More great stories as told by one of the most interesting minds in science. A good delve into the thinking of a great scientist. He may come off as arrogant to some, but how many Nobel prizes have they one?

Read as part of my ongoing shelf audit. Verdict: Oh yeah, this is a keeper.

My first encounter with Richard Feynman's work was in the mid 2000s, when my family was moving about halfway across the U.S. and my dad checked out the audiobook of "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character for the drive. I don't remember a lot of particulars, except for 'A Map of the Cat' and Feynman's story about lighting the back of his hand on fire in college, but I remember enjoying the mixture of science and humor, and feeling like it was a cool thing to share with my engineer father. I was, at the time, going into middle school.

Years later, someone gave me a Barnes and Noble gift card as a high school graduation gift, and I bought this compilation thinking a) it would be an appropriate thing to read in college and b) it would make me look very Sophisticated and Smart to have this on the shelf in my freshman dorm room. I then... did not read it. For nine more years. (I really should have, or at least the Los Alamos parts; my freshman colloquium course was all about the making of the atomic bomb.)

I'm glad that my current attempt to actually read everything on my shelf has brought me back to this, though, because Feynman's perspective is fascinating. Stylistically, these essays feel like stories you're being told by your grandfather or great uncle; there's a friendliness and openness which invites the reader in and makes you feel welcome, even when the details go right over your head. The content is... fascinating, even the parts I didn't understand, because you can feel Feynman's incredible intelligence on every page. Physics isn't my jam, but I don't need to understand exactly what he's saying to get something of value from the enthusiasm and wonder with which he approached his work. The way in which he approached science is... 'idyllic' is really the best word I have for it; he had both incredible ability and childlike curiosity, and he was always pursuing his passions and excited about wherever he was. I find myself wondering, in this time of crushing student debt and diminished research funding, if it's possible to live that way now. I hope it is, at least for some people.

There's also something fascinating about seeing ordinary facets of the world through the lens of an extraordinary person. The same curiosity that Feynman applied to physics problems was extended to many other things in his life - attending a dance organized by a club for deaf and mute people, for instance, or learning how to play the drums, or life drawing. He seems to have gone through life with this... incorrigible energy, with very little fear of failure, and I find myself wondering if maybe that's the real secret of genius - not some baked-in capability of the brain, but the desire to just keep trying new things and fiddling with problems, regardless of the potential outcomes. So many of Feynman's decisions, at least as he describes them himself, seem so simple and free of anxiety or second-guessing.

Even with that, he did experience impostor syndrome at least once - at his first teaching job, at Cornell, after WWII. Feynman's response to that, too, is startlingly simple:

Then I thought to myself, "You know, what they think of you is so fantastic, it's impossible to live up to it. You have no responsibility to live up to it!"
It was a brilliant idea: 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.

As someone who struggles with anxiety and self-esteem frequently, it's comforting to know that even a guy who argued physics with Niels Bohr and won a Nobel Prize felt inadequate and like a fraud at one point; that's as clear a demonstration as possible that impostor syndrome thought processes have no bearing on reality. It's... something I'll try to keep in mind.

I was also deeply touched by the way Feynman talks about his first wife, Arlene, who died of tuberculosis while he was working on the Manhattan Project. While he doesn't really dig deeply into his emotions, it's still clear by the way he describes their relationship that they really loved each other. His phrasing is so simple, and yet in that simplicity is something complex: when they got married, Arlene was already sick and they knew she would be in and out of the hospital for the rest of her fairly short life expectancy. That's far from a simple situation, and yet Feynman always treats it as a foregone conclusion: "We were in love, and were already married, emotionally." Discussing her death, just five years later, he is matter-of-fact:

The only difference for me and Arlene was, instead of fifty years, it was five years. It was only a quantitative difference - the psychological problem was just the same. The only way it would have become any different is if we had said to ourselves, "But those other people have it better, because they might live fifty years." But that's crazy. Why make yourself miserable by saying things like, "Why do we have such bad luck? What has God done to us? What have we done to deserve this? - all of which, if you understand reality and take it completely into your heart. There are just things that nobody can know. Your situation is just an accident of life.
We had a hell of a good time together.

