ran@ho95b.UUCP (RANeinast) (03/27/85)
If you're looking for a good read, try "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman", subtitled "Adventures of a Curious Character." This is the autobiography of Richard Feynman, Nobel Laureate in Physics. Many of you probably saw the Feynman Lectures in freshman physics. Well, he's just as entertaining and enlightening in his writing. Don't think that you need to know physics to be able to read this book. It's not about physics; it's about a very interesting human being who also made important contributions to physics. Feynman has a pretty powerful bullshit sensor, a pretty low bullshit tolerance, a rather low respect for authority, and a lively interest in just about everything under (or in, for that matter) the sun. Many of the stories and anecdotes in the book are generated by one or more of the above. Some of the topics included in the book are The Bomb: Feynman worked on it in Los Alamos, but also managed to upset authority by playing the censorship game to the hilt (typical censor wants to remove everything, even the innocuous; Feynman gets thru information in a semi-innocent manner), to learn lock-picking and safe-cracking (and to wander around easily opening supposedly secure safes and filing cabinets with nuclear secrets in them), to appear a genius by making lucky guesses, and to be involved in the first computer programming (though they used bunches of people at adding machines, and passed around punch cards in strict order). Culture: Feynman had a few interesting experiences with people trying to give "culture" to physicists. Somehow it didn't work. Teaching: Feynman spent a year in Brazil, where teaching was all by rote. You got great memorizers but terrible understanders. He later was on a textbook selection committee for public grade schools (this when "new math" came out). Guess how he liked it? Painting: He and an artist friend agreed to try to learn the others speciality if the other would. Feynman got good enough for a one man show. I've tried here to whet your appetites for this book without giving away too much, but suffice it to say that I think just about everyone will enjoy the wit, anecdotes, and storytelling in this book. I've read it 3 times already (in 2 months), and my co-workers are getting tired of seeing me come into their offices saying, "How'd ya like to read a neat book?" -- ". . . and shun the frumious Bandersnatch." Robert Neinast (ihnp4!ho95b!ran) AT&T-Bell Labs