Book Review: Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman

Surely you’re Joking Mr Feynman – Adventures of a curious character : By Richard P Feynman.

Richard P Feynman is a celebrated Physicist. A noble laureate for his work on quantum electrodynamics, he exhibited amazing qualities contrasting with the stereotypical scientist that we imagine. His books called Feynman Lectures are a hot shot favorite in our IITs and among the physicists of the world. Feynman was a genius in every sense of the word. He was a creative genius and a maths + physics guru. He had a special ability to visualize a problem and break down the mathematics involving its characteristics into its physical form. (Did you understand what I just said?) But he was also, a cool dancer, a great drummer, a brilliant nude artist, a safe cracker, a hard core prankster and a celebrated GENIUS. Someone who could create fun, anywhere any time. I am so inspired by this curious character. Hats off.

Anyways, so much so for the introduction. Coming to the book.

This book is semi autobiographical and describes his lighter side. There are no equations in it but a wealth of knowledge. Feynman keeps attributing much of his success to his luck, (he does this not in an IMHO way, but in a ‘can you believe it!!!’ manner) but sparks of his sheer genius can be seen despite the overall modesty. This book is funny, I don’t know how many times I have caught myself smiling my way to glory while reading it in public places. Absolutely entertaining.

In the book he shares about some 20-30 incidents of his life. Each of them have a lot of spice in them. Reading this book, I have surrendered to the fact that there is no full stop to learning. Look at this man, he would have qualified as an amateurish-expert in maybe 10 different fields! The closest we get to “Jack of all, King of quite a few as well”.

He shares his childhood experiences with repairing radios, his fervor for maths, his days at MIT, his days at Princeton, his days of making the first atomic bomb to becoming a professor in Caltech. And in between come lots of practical jokes, the insights of a genius mind, the funny side of some very serious things, adventures with hot club girls, playing in the Rio Carnival and reluctance to take a Nobel Prize.

All in all this is a hilarious book coming from the mind of a damn mischievous man. You can’t help but chuckle all through out.

What I am taking back from this book is

• Have fun all all all along
• Enjoying every moment
• Know the basics well
• The imaginative side of maths and theoretical problems
• Investigating and going till the bottom

I am all inspired to read “The Feynman Lectures” (if I can understand them).

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to have a light and inspiring read.

Richard P Feynman, was for sure a free man and my now favorite genius of all times! My earlier favorites were Da Vinci and Newton. But well, I haven’t read their biographies yet! (Now, I am not comparing renaissance geniuses to the modern day ones, its just that if I would fantasize my life as a genius, it would be closer to Feynman’s than Da Vinci’s.)