Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! : Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard P. Feynman — Review
on Book Review
“I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong. If we will only allow that, as we progress, we remain unsure, we will leave opportunities for alternatives. We will not become enthusiastic for the fact, the knowledge, the absolute truth of the day, but remain always uncertain … In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar.”
— Richard P. Feynman
Richard P. Feynman, an American Theoretical Physicist, is one of the most influential people in my life. I still remember coming across The Feynman Lectures on Physics; it was a whole new leap in the realm of imagination, haven’t seen a teacher like him! He always had a way to imagine stuff and break them into the tiny streams of information that my childish brain could take. It felt as if he came to life. Though I’m born after he passed away, sadly, I deeply admire him. In fact, I really wanted to attend his lecture live…
In the pursuit of knowing him and what makes him Him, I came across this book; Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman: Adventures of a curious character. It was like time travel in the past, back to when he was in high school and all the way throughout his lifetime…
I remember diving into the first chapter — “He fixes radio by thinking,” and that hooked me till the end. Personally, I love humor, and damn, this book is just cooked with it, and it’s a super curious character!
It’s not that this book is a complete guide to joking and fooling around while being genius. It’s more than that. Feynman reflects on so many of his ideas and thoughts. For me, the most important one was The Art of Learning.
“I think that when we know that we actually do live in uncertainty, then we ought to admit it; it is of great value to realise that we do not know the answers to different questions. This attitude of mind — this attitude of uncertainty — is vital to the scientist, and it is this attitude of mind which the student must first acquire.” — Richard P. Feynman
I thoroughly adored the Los Álamos From Below chapter. It’s breathtaking and so much informative, for it gives you an insight into what it was during Atomic Bomb formation and the ultimate adversity.
The book is full of awe-inspiring anecdotes beginning from his fascination with safe-cracking, studying various languages, participating with groups of people who share different interests (such as biology or philosophy), and ventures into art and samba music. For me, I’ll say it’s Undownputable…
So hell yea, go and read it. It’s amazing!!!