Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!

Richard P. Feynman, USA (1918-1988)

SUMMARY:

• When Mr Feynman committed a social error during a tea party organised by the Dean of his college, then after he learned to behave correctly in a social gathering.
• In the beginning, he used to sit only with groups of physics but when he started sitting with a group of other disciplines like zoology, and biology, then, he became the top student in the college.
• This essay tries to say that lot of fun, different kinds of interests in different disciplines and interdisciplinary approaches are the key to successful learning. This essay recounts Feynman's life through his childhood education. He appears as confident, interesting and inspiring. He discovers that he is a great artist, musician, scientist and critic, too. 
• The essay talks about the importance of a sociocultural environment that directly influences learning.
• People who are talented and genuine can adjust to any corner of the world by exploring and using their knowledge.
• The essay suggests that if we work hard and understand the value of time we will achieve the destination of our life.

Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman! is based on the writer's past experience with his college education regarding knowledge and methods. The title of the essay itself captures the point Feynman is trying to make about life and education. The writer claims that knowledge must be based on scientific methods and it must be gained through the interdisciplinary approach. So, this essay tries to show that the traditional method of learning is baseless and misleading. Furthermore, a talented and genuine man can adjust anywhere in the world. Interest is the most important motivation in education what and how one learns can be measured.

Richard P. Feynman was a physics student who completed his undergraduate from MIT, America. He loved his institution too much so that he wanted to do graduation from there. However, Prof. Slater did not accept his enrolment because Feynman had to find out what and how the rest of the world was going and doing. So, according to the suggestion of Prof Slater, he decided to go to Princeton College for graduation.

He went to Princeton College with his father by car. He also got a room there. He stayed in the hostel with his friends. The college looked like an imitation of Oxford and Cambridge University. One day the Dean of Princeton College, Prof. Elisenhart organised a Tea Party to welcome the new students. Feynman was not very familiar with the culture and manners of such social gatherings. He got confused about how to behave and where to sit. Mr Feynman was asked if he liked cream or lemon tea. But he replied that he would like both. Listening to his reply, all people started laughing. At the same time, Mrs Elisenhart commented, “Surely, You are Joking, Mr Feynman!” 

Gradually, Feynman learned the manners of social gatherings at Princeton College. Then, he started going to the tea party, and dinner parties as well. In the very beginning, he used to sit in the physics students’ group but later he started sitting with groups of biologists, zoologists and philosophers. Mr Feynman became a talented and genuine student amongst the college students. He understood the importance of an interdisciplinary (Drawing from or characterised by the participation of two or more fields of study)   approach in learning. So, he realised why Princeton College was right for him.

Mr Feynman got many opportunities to gain knowledge in different disciplines during his graduation from Princeton College. He got a golden opportunity to observe a cyclotron (An accelerator that imparts energies of several million electron volts to rapidly moving particles) and how it works. He was also invited to conduct a seminar on Biology by Prof. Watson at Harvard University.  So, he gave a lecture to the Biology students at Harvard University. Although Mr Feynman was a physics student, he learned a lot of things and gained experience in Biology. He loves physics more but equally, he prefers to gain knowledge from different disciplines.

EXTENSIVE READING:

Surely you're Joking, Mr Feynman is Richard Feynman's autobiography. While there is a lot of physics in it, it is hilarious, full of jokes, coincidences and pranks (tricks/Acting like a clown or buffoon (A person who amuses others by ridiculous behaviour)). Throughout the book, he tells how he came to be interested in physics and the everyday problems around us. Rather than relating the story of his life in a traditional manner, Feynman gives us a collection of unconnected anecdotes (reports/accounts/A short, interesting or amusing account of a real incident ) loosely organised into this book. After reading the collection of anecdotes, which focus more on mundane (every day) details of his life than on major life events (such as marriages, births, for example) and great career accomplishments, what we end up with is a pretty good idea of the day-to-day life and personality quirks (A strange attitude or habit) of this particular man, and insight into what makes him tick. At the end of the book, the unconventionality of format makes perfect sense, since we know its author is not the kind of person who will do anything the way everybody else does it. That said, it is possible (if a little confusing) to piece together the major events of Feynman's life, in roughly chronological order, from the information garnered in this book.

As a child on Long Island, Feynman is clearly highly intelligent and curious—qualities clearly encouraged and nurtured by his parents. He goes on to excel in his study of Physics at MIT and Princeton.

Upon completing his studies at Princeton, Feynman goes to work with the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico (to develop the nuclear bomb). Although young and obscure at the time, he is able to work among many of the most distinguished scientists of the time—most notably Niels Bohr.

After the war, Feynman takes a job as a professor at Cornell. He works and teaches there for several years before moving to CalTech. He decides CalTech is everything he ever wanted in a workplace and settles down there permanently. He establishes a reputation as a brilliant and accomplished physicist and achieves worldwide recognition—including a Nobel prize in 1965. (However, the book tells us very little about the actual physics he does in his career).

