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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I adore Feynman and his touch on any and all ideas, however this book didn't do it for me. These lectures no doubt would have been excellent to attend when you've got the man himself animating it all, but that excellence can't be captured in the medium of the book by simply transliterating what he said. I would say skip this one - there is plenty of footage on youtube to see directly the character himself excitedly beam his ideas, and there is the great book [b:Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character|5544|Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character|Richard Feynman|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348445281s/5544.jpg|321174] if you want to read about his antics.
Had some good thoughts about the role of uncertainty and scientific doubt in our day-to-day lives, and ended on a nice note about moral progress.
As lectures, these could have used a good editor to help clean them up and correct transcribing errors (hence the rating). But what’s fascinating (and perhaps disappointing) is that for the most part, Feynman could give this lecture today and the topics and examples he brings up would still be as relevant now as they were then. Worth the read.
informative
medium-paced
Forgive me if this is a bit obvious, but these are just transcriptions of lectures given by that one professor on campus that everybody likes and is like "oh man you gotta take that guy" and then you go to his class that is hopefully on theoretical physics (or in my specific case, 1920s lit) and all he does is ramble about semi-random things and whenever he's about to talk about the nature of reality itself (or violence as masculinity in hemingway, his personal valuation of the prose in early fitzgerald or w/e) he's like, oh, oops, that's not what this lecture is about. Should read some other books by Feynman instead.
Transcribed from three lectures Dr. Feynman gave in 1963, this book touches on many different thoughts and anecdotes on morality, politics, and religion as they relate to science. An interesting read but not the most stimulating book from Dr. Feynman. I would highly recommend his autobiography prior (or as a substitute) to reading this book.
informative
medium-paced