Deviant

Deviant

How many pot smoking fratboys have won the Nobel Prize? At least one, Richard P. Feynman. As I perused the pages of “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” I didn’t know whether to laugh hysterically or take notes on cryptology, physics, philosophy, and picking up women. A supreme renaissance man, Feynman is easily the most charismatic physicist of all time. Although this autobiography was written decades ago and Feynman has since passed away, his language transcends the physical limitations of death as his antics and voice resonate between the pages. As the reader loses himself to both scientific befuddlement and philosophical musings, he picks up some smarts, some quirks (and quarks!), and a bit of enlightenment.

Befitting for current times, Surely You’re Joking is a story of fear, depression, inspiration, and achievement. Born with an insatiable curiosity, Richard always had an attractive force for finding trouble, a repulsive force for escaping blame, and a quantum mechanical tendency for being unpredictable and deviant. Despite his apparently capricious nature, he was a calculating genius who managed to extract a profound lesson from each adventure, which he has no reservations about sharing in this series of memoirs.

While a visit to the café is an insignificant event for the everyman, Richard turns it into an experiment. After a meal, he orders a glass of water, drops in a tip (a dime), covers the cup with a piece of paper, flips the cup upside down, and removes the piece of paper. The dime is stuck beneath the cup; and if the waitress were to lift it, she would be drenched. A normal person might pick up the cup in the interest of saving time. A more meticulous person might use physics to figure out exactly how to minimize spillage. The method that Feynman teaches to the waitress, well… it would be a crime to spoil the story.

At the beginning of the modern Opera Dr. Atomic, an ID picture of Feynman hangs among other famous scientists. Though only a graduate student in his early twenties at the time, Feynman worked on the Manhattan Project and butted heads with the likes of Oppenheimer, Bohr, and Compton. Unfazed by their stature, Feynman managed to hold his ground against these mental giants. At the same time, his mind was fixated on his young, but dying, wife whom he rarely saw. Balancing upon his shoulders the fate of his country and the love of his life, Feynman tragically falls into depression as his wife passes away and the project he’s been working on ultimately kills thousands of innocent Japanese.

It is during period of his life that Feynman leaves the functional sciences and devotes his time to solving problems for his personal enjoyment. As he finds fulfillment in his pursuit, the truly important things in life become obvious. The book is not a revival of Feynman’s spirit. Rather, it is a testimony that timeless charm is immortal.