It's that last line - "We had a hell of a good time together" - which strikes me as somehow infinitely tender.

There's a lot of humor here, too, of course. Feynman followed his curiosity into odd situations and incongruous escapades, and he relates them with complete honesty, never afraid to acknowledge his own misconceptions or moments of utter absurdity. I think the most absurd is the chapter titled 'Safecracker Meets Safecracker', in which he describes learning to pick locks and open safes while working at Los Alamos which is just... I can't even imagine deciding 'hey, why don't I develop a reputation for bypassing security while working on the most high-security military project the world has known to date?' It worked out for him, but damn. Couple that decision with the revelation at the end of the chapter that 20% of the safe combinations at the installation were still set to their factory defaults... the Manhattan Project is a serious topic, but that's just ridiculous.

One aspect of the book did make me consistently uncomfortable, and that's the way Feynman talks about women in aggregate. Specific women he knew well are discussed like anyone else, but there's a strong through-line of women, in general, existing primarily as eye candy and/or potential sexual partners. It's not creepy, per se, but there is a through-line of casual objectification which is, at best, an artifact of the times. (Though from some of the quotes I've seen from the new Obama autobiography, maybe not as much of the times as I would like to think.)

Ultimately, I think this book is a reminder to me of an ethos worth striving for in science. My Bachelor's is in biology, though I'm not currently working in the field, and I think Feynman's example - of approaching science with wonder, of questioning everything, and of extending that same curiosity to the rest of life - is one worth emulating. I don't know if I'll be very good at it, but I want to give it a try, and I'll probably come back to this book in the future for a reminder.

برای اولین بار که کتاب رو باز کردم، یادم هست که بیست دقیقه بیشتر وقت نداشتم و برای سرگرمی از اولش شروع کردم به خوندن.
متوجه زمانی که گذشت نشدم.
بعد از اون بیست دقیقه با خودم گفتم این کتابی هست که باید بخونمش.
نحوه تعریف داستان هایی که برای فاینمن بوجود اومده حتی اگر هم که داستان های ساده ای باشند، طوری به نگارش در اومده که خواننده جذب اون میشه و دوست داره تا آخر به اون داستان ادامه بده.
فصل های آخر یک مقداری برام خسته کننده شده بود که فکر میکنم دلیلش پشت سر گذاشتن حدود ۳۰۰ ۴۰۰ صفحه از نوشته هایی بود که نحوه تعریف داستانش برام تکرار شده بود و این قضیه داشت برام فرسایشی می‌شد و یک‌جورایی ادامه کتاب برام خسته کننده بود.
فصل‌های اول رو که داستان‌های فاینمن در کودکی و نوجوانیش هست رو خیلی دوست داشتم.
دلیلش هم اون اتفاقات ساده‌تر و قابل لمس‌تر برای من بود که بنظرم خیلی جالب تعریف شده بود. خیلی جاها تونست من رو بخندونه.
شاید یکی دیگه از دلایلی که فصل‌های اول رو بیشتر دوست داشتم، امید و انتظاری بود که برای رسیدن به فصل "بمب اتم و پروژه لوس آلاموس" داشتم.
نکته جالبی که از زندگی این مرد برام جالب بود این بود که: پروفسور بودنش و حتی بردن جایزه نوبل، اون رو محدود نکرد، نذاشت که این افتخارات و جایگاهی که داره اون رو از بعضی کار‌ها و به طور کلی، زندگی کردن منع بکنه. فاینمن بانگو می‌نواخت (سازی که نواختنش برای یک پروفسور و برنده جایزه نوبل دور از ذهنه)، نقاشی می‌کرد و در نمایشگاه، نقاشی های خودش رو می‌فروخت، در برزیل به فستیوال‌ها می‌رفت و خیلی چیز‌های دیگه.

