Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: Letters of Richard P. Feynman" is an excellent companion to "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" This book compiles the letters and correspondence of Professor Feynman with his family, loved ones, colleagues, and especially ordinary people who had questions about his work, life, science, and the universe.

It's a fascinating way to glimpse his life, including his relationship with his beloved wife Arline, his time working on the Manhattan Project, and his correspondence with colleagues, students, and book publishers.

The book also covers moments like when he received the Nobel Prize, his professional exchange with other scientists, and certainly his letters to his children. This collection provides a great understanding of Feynman's personality and worldview, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to understand a scientific giant of our generation.

Don't You Have Time to Think? is a collection of letters to and from Richard P Feynman, collated by his daughter Michelle Feynman. I start my review with that because, whether through stupidity or I don't know what, every time I went to read this I forgot what it was and was then put out by the series of letters confronting me.

When I finally accepted what it was, I had a very enjoyably time reading it. Not a book to be relentlessly read in a few days, it instead merits a slower approach. Read a few letters at a time. Ordered chronologically, it gives a very unusual approach to a biography of the famous physicist. Rather than focussing on achievements, or the trials and tribulations of his work, we get to experience the great path integral pioneer's work through the prism of what he happened to be corresponding about at the time.

From letters to the public who'd seen his TV programmes, to discussions with the school board about which text books should be adopted for children, to ducking administrative tasks, we see a very much broader array of activity than any standard biography is likely to give. In this, the book is a brilliant piece of editing on the part of Michelle Feynman - who, given her crucial role in bringing this together, I'm a little annoyed isn't listed as the author or editor on the front. Her annotations and explanations of letters and seamless weaving of it all together does, I believe, deserve more recognition than her zero mentions on cover or spine imply.

On the topic of editing, the book is a little long. I could have done with a couple fewer 'well done on the Nobel' letters from 1965. There are some longer letters to and from Feynman that really should have been excised (one on the theory of sensation is particularly tedious). At times, it felt like this was all of Feynman's correspondence, giving the book an unwelcome sense of being a catalogue rather than a book to be read.

Luckily, such issues don't greatly weigh down he book, though I fear some may be put off by the shear length of the thing (over 450 pages). One part of that length which I thoroughly appreciated was the appendices. From articles written by Caltech students to an essay by Feynman on the teaching of mathematics, these were very much 'part of the book', rather than the type of appendices which are better ignored.

The book is probably at its best when the science and the Nobel Prize falls away and we are left with Feynman, the father and educator. Time and again Feynman is seen patiently replying to parents concerned about their children (yes, a Nobel Prize winning physicist did reply to such letters). And time and again, he would give the same type of advice: encourage your children in whatever it is that they are passionate about and worry about the applications or where it will take them later. All this is underpinned by a fundamental belief in truth and reason that is very refreshing in an era where terms like 'post-truth' are bandied about, making this just about the best parenting advice I imagine can be found anywhere.

Perhaps the central reason I enjoyed this book so much is that it straight-up resonated with me. His focus on finding out the truth and not being fobbed off with pseudo-explanations; with having to understand stuff from a fundamental level himself and not accepting it on authority; and his wide-ranging interests ("when you get older you find nearly everything is interesting if you go into it deeply enough") so chimed with me that I suppose it is no surprise I enjoyed this book. Of course, for those of a different mindset they may find his insistent questioning or naïve style grating. Personally, this book offered a wonderful opportunity to study up close someone I very much identify with and have always admired.

Muy aburrido, no lo pude terminar

Decided to reread this book after some ten years after a very engaging conversation with my girl-friend about quantum physics and consciousness. I chose this book over others of his from my library simply because it gives such an amazing insight to the depth and breadth of his scope of interests, his intrigue with life itself, his remarkable energy and ability to explore and connects so many disconnects. As a futurist, Feynman is a must read. My esteemed colleague Jim Dator would probably feel that Feynman met a large number of the qualifications/characteristics Jim deems essential to the futurist's make-up. This book travels through his correspondence with fellow scientists, friends, fans, family, students, etc. on a plethora of topics such as causality, time travel, the state of science education, Soviet politics of the day, his Nobel prize, complexity and chaos and so much more. His enthusiasm for discovery and life itself have always been an inspiration. Not so much a hero, but a directional influence. Very interesting read.

