The past week or so I've been reading this wonderful book by the Nobel prize winning theoretical physicist Richard Feynman whom I have great respect for when it comes to the education of science and math. Well it isn't exactly written by him but rather transcribed by a friend who recorded these stories over a seven year period. It tells the stories of different periods of time in his life up to a few years after he has won the Nobel prize in physics for his contribution to quantum electrodynamics. Each of these stories have a lot of humour in it and as you read on, you'll find that this man is quite extraordinary even outside the realm of his expertise, both academically and in personality.
One of the things that you will pick is that a lot of his peers were always saying that it is in Feynman's character that he can pretty much bluff his way out of anything or pretend to know something. And there is a pretty good mix within the stories of him professing to know and actually does and him professing to know but actually doesn't and yet still manages to get lucky. So it is of little wonder that you begin to suspect that some of the stories that he tells in the book seem a tad made up for it to be true. Unlike the stereotypical view of how most of us view professors of advanced physics, he is highly extroverted, very adventurous and, probably the most unlikely thing, being some kind of a prankster. But sometimes truth is stranger than fiction and quite often times funnier than anything made up (anyone who has heard the tale of my second mugging might be a glimpse into this phenomenon). So I choose to believe that he really is telling the truth without any exaggerations in his tales. He really is a very rich character, a rather street smart boy who grew up during the Depression in Brooklyn coupled with great understanding of how things work as well as being a rather cheeky man.
It's not until the later parts of his life where things really catch my eye. He went through many problems in his life and I was surprised to see how many of these problems that were around in say the late 50s to mid 60s are the same problems I see today, in one form or another. Two of the issues that I know very well both have to do with education. One was how appalling science was being taught when he was visiting Brazil during his sabbatical year and the other was how textbooks were written poorly. The former reminded me a lot about how science and math was taught back home, and I dare say Singapore as well though to a slightly lesser degree. There is a real gap between the technical definitions and jargon used and the real world connection that is lacking in the educating the future scientists and mathematicians. Many lose heart and even more hate these subjects because teachers mainly teach them that it is to pass the test at the end of the year, having zero idea that the seemingly abstract concept has everything to do with that digital content. And that was the situation going on in Brazil when Feynman visited them. The latter is a very bad attempt to fix the former. In the spirit of bridging the gap between real world science and school textbooks, "real world" type problems are inserted in the textbooks but get the focus totally wrong. Worse still, definitions are not accurate, if not wrong, "experimental" data fudged to give the exact answer are examples of dumbing down the science (or sometimes rebranding science) in order to feel like they are closing the gap between theory and reality. Now a decade into the 21st century and I'm still seeing these same problems around, more embarrassingly back home. Of course the principles here don't just surface on education but other areas as well but that would be another story. Another small thing was how he was dealing with legalistic rabbis in training, himself brought up in a Jewish background. Again very interesting to see such behaviour around after millennia of legalistic practice which helps bring to light really just how the Pharisees might have worked in the Bible.
This is one of those books that I know I should have read it ages ago but just never got down to doing it. Whenever I hear someone who had read the book, I immediately get all excited but actually never read the book and so I pulled a Feynman, faking that I've actually read the book. So far I got lucky. But the other interesting thing that I noticed was that of all the friends that I knew had read this book were mostly girls. Even though that these girls, whom as far as I know, had some sort of connection with Feynman's character or even what he used to do, it's still something I wouldn't have expected. But it is also perhaps a testament of his story telling abilities. It's akin to having that uncle of yours sit down after dinner telling you stories of his youth and you just sit there so interested in how he tells his story even if you don't know exactly what some of the words mean. Perhaps it is also why they liked the book. Or maybe they liked his physics. By the way, the girls who read the book were pretty geeky in their own way. Geeks are like hipsters. Both think they are cool and both love things before they become mainstream. I'm all about the geek.
It's a good book for light reading with the occasional skipping of jargon mentioned in the book for those whose brain will shut down at the sound or sight of a science-y word. Most of the time it will not affect the stories. And if you can imagine him telling you the stories in his distinctly Brooklyn accent, that would be most helpful.
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