فاینمن خیلی تاکید داشت بر روی صداقت در علم و معتقد بود که نباید یک گزارش علمی به‌خاطر شرایط و عوامل بیرونی سمت‌وسو بگیره.
مثالی که درباره این مورد زد تبلیغ روغنی بود که از تلویزیون دیده بود، در تبلیغ این‌طور عنوان شده بود که این روغن در غذا نفوذ نمی‌کنه. فاینمن می‌گفت این جمله درست هست که این اتفاق نمی‌افته، اما در شرایطی که دما در یک بازه خاصی باشه. این تبلیغات همه‌ی حقیقت رو بیان نمی‌کنه و می‌بایست که همه‌ی شرایط بازگو بشه. معتقد بر این بود که یک گزارش علمی باید از همه‌ی جوانب بررسی بشه و هر جایگشتی که بر صحت اون تحقیق شبهه ایجاد می‌کنه و حتی باعث بی‌اعتبار شدن اون گزارش می‌شه، بیان بشه. اگر این‌طور نباشه، اون گزارش علمی بیشتر شبیه تبلیغی هست که برای یک هدف خاص نوشته شده و برای این که به اون هدف برسه بخش‌هایی از واقعیت ویرایش و یا پنهان شده.
مثال دیگه‌ای هم زد از دوستش که قرار بود به رادیو بره و درباره پژوهشی که زمینه‌ی نجوم و کیهانی داره، صحبت بکنه. مطلبی که تحقیق شده بود، در دنیای واقعی کاربردی نداشت و اون دوست نگران بود که دیگران بفهمند که این چیزهایی که دربارش تحقیق شده کاربردی ندارن، اون موقع دیگه از اون پشتیبانی نمی‌شه و نمی‌تونه در این زمینه کار بکنه.
فاینمن بر این باور بود که هر چند اگر این واقعیت گفته بشه، این اتفاق می‌افته، اما نباید شرایط بر این واقعیت تاثیر بذاره. واقعیت هر آنچه که هست باید گفته بشه.
بنظرم بند آخر این فصل و کتاب، گویای تفکر و باور اصلی فاینمن هست:
"به همین جهت یک آرزو برایتان دارم. آرزو دارم که این شانس را داشته باشید که در جایی کار بکنید که بتوانید در اعمال صداقت علمی که به توصیف آن پرداختم، آزاد باشید. امیدوارم در محلی قرار نگیرید که به‌خاطر حفظ سمت یا نیاز مالی و یا هر علت دیگر این صداقت را از دست بدهید. با آرزوی برخورداری از چنین آزادی برای همه."

I actually had this book read to me by someone who truly appreciates Feynman; it was a treat! It also came with a disc, so I could plug Feynman's stories into my car and get a whole spectrum of auditory experience.

This was one of the great men of history, IMHO, an obvious genius, but a humble one. I love that he taught himself to draw. I love that he loved his wife more than anything, and that when she became ill, they sent each other encrypted messages and love notes and puzzles to each other... it was a secretive time for Richard, but he managed to make it fun.

He always made great beauty out of complicated, sometimes tragic, life.

Brilliant.

Really hilarious and smart. And you learn some too. I would recommend this to ANYONE

A collection of life anecdotes from one of history's most over-the-top characters. Classic Feynman is the autobiographical retelling of various vignettes from Feynman's life,. The vignettes themselves are interesting and often hilarious as Feynman is a keen wit and unfailingly curious about the world and its inhabitants. While the stories themselves make for an entertaining read the final essays of the collection elevate the book to required reading. The final story details his time spent as a member of the commission tasked with investigating the space shuttle Discovery while the epilogue consists of two speeches given at a Cal-Tech commencement speech (one given by Feynman himself, one given about him).

Feynman's experience on the Challenger commission is a master class in interacting with the press, dealing with government workers, and translating technical issues for a general audience. Feynman's self-effacing humility allows him to glean information from a wide variety of individuals and his commitment to telling the truth without malice or finger-pointing could stand to be emulated across the political spectrum.

His commencement speech is a love letter to the scientific method but where many scientists speak about science in quasi-religious tones, Feynman's commitment to truth requires him to question everything, including main-stream science, until he's had a chance to deconstruct it himself and reached his own conclusions. In a world where political ideology and religious belief (or lack thereof) seem to dictate our positions on a host of issues Feynman's call to search for truth, wherever it leads, is both refreshing and an important wake up call.