Along the way to becoming a famous physicist. Feynman puts his inquisitive nature to work in many other areas and learns a lot about the world outside of his department. He learns about biology, Mayan hieroglyphics, and the ins and outs of Japanese culture. He learns to speak Portuguese, play the drums, profits from gambling and achieves some recognition as an artist.

Feynman is speaking to us from late in his life when he has reached the very top of his profession. While he is clearly aware of his own intelligence, his tone is very accessible and encouraging. (it is no wonder he places such a high value on teaching—which is somewhat unusual for a professor of his clout). He encourages his readers to take pleasure in exploring natural and cultural phenomena for themselves.

There are a couple of themes that keep recurring. Curiosity is one – Feynman’s desire to explore the world is this incredible hunger that puts him in the most peculiar situations. He seems to apply a scientific method to the world around him. The very first chapter tells about young Richard falling in love with fixing radios. His enthusiasm is apparent from the first paragraph of the book:

When I was about eleven or twelve I set up a lab in my house. It consisted of an old wooden packing box in that I put shelves.

He goes on to tell about how he would set up a lamp bank in his laboratory, play with bulbs in serial or parallel connection and make switch systems.

Also, from the start, Feynman is quite a trickster and almost gets into trouble. His electrical experiments set off a small fire in the house, which he manages to hide from the parents. He discovers that his radio will pick up a radio channel with a show all the children listen to – an hour before they usually listen to it! And he will join them afterwards to make clever comments about what next to expect in the plot… and the first thing he describes from his time at MIT is stealing a door and hiding it; later, he finds out how to open the safes at Los Alamos to demonstrate their inadequate security – an amusing parallel to how Steven Levy describes in his classic book Hackers the later practice at MIT of picking the locks because everyone should have access to information, and a computer shouldn't stand around without being used – and of course, the similarity is that it is not just a practical consideration, but also a brain game. A challenge that, once encountered, can only be met and resolved accordingly.

He describes a difficult youth. Even when he gets older, he has problems with women. At MIT, he puts great thought into the right way to just walk past the girls. And, of course, the physical awkwardness that seems associated with the natural sciences – often discarded as prejudice, and yet repeatedly confirmed – is summed up in a side comment on sports:

I was never any good at sports. I was always terrified if a tennis ball would come over the fence and land near me because I never could get it across the fence-it usually went about a radian off of where it was supposed to go.

This actually makes for an interesting contrast and again, a good reason for reading this book: In most of what Feynman comments on in the book, he is confident bordering on (and sometimes beyond) cocky, but he is also extremely honest about his weaknesses and fears as a human being, which makes the book a very personal and charming read. As he describes how he conquers his challenges, he mixes some rare insights with a human story. He does get married, but his first wife dies from tuberculosis in 1945 while he is working at Los Alamos, and this chapter is very personal. He marries a second time in 1952.

This honesty is a recurring feature as well. He describes being in Brazil to teach, and he encounters an interesting phenomenon: The students on the face of it seem to know the curriculum completely, and the questions they are asked are answered in full – but when he starts asking them questions with scenarios, it turns out that they do not know the answers; and he discovers that they memorise everything without actually understanding it! And that is how they perceive learning. Of course, he tries to promote the inquisitive mind, genuine curiosity and debate about the topics, but it turns out that each student is so deeply trained in never admitting doubts, confusion or mistakes that the idea of a study group is discarded beforehand.

Feynman spends a lot of time on this, and he never fails to stress that it is his curiosity, his need to understand, that has brought him far and will bring him further – and being honest about what he doesn't understand, and what is not yet understood in general, is a necessary part of that.

For the same reasons, he comes across as rather harsh when he is asked to be on the board reviewing schoolbooks. Not only does it very soon become clear that the other reviewers are barely skimming the books in question before giving their recommendation, but it is also clear that the books are of appalling quality and completely unfit for, you guessed it: Stimulating curiosity and creativity. He also rages against the politics of it: When one of the publishers offers the books at an earlier date, another does the same – and at a reduced rate! So, Feynman concludes, it seems that when you push the time frame, the books become cheaper as well!

Feynman’s curiosity is expressed in a different form – namely, his eagerness to examine other areas. At Princeton, he visits classes in other fields like biology and philosophy. In a series of discussions with a friend, an artist, he concludes that their lack of agreement is based on the fact that the artist does not know science, and he himself does not know art. So he sets out to learn drawing – and learns it with the help of his friend, and also painting – and suddenly he has a small business on the side selling paintings!

His interest in music also comes across – he learns to play the drums quite well during his time in Brazil and gets to play with local bands; this also earns him some interesting friendships overtime after he comes back to the States. In the time before he goes to Brazil, he learns Portuguese, and spending some time in Japan, he learns some Japanese. Confronted with the riddle of Mayan hieroglyphs, he goes into deciphering an archaeological find, a Mayan calendar.