A Textbook for The New Sincerity

Posted by Maximum Fun on 11th August 2006

If you’re looking for some guidance in how to Be More Awesome, it would be tough to find a better starting point than eminent physicist Richard Feynman’s memoir “Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character.”

Feynman was one of the most important physicists of the 20th century — he was a key part of the Manhattan Project, his Feynman Diagrams are still an important part of physics, and he did some other physics-y stuff that I will never understand.

This book, however, is more concerned with things like his roles in various musical theater productions at MIT… while he was a professor. And taking time out of his busy schedule as The Nation’s #1 Physicist to play with plates in the cafeteria. In short, the man was an unrepentant goof — but one who was as committed to his goofing as he was to his Serious Endeavours. In fact, the plate spinning lead to some of his most important work.

He writes about much of this in the book, which is one of the most entertaining I’ve ever read.

And get a load of this: you can get a copy used on Amazon for a buck and a quarter.