The brilliant Richard Feynman was many people in one--scientist, teacher, writer, bongo player, raconteur, and safecracker. But mainly he is known to the public as a great storyteller.

This book collects several of Feynman's published volumes of wit and wisdom, as well as a CD of his presentation of atomic bomb adventures to a live audience in 1978. The printed stories are wonderful, but the audio presentation really highlights Feynman's high-flying spirit.

Classic book, classic character. Very, very good.

خاطرات پروفسور و استاد دانشگاه. برنده جایزه نوبل فیزیک و از افرادی که روی اولین بمب اتم کار کرده.

خب با این معرفی یک خطی تصویری از او در ذهن شکل می‌گیرد که به شدت ناقص است. او به شدت خلاق و کنجکاو بود. برای باز کردن گاوصندوق‌ها پیش او می‌آمدند. بانگو می‌نواخت تا جایی که در یک اجرای باله به عنوان نوازنده حضور پیدا کرد. نقاشی می‌کشید و نمایشگاهی برگزار کرد و برخی از آثارش را فروخت. لوحه‌های به جا مانده از مایاها را رمز گشایی می‌کرد و می‌توانست لوحه اصل از تقلبی را تشخیص دهد. برای رفتن به برزیل پرتغالی یاد گرفت و در آن جا مشغول به تدریس شد. در کنفرانسی که اساتید پرتغالی، به انگلیسی صحبت می‌کرد، سخنرانی خود را به زبان پرتغالی ارائه داد. و خیلی چیز‌های دیگر.

فکر می‌کنم او خیلی زندگی کرد. تجربیات گوناگونی کسب کرد. پروفسور بودنش، به او قدرت داد و گزینه‌های پیش رویش را گسترش داد، نه این که خود را اسیر این عنوان ببیند و این عنوان گزینه‌هایش را محدود کند. این درسی است که می‌شود از زندگی او گرفت.
منظورم این نیست که داشتن تجربه‌های گوناگون لزوما خوب است، تاکیدم قسمت دوم بود. چیزی که یاد می‌گیریم، افتخاری که کسب می‌کنیم و چیز‌های دیگر باید در خدمت ما باشند، نه این که ما خودمان را به آن‌ها محدود کنیم.

دیگر نکتهٔ جالب زندگی او برای من، تاکیدش روی صداقت و صراحت علمی بود. فکر کنم نیاز به توضیح بیشتر نیست.

کتاب حاوی خاطرات پراکنده و نسبتا کوتاه است. همهٔ آن‌ها به یک اندازه جذاب نیستند. قسمت‌های خوب کتاب، ۴ ستاره است ولی حجم ۳ ستاره‌اش بیشتر است.

Fascinating book / biography of Feynman. This is the 2nd (or 3rd) book I've read on him and this seems to be the most complete. Especially enjoyed the section on his investigation into the NASA Challenger explosion. Key lessons learned from this book: 1) keep your "bend over backwards" integrity, and 2) to doubt is a great gift.

More dry than I expected. Still, an interesting read especially for anyone interested in Feynman's eccentricities.

کتاب خیلی جالبی بود و به‌نظرم‌ ارزش خوندن داره. البته چون از روی نسخه‌ی الکترونیکی میخوندمش خیلی به‌طول انجامید:دی
اما مزیت کتاب روند داستانیشه و اینکه هر بخشش مثل یه داستان کوتاهه که شروع و تموم‌ میشه و وقفه افتادن تو مطالعه مشکلی ایجاد نمیکنه.
داستان زندگی فاینمن انقدر بالا و پایین داشته و انقدر متنوع بوده که آدمو اصلا خسته نمیکنه و بسیار لذت بخشه.

"به همین جهت یک آرزو برایتان دارم. آرزو دارم‌ این‌ شانس را داشته باشید که درجایی کار کنید که بتوانید در اعمال صداقت علمی که به توصیف آن پرداختم آزاد باشید. امیدوارم در محلی قرار نگیرید که به خاطر حفظ سِمت یا نیاز‌‌مالی یا هر‌چیز دیگر این صداقت را از دست دهید. با آرزوی برخورداری از چنین آزادی برای همه."