Beautiful insights into his personality from his letters. What a wonderful human being. RPF: Sorry to report higher mgmt has not changed.

page 405 RPF to John Young December 8, 1986 On the Challenger accident.
"I was particularly impressed by the careful analysis exhibition in the testimony of Mr Hartsfield, yourself and the other astronauts during one of our public meetings. It seemed that you were the only people thinking about the future, and the causes of things in a clear way. It soon became apparent that the testimony of higher management was a bit muddleheaded about why they weren't told, why the system broke down, etc. They weren't told because they didn't want to hear any doubts or bad news.... I hear the same thing is happening again--complex questions being hidden in innocuous little "bullets" so even the joint certifying committee is having trouble getting information.

Is there anything you astronauts can do to clean the Augean stable?

Sincerely RPF

Not bad, but not so interesting as other books actually written by Feynman and planned as such.

Candid Feynman! Whats not to love? The inspirational, world renown scientist, teacher and couroius carachters collection of letters to and from family, fans, colleagues and others is gold. For any Feynman fanatic out there; this is a must read.

His personality surely is recognizable from other biographies, but we get to see a deeper side than just the silly scientist; a fuller picture of the human Richard P. Feynman emerges. Great!

Great forward by Ferris. "Feynman's appeal resides ... in that his freedom, integrity, and enthusiasm reflected the spirit of science in action."

Personal correspondences were very revealing. I don't think there's anything else that provides a clearer window into his principles and values. The letters covered less science topics than I had hoped and sometimes the book felt long but there's a lot of humanity expressed.

Some that I marked:
p.36-39 - letter to wife about rest bed complications
p.85 - letter to mom for more correspondence
p.131 - letters to crack-pot challenge to orthodox bias
p.134 - attrition rates among Caltech undergraduates
p.198 - how to find the problems to enjoy solving
p.207-208 - responding to public criticism
p.234-236 - against racial theory
p.270 - i know brazil speaks portuguese
p.314 - letter on memories of Lars Onsager
p.391 - curmudgeon on not wanting nobel
p.394 - cute comprehensive answer to simple physics problem

I was really fascinated by physics in high school. I saw it as a heroic human endeavor: such a romantic view of it. It certainly was inspired by big names like Einstein, etc, households names people associated with geniuses, groundbreaking and revolutionary theories and so on. Who doesn't want to associate with such grandeur?

I knew Feynman a little later when I frequently visited the library in the Physics department in the University in Oslo in which I was majoring Informatics. I still wanted to escape to the romantic world of physics amidst my own occupation with the world of information technology. It does provide interesting problem solving challenges, but unfortunately not as romantic as physics :-) I guess this is just a neighbor's-garden-is-always-greener kind of thing.

This book portrays Feynman as a person in his own words and others in a series of letters to and from him. The quality that attracts me most is his curiosity. Secondly is his sense of humor: not taking things or himself too seriously. Most of the letters are full of praises for him and he responded to it in a way that was not arrogant but not hypocritically humble either. I enjoy more his responds to less complimentary, sometimes critical, letters.

He is a genius who doesn't hesitate to admit his mistakes, or simply to say "I don't know".

Rührend und tief beeindruckend!

Feynman no solo fue un gran científico, fue una gran persona con una pasión por la vida y curiosidad sin limites. En su correspondencia se puede apreciar como influyo en otros científicos y en toda clase de personas despertando su interés por conocer más sobre el mundo en el que viven.

Some really nice moments in amongst this collection of letters to and from Feynman, particularly the ones where he talks about how you should go about doing science. The answer, apparently, is to do whatever the hell you want, and only what you want. Sweet! I'm in.