Wit, wisdom, and always humble affection for people from the genius of our time

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	• Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman Recorded Books, 2005 average customer review:based on 20 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Feynman raw

If you are familiar with feynman this is just what you would expect from this great man. This is him uncut and uncensord. When ever i feel like smiling and gain some inspiration i pick this book up and flip to a random page, it works everytime.

Feynman on Feynman

My main motivation for reading "Perfectly Reasonable Deviations" was to gain further insight into Feynman's personality and value system by the direct and reliable method of studying verbatim his interactions with other people. He has been so thoroughly enshrined (perhaps not unwillingly) as a brilliant, difficult, puckish character that I couldn't help being a bit puzzled about what he was "really" like.

In assembling this volume, Feynman's daughter Michelle has selected a variety of correspondence ranging from professional relations with colleagues to private exchanges with friends and, occasionally, complete strangers. I think it is in the latter case that we learn the most about Feynman. He was willing to pay close attention not only to people who admired him, but also to those who offered crazy ideas, or unfair criticism, or even ad-hominem invective. Well after becoming a Nobel prize winner, he continued to compose detailed explanations for, and invite replies from, people who could try anyone's patience. As an experienced debater-by-correspondence, he had a talent for cutting to the quick of a dispute and, while remaining perfectly courteous, nudging the contender into a corner from which escape was impossible short of offering something new or conceding the point. Whether arguing scientifically, graciously acknowledging praise, or simply trying to shake off a persistent bore, Feynman never failed to be insightful and thought-provoking.

The early part of the book covers Feynman's relationship with his first wife Arline, who died of tuberculosis in an Albuquerque sanatorium while he worked on the atomic bomb project at Los Alamos. His decision to marry Arline, regardless of her uncertain health and against the advice of friends and relatives, speaks to the strength and depth of his commitment. Many extremely personal letters are included which illuminate the couple's mutual devotion as well as his loving acceptance of the frustration and uncertainty forced on both of them by the relentlessly worsening disease.

Feynman's attitude toward religion is revealed in several places, particularly during a 1959 television interview. In addition to critiquing the widespread notion that morality is tied to piety, he says quite succinctly that "The religious theory of the world ...doesn't fit with what you see."

In a number of letters Feynman explains the prickly positions on academic conventions and courtesies that helped to make him a legendary outsider. A representative example was his refusal to provide evaluations of former students and colleagues when they were already at the requesting institution. He essentially said: Look here, this person is working right under your nose and you know more about him or her than I do, so decide for yourself!

There are a few instances where an alert editor could have caught misreadings, for example "Serbeis" for the [Robert] Serbers on page 76, and "1023" for ten to the 23rd power on page 174. All in all, this collection constitutes a fascinating and skillfully-produced window into one of the world's most intriguing minds.

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Wonderful collection

Having read "Surely you're joking, Mr Feynmann", I had wondered about his relationship with his first wife, because she was hardly mentioned.

This book sets that right, with some fascinating and personal letters. In particular, the letter he wrote a year after her death hit me very hard, and I don't consider myself sentimental.

And that's just the first part of the book...if you like Feynmann, this is a must have.

Wit, wisdom, and always humble affection for people from the genius of our time

If there was one intellect that dominated the latter half of the 20th century, it would be Dr. Richard Feynman. Yet, despite winning a Nobel prize and his early work on the Manhattan project and his years of original yet simple and creative approaches to complex problems, his humility and true affection for other people never waivered. He was one of those rare people who could touch our hearts as effectively, possibly even more, than he could touch our minds. He was one who gave new meaning to the idea of thinking outside the box and who never passed up a chance to remind us all of what is really important in life.

Some of his letters will make you cry with the emotion he could express to those he loved. Others will strike you for their humility displayed in teaching without condescending or apologies to those he feared he had offended. A truly great man with a great intellect and great ability to communicate his thoughts. This is the human side of one who had been named "the world's smartest man" by Omni magazine. And we are all fortunate to know him through this collection.

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Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the beaten Track

Feynman inspires the pursuit of truth in this spin-driven world.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

?I?m an explorer, OK? I like to find out!? -- One of the towering figures of twentieth-century science, Richard Feynman possessed a curiosity that was the stuff of legend. Even before he won the Nobel Prize in 1965, his unorthodox and spellbinding lectures on physics secured his reputation amongst students and seekers around the world. It was his outsized love for life, however, that earned him the status of an American cultural icon-here was an extraordinary intellect devoted to the proposition that the thrill of discovery was matched only by the joy of communicating it to others. In this career-spanning collection of letters, many published here for the first time, we are able to see this side of Feynman like never before. Beginning with a short note home in his first days as a graduate student, and ending with a letter to a stranger seeking his advice decades later, Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track covers a dazzling array of topics and themes, scientific developments and personal histories. With missives to and from scientific luminaries, as well as letters to and from fans, family, students, crackpots, as well as everyday people eager for Feynman?s wisdom and counsel, the result is a wonderful de facto guide to life, and eloquent testimony to the human quest for knowledge at all levels. Feynman once mused that ?people are ?entertained? enormously by being allowed to understand a little bit of something they never understood before.? As edited and annotated by his daughter, Michelle, these letters not only allow us to better grasp the how and why of Feynman?s enduring appeal, but also to see the virtues of an inquiring eye in spectacular fashion. Whether discussing the Manhattan Project or developments in quantum physics, the Challenger investigation or grade-school textbooks, the love of his wife or the best way to approach a problem, his dedication to clarity, grace, humor, and optimism is everywhere evident..

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