The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman

Let's be clear about one thing. Most if not all of the chapters in this book have appeared in various places before. Richard Feynman has been dead 20 years, and nothing here is newly discovered material. However, it does provide an insight into a gifted mind, who was also eloquent with the written word. One chapter has been famous in computing for decades. "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" was a talk he gave in the early 60s. Where he speculated that circuits could be reduced in size by orders of magnitude, with concomitant effects on performance. A foreshadowing of Gordon Moore's observation several years later, that became Moore's Law. Another related chapter has Feynman's predictions about future computers. Future, that is, from when he made his remarks. Read it and see how accurate he was.

Richard Feynman was a great physicist of the 20th Century. He was unconventional but had a way of making physics interesting to students and lay people alike. When I was an undergraduate at Stony Brook in 1969, I took freshman physics from Lamb and Fowler. They had their own notes for our reference but used Feyman's lectures as the course text. Because it lacked structure it was a difficult book (actually two volumes) to learn from. It clearly inspired our professors and many of Feynman's Cal Tech students as well. For me and most of my classmates at Stony Brook we found that buying a copy of the conventional text by Halliday and Resnick was necessary to get us through the course. In this collection of works Feynman has a discussion where he eplains the difficulty of teaching and motivating. He admits that he has not figured out how to do it. His father's approach to investigation worked well on his son but not his daughter. She wanted structure and repetition. He proposes trying many different approaches so as to reach as many students as possible. Robbins has collected a number of interesting short articles,publications and interviews that show the type of person Feynman was and his dedication to physics. This came about for him through the pleasure that comes with discovering how things really work. This is the common theme in the book. He discusses his experience at Los Alamos during the Manhattan project, mainly covering his dislike for the security and censorship that was part of this crucial phase in the development of the atomic bomb. I also enjoyed reading about his theories regarding how small computers may one day be. My favorite chapter is his frank and careful minority report on the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster. If you have read and liked Feynman before, this will not disappoint you. It comes with a very interesting foreward by Freeman Dyson and an editor's introduction to prepare you for what is ahead.

I felt a bit of trepidation when approaching this work, as reading a collection of what are considered "The Best Short Works" of a Nobel Laureate Physicist, sounds daunting even for someone trained to some degree in the field. I am not so trained. Mr. Richard Feynman has the additional gift of speaking passionately, and often in a self-deprecating manner, about what he does, with the result that the layperson can enjoy both his originally spoken, and written thoughts. There are terms and concepts that are understood best, and perhaps only, by those who have made the decision to pursue physics to its higher levels. However the vast majority of the book is readable to any that are inquisitive.Mr. Feynman's Father was also a remarkable man. He was not a trained scientist, and his profession had absolutely nothing to do with science. However as is repeated throughout the book he was the catalyst that recognized and nurtured the talent his precocious son possessed. This topic and the ideas that are expressed about learning and teaching are just one of the topics that is completely accessible to any reader. The topics make for such interesting reading, as the author's enthusiasm combined with his gift for explaining the complex and the abstract, is what allows his thoughts to be accessible, and this is what I enjoyed so much. He was a man of great enthusiasm for the wonders that he sought to understand, and his writing transfers this feeling to his audience.The quote that titles this review is Mr. Feynman's way of describing his feelings when he learns something new. The feelings translated not only into every recognition that his peers could bestow, but also a gift to the rest of us, for he was able to apply the same mind to questions of religion, morality, teaching, governmental roles in science, the responsibilities scientists have to society, and dozens of other topics.I enjoyed the entire work but there were some sections that could have justified the entire time spent reading on their own. His lecture at The Galileo Symposium in 1964, and his report on the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster were remarkable. I was unaware of his role as an investigator into the Challenger episode, and was even more surprised that the committee on which he served attempted to suppress his report. Once you have read his report you will understand why many would have liked to see it locked away. He explains what is arguably the most complex piece of equipment assembled by man, and it is elegant in its simplicity. I believe he intended it to be so, as he could have made his case in language that would have been foreign if he had so chose.I read this book as I enjoyed "Fermat's Enigma" so much. It is not necessary to understand everything that is involved with what these gifted minds have done. It is a pure joy when you can read and gain a glimpse, just a bit, of the ideas that are discussed. It requires a gifted speaker/writer, and this man clearly counted his extraor

Those who have read Gleick's biography of Richard P. Feynman (Genius) have probably also read this collection of Feynman's "best short works." This is indeed an odd collection. Feynman is most accessible in the interviews and speeches; least accessible in his "Minority Report to the Space Shuttle Challenger Inquiry." Gleick's biography reveals a man who exemplifies what Whitman had in mind when he observed "Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes." Feynman was indeed large; he contained multitudes. To read this book is to share the pleasure of his company as he formally and informally shares his thoughts and feelings about himself, his life, his career, and just about everything else which attracted his attention. Chapter 1 ("The Pleasure of Finding Things Out") and Chapter 8 ("What Is Science?") are my personal favorites. The aforementioned "Minority Report" (Chapter 7) was, for me, tough going. As I worked my way through this collection, I began to think that I was in the company of someone who has Albert Einstein's intellect and Danny Kaye's personality. Feyman must have been a flamboyant (albeit demanding) classroom teacher. There can be no doubt about his intelligence. Nor his passion and compassion. Nor his playfulness. How much I regret never having known him personally. Therefore, how much I appreciate this collection which I continue to re-read with joy.