Richard Feynman was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, but also a bongos player and a burglar of safes. One of the most formidable brains of the last century. For our joy he has also written many books, which you can find here.
Why read Feynman?
Here are the reasons, very personal, it must be said. But I hope to give a gift to those who read me.
Feynman's books are funny. Really. Horrible jokes, anecdotes about human stupidity, safes to open, adventures in stripper clubs ... It's the person you'd like to meet on a long train journey. We need to laugh. We take life too seriously. We are living organisms always about to get sick, die, ...
Lightness, come on!
He writes well. Clear, elegant, always straight to the point. Who writes well, thinks well. And who reads things written well, for beneficial contagion, learn to think well in turn.
Feynman was mentally healthy. A bit of taste:
"I learned a new principle: I am not responsible for what people think of me, I don't want to conform myself to the expectations of others."
"I do not feel the need to have an answer, does not scare me the fact of not knowing things, being lost in a mysterious universe without having any purpose - which is the way things are going, as far as I know. It does not scare me at all. "
[Speaking of his scarce participation in the administrative life of the university where he was teaching] "I know it's not very correct, but I like doing physics and I want to keep doing it." Yes, I'm selfish! "
"I think it's much more interesting to live without knowing rather than having answers that could be wrong".
How much mental health! Healthy selfishness, acceptance of uncertainty, personal pleasure as the main compass of one's actions ...
Finally Feynman cordially hated almost all of psychology. He could not stand this pretending to know things that psychology doesn't really know. Psychology is just one of many ways to study human behavior, and it is probably the most chaotic and problematic. Feynman immediately became allergic to smoky speeches and bad experiments. Although he knew how to recognize the value of that minority part of the science of behavior that tried to do science with rigor, respect and true intelligence. Probably, if Feynman had read something of Uncle Fred, would have discovered and appreciated an ocean of well-done behavioral science. But unfortunately Feynman has come into contact more with parapsychologists than with behavior analysts. But reading his acute criticism of psychology and social sciences is an excellent vaccine and a profitable exercise in order not to fall into the trap of smoky speeches that are still alive and well today. Unfortunately.
Why read Feynman?
Here are the reasons, very personal, it must be said. But I hope to give a gift to those who read me.
Feynman's books are funny. Really. Horrible jokes, anecdotes about human stupidity, safes to open, adventures in stripper clubs ... It's the person you'd like to meet on a long train journey. We need to laugh. We take life too seriously. We are living organisms always about to get sick, die, ...
Lightness, come on!
He writes well. Clear, elegant, always straight to the point. Who writes well, thinks well. And who reads things written well, for beneficial contagion, learn to think well in turn.
Feynman was mentally healthy. A bit of taste:
"I learned a new principle: I am not responsible for what people think of me, I don't want to conform myself to the expectations of others."
"I do not feel the need to have an answer, does not scare me the fact of not knowing things, being lost in a mysterious universe without having any purpose - which is the way things are going, as far as I know. It does not scare me at all. "
[Speaking of his scarce participation in the administrative life of the university where he was teaching] "I know it's not very correct, but I like doing physics and I want to keep doing it." Yes, I'm selfish! "
"I think it's much more interesting to live without knowing rather than having answers that could be wrong".
How much mental health! Healthy selfishness, acceptance of uncertainty, personal pleasure as the main compass of one's actions ...
Finally Feynman cordially hated almost all of psychology. He could not stand this pretending to know things that psychology doesn't really know. Psychology is just one of many ways to study human behavior, and it is probably the most chaotic and problematic. Feynman immediately became allergic to smoky speeches and bad experiments. Although he knew how to recognize the value of that minority part of the science of behavior that tried to do science with rigor, respect and true intelligence. Probably, if Feynman had read something of Uncle Fred, would have discovered and appreciated an ocean of well-done behavioral science. But unfortunately Feynman has come into contact more with parapsychologists than with behavior analysts. But reading his acute criticism of psychology and social sciences is an excellent vaccine and a profitable exercise in order not to fall into the trap of smoky speeches that are still alive and well today. Unfortunately.
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