I have read several excellent books lately and am hard-pressed to designate one as my favourite for 2007 to date. Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman! is definitely in the running for the title and is a must-read. Thanks, J for the recommendation!
Feynman was such a character. I fell in love with him within three pages of the book :D
"There are two types of genius. Ordinary geniuses do great things, but they leave you room to believe that you could do the same if only you worked hard enough. Then there are magicians, and you can have no idea how they do it. Feynman was a magician." Hans Bethe, Theoretical Physicist and Nobel laureate
Excerpt from Part 1: He Fixes Radios by Thinking!
"Once I get on a puzzle, I can’t get off… That’s a puzzle drive. It’s what accounts for my wanting to deciper Mayan hieroglyphics, for trying to open safes. I remember in high school, during first period a guy would come to me with a puzzle in geometry, or something which had been assigned in his advanced math class. I wouldn’t stop until I figured the damn thing out – it would take me fifteen or twenty minutes. But during the day, other guys would come to me with the same problem, and I’d do it for them in a flash. So for one guy, to do it took me twenty minutes, while there were five guys who thought I was a super-genius."
Read the final chapter in the book, Cargo Cult Science (Adapted from the Caltech commencement address given in 1974).
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