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Read Genius: The Life And Science Of Richard Feynman (1993)

Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (1993)

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4.15 of 5 Votes: 2
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ISBN
0679747044 (ISBN13: 9780679747048)
Language
English
Publisher
vintage

Genius: The Life And Science Of Richard Feynman (1993) - Plot & Excerpts

I went into this book idolizing Feynman. But I finished it thinking that he was an asshole who got excused for his behavior by possessing high intelligence. I used to think that Feynman was a fun, eccentric, bongo-playing scientist who wooed women. Now I know that he was one of the original douchebag Pick Up artists and gave no regard for the feelings of others.He also wasn't a very good scientist. This revelation, not expressly said in the book, was a bit upsetting to me. He was an awful scientist. He was a great fan of science and of using science to solve problems, but a terrible, awful, horrible scientist. Scientists, above all, publish and share their knowledge so that they might further their field. Scientists teach others. Scientists publish and subject their work to review. Scientists stay current with new research. Feynman apparently solved practically every physics problem of his generation but neglected to tell anyone. It is apparent that very few of his contributions were unique: He was so reluctant to participate in the scientific community that much of his work was duplicated by others.I had such realizations only far into the book, like an epiphany. There was a passage about how Feynman wrote to James Watson about the latter's book, The Double Helix. Feynman thought it was a great book and told Watson to ignore the haters. He wrote this after it was apparent to most in the scientific community that Watson had villainized Rosalind Franklin and treated several others unfairly. It's one thing to be ignorant of the drama surrounding the book, it's another to be aware of it and still say, to paraphrase, "Fuck that bitch. Women are subhuman. I'm glad you showed that dead whore up, stole her research, and robbed her of a Nobel Prize. That'll sure teach women about taking men's jobs in science! This book is an accurate portrayal of the scientific process and don't let anyone tell you otherwise."Okay I'm really stretching the interpretation there, but damn that letter was really a linchpin in completely reversing my opinion on Feynman.The book is great, but the subject is not. Honestly, I dislike Feynman now. I went from thinking of him as a hero of science to thinking very lowly of him. This despite the book doing its best to describe Feynman in positive terms. I don't see how any sensible person who reads this could come away thinking better of Feynman.A one sentence summary of the book would be: You too can get away with being an immense jerk if you are a genius.

I heard Feynman speak a number of times at conferences in the 1970’s. He was a good speaker. I chose this biography as I wanted to know more about this famous professor. Richard Feynman (1918-1988) was a genius in mathematical physics. He was called “the most original mind of his generation.” Quantum electrodynamics (QED) was developed into an effective theory in 1948 independently by Feynman, Julian Schwinger and Shinichiro Tomona Ga. In 1965 the three shared the Nobel Prize for the theory.The author reveals that Feynman’s road to QED began as a graduate student at Princeton University. He started with a theory in which an electron that emits a light particle (photon) must interact with a distant electron that absorbs the particle. Feynman next work was a reformulation of Quantum Mechanics in a new way. The work was included in his doctoral thesis.The author tells of Feynman’s work at Los Alamos, N.M. working on the Manhattan Project. Gleick also goes into Feynman’s personal life including his love of Arline Greenbaum. They were married in 1941 after she became seriously ill. She entered a sanitarium near Las Alamos to be near him. She was diagnosed with lymphatic tuberculosis. She died just after their fourth anniversary. Years later he married Gweneth Howarth, an English woman he met at a conference in Switzerland.Feynman along with Sally Ride and Alan Shepherd served on the Presidential commission that investigated the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger.Gleick was a science reporter and does a good job in his portrayal of scientific people and dramatizing the emergencies of new ideas. The author did in-depth research to write this book. Feynman was a complex brilliant man. Gleick’s book provides a good introduction into his physics and his life. Gleick also reveals that Feynman was an inspired teacher. The author demonstrates in the book that Feynman was a man of absolute integrity in his scientific work. Gleick kept the biography balanced presenting all the sides of Feynman. People without a science background may have a problem following some of the science presented in the book. The book is 489 pages long. The book has lots of pictures. I read it using the Kindle app my iPad.

What do You think about Genius: The Life And Science Of Richard Feynman (1993)?

A nice easy read of Feynman's life broken down into the places he lived, schooled, and taught. It's definitely a nice addendum to "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" and it reveals some of his inner workings and the love lost in his life.However having started to read Robert Caro's 5-part LBJ biography, I can't help but feel the limitations on such a short piece of work, trying to sum up a man as complicated as Richard Feynman. I can sense the details glossed over and nuances missed, every characterization is blunt and imprecise. As much as I enjoyed the book, and as easy as it was to read and flow, I think Feynman would have probably been exasperated by a book trying to sum him up in so few pages. Failing by its limitations....still liked it though, I'd recommend it for somebody who wanted to know a little bit about this smart dude.
—Wilson Mui

Gleick is a thorough, intelligent science writer able to give over complex ideas without sacrificing too much depth. He still lost me with some of the particle physics stuff. Feynman started his academic career as a precocious math undergrad at Princeton, and went to the pinnacle of modern science, first at the Manhattan Project and later designing a daunting freshman physics curriculum at CalTech later published as "Six Easy Pieces". His career neatly parallels the modern perception of science: theoretical physics was transformed from a discipline akin, in practical application, to "medieval French", to a near-religion, captivating the awed respect of the public, and leading to enormous increases in governmental research spending and the development of "Big Science". And later, as the pace of new developments dropped, and scientists, confronted with an ever-increasing list of particles, gradually gave up on finding a unified theory of the atom, more mystical and antiscientific thinking gradually re-emerged. Notable personal aspects of Feynman were his pre-feminist attitudes toward women, culminating in protests at some of his public talks, and, related, his near-constant womanising. (He never recovered emotionally from the death of his beloved first wife.) Also worth noting is that his quips and stories, seemingly off-the-cuff, were carefully rehearsed in his notebooks.All of which shouldn't take away from the scope of his genius. Gleick sees his subject as the genius par excellence, akin to Einstein and Newton (the latter a previous biographical subject). He devotes a chapter in the final section to a fascinating discussion of the nature and history of "genius". Feynman's thinking was, in speed and clarity, unlike that of normal people.One final point: in an interview with the BBC retold by Gleick, Feynman becomes quite agitated when asked to explain in layman's terms how magnets work. He insists that they just work. This is quite out of the ordinary, as in every other regard Feynman seemed to consider the ability to explain something in simple terms as the hallmark of a clear understanding. This just adds to my conviction that the Insane Clown Posse was really onto something.
—Josh Friedlander

Surely it was my own fault, idolizing Feynman as much as I did after reading "Surely you are joking Mr. Feynman". Ofc he is just human after all with a lot of chauvinism and naivety thrown into the mix.I just can't help wondering what goal Genius by Gleick is supposed to accomplish. You could argue it's a neutral account of the life of one of the most idolized 20th century geniuses, but I will argue it's boring and unnecessary.Feynman was all about finding interesting aspects in the mundane. This book is all about finding mundane aspects in the interesting.
—Florian Blümm

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