The Pleasure of Finding Things Out – Richard Feynman
“Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.”
― Richard Feynman, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool."
― Richard Feynman, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
It is hard to not love Feynman. You can love him as a scientist, as a man, as a genius, as a teacher, as an iconoclast. He is the real deal. 'The Pleasure of Finding Things Out' is a series of 13 speeches, articles, essays, interviews by or with Richard Feynman. These are guilty pleasure reads for people who adore those great physicists of the early 20th century who were lucky AND brilliant enough to be physicists when physics jumped from classical to quantum. These guys were amazing. Feynman wasn't among the first wave of theoretical physicists to dance in the quantum space, but he was a huge member of the second wave.
The thing that makes Feynman so interesting is just his unpretentiousness, quirkiness, his love for telling stories, his ability to quickly grasp the root of a problem (whether in physics, biology, or religion), and give you an honest answer.
The only drawback to this collection is it repeats several stories. Feynman retold many of his favorite stories (locks at Los Alamos) or ideas (cargo cult science). So if you've read Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character or Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman many of these stories have been heard before. Even inside of this book a couple of stories get retold a bit. It is unavoidable, but still a bit of a drawback.
Anyway, this isn't a deep dive into Science. It is a flirtation with the curiosity that drives scientists. It is the recollections of one of the most fascinating characters to come out of the Manhattan Project and the post-quantum revolution period of physics. So, if you haven't read much on Feynman I might recommend reading Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! first, but I'd still not neglect to check this out as well.