Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character

Some people spend their lives trying to sound smart. Richard Feynman spent his making curiosity cool again. "Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!" is the antidote to academic pretension ... a riot of wit, wonder, and pure intellectual joy.

Every time I read it (and I’ve gone back half a dozen times), I end up laughing out loud ... sometimes at his pranks, sometimes at his audacity, but mostly at his unfiltered honesty. He’s a Nobel laureate who refuses to take himself seriously, which might be his most brilliant accomplishment of all.

The beauty of this book is how human it is. Feynman doesn’t separate science from art, or logic from play ... it’s all part of the same grand experiment. He approaches everything, from safe-cracking show more to samba drumming, with the same gleeful “let’s see how this works” attitude that made him a legend in physics and an icon for anyone who’s ever been enchanted by the mystery of how things tick.

This isn’t just a memoir; it’s an invitation to live curiously, to laugh at yourself, and to never, ever stop asking questions. In a world full of experts, Feynman reminds us it’s okay ... maybe even essential ... to stay a little bit of a self-deprecating fool. show less

I viewed Surely You're Joking, My Feynman! as a companion to Six Easy Pieces (a perennial TBR), and chose to read it beforehand: this decision was more productive than anticipated.

I've long been interested in Feynman's reported talent for presenting difficult and detailed science concepts in clear and innovative ways, but hadn't got around to reading his books or screening videos of his lectures. Receiving Joking as a gift prompted me to read it, and that lead to reading 6EP immediately after.

There is no particular necessity for reading this first. The payout for me was twofold: first, having a "big picture" into which I could place the specifics of his very focused lectures from 6EP. This fits with my predilection for Top Down show more thinking, so appealing but in no way providing missing information. The more nuanced and rewarding aspect, though, was in a heightened appreciation for Feynman's gadfly approach to life, and seeing how his scientific outlook (on physics and problems of engineering) is itself shot through with that same irreverence. A significant part of the nuance comes from insight into Feynman's clownish sense of humour, which is present in the physics lectures but very understated, and seems of a piece with his abiding curiosity about everything: social interactions, natural phenomena, pedagogy, mathematics.

I also didn't anticipate that Joking, the "easier" read of the two books, took longer. It's hundreds of pages and covers a wide swath of Feynman's life -- though evidently there's another volume to these (transcribed) memoirs. show less

It's not often a simple title and subtitle truly encompass an entire work. "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" (Adventures of a Curious Character) does just that and more. It introduces two important concepts to Feynman's book and life. On the one hand, Feynman loved entertainment and was always the life of the party, in some form or another. For example, telling people at a party he could correctly identify any book picked up by a person merely by smelling it (and making it a challenge). Throughout his life he found ways to be the center of attention wherever he went, and hilarious results followed. The other hand details all of his adventures, whether they be funny or not, and how truly curious of a character Feynman was. He was show more hand-picked by Nils and Aage Bohr, while visiting Los Alamos, to talk physics to because he was the only one who would actually discuss physics, not stand mouth-agape in awe. He had no problems with authority, and telling authoritative figures they were wrong - and this played a tremendous role in his life. He dabbled in the arts; he played bongo drums; he frequented a strip club (and defending it in court); he got into bathroom bar fights. These are just the tip of the iceberg of the adventures Feynman found himself in.

Reading this memoir, taped and edited by Feynman's close friend Ralph Leighton, leads the reader into adventure after adventure in Feynman's life. It is a tremendously entertaining book, that is both a quick, page turning read, and very deep in many of the stories and lessons. This is not a science book; the amount of science in the book is minimal, and he does not discuss science in any technical way. If you are not scientifically inclined, this book will still prove to be both insightful and entertaining. show less

Feynman, Richard. “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman”: Adventures of a Curious Character. As told to Ralph Leighton. 1985. Norton, 2018.
Several years before his death in 1988, Nobel-winning physicist Richard Feynman narrated some stories of his life to a friend with a tape recorder. Most of Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman is the result of these interviews. They do not create a full biography, but they do give some insight into aspects of Feynman’s personality. One realizes that he was almost always the smartest person in the room, even though he could be intimidated by the prestige of some of his colleagues. As a child he tinkered creatively with all things electronic, and one could imagine him being an excellent engineer, show more if he had not had such a powerful interest in the math of theoretical physics, where he made things as hands on as possible. His insistence on not accepting received wisdom until he had worked the problems out by his own methods offers a clue to his originality. His humor is everywhere apparent. He could be something of a smart-aleck and was an inveterate practical joker, cracking safes and picking locks in the paranoid environment of the Los Alamos. His satirical account of trying to talk to academic philosophers is hilarious, as is account of his trouble reading Shakespeare. But we also get some hint that music and art eventually became important to him. His chapter on how he learned to seduce women in bars suggests that he was a typical frat-boy of his era. His male chauvinism seems more playful than cruel, and he eventually became a defender of women physicists. We get little of his emotional life from these stories—how he felt about losing his first wife to tuberculosis or his divorce from his second wife. Near the end, he tells us how winning the Nobel Prize interfered with his ability to talk to his colleagues, why school textbooks and pedagogical methods in math and science are so dreadful, and what dangers lurk in what he calls “Cargo Cult Science”—a topic that seems more relevant to life in the twenty-first century than the twentieth. Feynman was, as Tom Wolfe called himself, “a man in full.” 5 stars. show less

When I conjure a Nobel Laureate in physics in my mind’s eye, some very definite attributes emerge. I think of a man, yes, a man, because my inner Papaw is stuck in 1915. I think of someone who worked on the Manhattan project alongside some of the greatest minds in history. In addition to teaching at one of the world’s most preeminent institutions in his field, I see a professor who is also a failed poet. But someone whose drawings were good enough to hang in some of California’s finest brothels and showed some talent playing drums. Luncheoning four or five times a week at a nearby topless bar because that is the one place where a Nobel Prize winner is left alone and able to focus on his work, he holds little regard for convention. show more (The boobies are just a bonus.) Lastly, I envision someone whose curiosity is the one thing that shines almost as brightly as the universe he studies. I think of Richard P. Feynman, Ph.D. At least I do now after finishing “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman.” show less

Richard Feynman didn't write these memorable stories; he told them to students and friends who wanted to ensure by publishing them in book form that the living impact of his personality was not lost. While he was working on the Bomb at Los Alamos his young first wife died through a mis-diagnosis of her illness which should have been curable. This must go some way to explaining his lifelong detestation of "experts" and of the pompous and his resolve not to become one of them. He foresaw that the award of the Nobel Prize would cause him trouble, and it did. This collection, and the one in which his experiences on the committee enquiring into the "Challenger" space shuttle disaster appear, should be required reading for anyone who thinks show more that politicians, bureaucrats, military men and "educators" know what they are doing. show less

Not quite an autobiography, more a series of anecdotal snapshots and musings. The man to whom Feynman spoke had hoped this would not be the only memoirs we'd get out of Feynman, but alas! It appears to be the case. Which is too bad, since large chunks of this book are either insightful (like his lecture on "Cargo Cult Science," which is more relevant than ever) or hilarious (Feynman's adventures in safecracking). A fascinating man, in many respects. Not a perfect book, but worth dipping into.