Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman - Richard P. Feynman

Author: Richard P. Feynman

Genre: Memoir

Rating: 2 stars.

Want to read a book that is full of bragging and humblebragging?  Here’s a great option that fits the bill! Reading this was like sitting across a table with an interesting person, only to realise that he finds just one topic interesting: himself. Pompous prig alert! 😬

What Richard Feynman wanted me to learn from this book:

1. Richard Feynman is fabulous at physics.

2. Richard Feynman is fabulous at mathematics.

3. Richard Feynman is fabulous at biology.

4. Richard Feynman is fabulous at picking up girls. (He “loves beautiful girls.”)

5. Richard Feynman is fabulous at unlocking safes.

6. Richard Feynman is fabulous at playing musical instruments, even live on stage.

7. Richard Feynman is fabulous at learning new languages (or at least pretending to.)

8. Richard Feynman is fabulous at coding and decoding ciphers.

9. Richard Feynman is fabulous at dancing.

10. Richard Feynman is fabulous at teaching.

11. Richard Feynman is fabulous at sketching and painting. (Not surprisingly, he loved to draw nudes best.)

12. Richard Feynman is fabulous at Mayan anthropology.

There are many more things Richard Feynman is fabulous at but these are all I remember now.

What I didn’t find in this book:

1. Details about Feynman’s family except for a barebones mention of his parents and sister and a few paras on his three wives whenever they are a part of his anecdotes about how fabulous he is.

2. Details on anything Richard Feynman wasn’t fabulous at, beyond a few paragraphs.

Bonus points I learnt about Richard Feynman

1. Richard Feynman was cocky.

2. Richard Feynman loved to hear himself talk about himself.

3. Richard Feynman treated women as objects and judged them entirely on their physical merits.

4. Richard Feynman considered anyone who didn't understand physics, an idiot.

5. Richard Feynman loved playing pranks on others, whether it was funny to others or dismaying didn’t matter.

6. Richard Feynman was full of attitude and with zilch gratitude.

The only part of the book I enjoyed without getting judgemental was when he spoke of being in a textbook evaluation committee. If you want advice on how to be better at your chosen scientific discipline, jump straight to the last chapter. That’s the only one having content bordering on advice.

I still respect Richard Feynman the physicist, but as a human being, he dropped vastly in my esteem. He must have been an outstanding scientist and teacher but hardly any glimpse of that comes out in this book, which is more of an ode to himself by himself.

Do you remember the Gaston song from ‘Beauty and the Beast’? This is how Feynman would have probably sung it:

🎶No one's slick as Feynman, No one's quick as Feynman,

No one's head is as incredibly thick as Feynman,

For there's no man in town half as manly

(Perfect, a pure paragon!)

You can ask any Tom, Dick, or Stanley

And they'll tell you whose team they prefer to be on.

Who plays darts like Feynman? Who breaks hearts like Feynman?

Who's much more than the sum of his parts like Feynman?

(As a specimen, yes, I'm intimidating!)

Who has brains like Feynman, Entertains like Feynman,

Who can make up these endless refrains like Feynman,

(I use antlers in all of my decorating!)

Who's a man among men? Who's the super success?

Don't you know? Can't you guess?

Ask his fans and his five hangers-on

There's just one guy in town who's got all of it down! 🎶

And here’s where I’ll interrupt his 'Ode to Myself' and jump in for the grand outro:

🎶 “Surely you’re joking, Mr. Feynmaaaaaan!!!!” 🎶

**insert musical crescendo here!**