."He was a character Kirk. I would have loved to have met him and I'm sure he would have been a better instructor than some I've had in physics.
His unlimited intensive curiosity and his belief on scientific integrity which he applied that on almost every thing makes such an unique profound person. His eccentrics are fun to read. But maybe he is hard to be with since he has attitude for almost everything?
Sharon wrote: "His unlimited intensive curiosity and his belief on scientific integrity which he applied that on almost every thing makes such an unique profound person. His eccentrics are fun to read. But maybe ..."His wife seemed to enjoy his quirks. So... But, yes, I think most geniuses are a tad high maintenance.
What more could one hope for?
And in his case, what he wanted to do benefited mankind as well.