Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character

A hypnotist comes to Princeton to give a lecture. Feynman is both fascinated by and skeptical about hypnosis, and he volunteers to be one of the hypnotist’s subjects. To his surprise, Feynman finds that, though he thought hypnotism was largely fake, it influences him in ways he cannot fully explain. On another occasion later in life, he allows himself to be hypnotized again. He has the same skepticism but comes to the same conclusion after this experience.

Where students sit in the Princeton dining halls is largely determined by what they study. The physicists sit with physicists, and so on. Feynman decides to break this social norm and spend time sitting with different groups. On one occasion he begins to eat with the philosophers. Eventually, they invite him to one of their seminars, and Feynman’s contribution to their discussion causes it to end in chaos because he asks basic questions about the assumptions the philosophers had been using. On another occasion, he sits with biologists and similarly asks what seem to him to be basic questions, which experts in the field have a difficult time answering.

Although Feynman is not familiar with the details of the things they discuss, he can participate in the discussions at a high level because he sees the bigger picture of their arguments. This amazes him. He feels the biologists should be far more advanced than he is, but he realizes he can keep up with the conversation because “they had wasted all their time memorizing stuff like that [cat anatomy], when it could be looked up in fifteen minutes” (85). Feynman recounts another anecdote from his time as a professor at Caltech when he again took up biology as a kind of sideline. He is on the verge of making important biological discoveries, but the experiments do not work out because he was, he says, “doing things as an amateur–stupid and sloppy” (88). Still, he is successful enough at his amateur work to give a seminar at Harvard University. What pleases Feynman most, however, is how these intellectual hobbies satisfy his curiosity and provide him with mental challenges. “I always do that,” he says, “Get into something and see how far I can go” (90).

Feynman becomes the research assistant for John Wheeler, a man who becomes his advisor and collaborator. Besides Wheeler, Feynman interacts with many of the most respected intellects of that era, including Wolfgang Pauli (a pioneer of quantum physics), Henry Russell (an astronomer), Johnny von Neumann (“the greatest mathematician around”) (93), and Albert Einstein. Wheeler suggests that Feynman give a seminar on a theory they were working out and that all these figures would attend. As a graduate student, Feynman is nervous about presenting to such “monster minds,” but he discovers that once he begins to discuss his work, he is “completely immune to being nervous” (94). He also learns that great intellectuals are more interested in discussing the ideas they hear than judging the people who present them. Though the “monster minds” find fault with the Feynman/Wheeler theory—and Feynman admits he “never solved” the problem though he “worked on it for years” (95)—the experience makes him feel as if he has joined the upper echelons of his field.

While eating at a Princeton restaurant, Feynman strikes up a conversation with a house painter about the expertise needed to be a success in his business. The painter, an example of the “practical man” whom Feynman has long venerated, quizzes him about what colors need to be mixed to create another color. As a physicist, Feynman knows something about how colors mix, and he begins to debate with the painter. They agree to experiment to see which of them is correct. This draws a rebuke from the restaurant owner who thinks Feynman should respect the painter’s practical expertise. The result of the experiment, however, proves Feynman correct, and the owner changes his mind to proclaim that the painter should respect the expertise of the physicist who has “studied light all his life” (98). Feynman concludes that perhaps he has a bit too much trust in “real guys,” though he also admits that he has made many mistakes in thinking about physics despite his expertise in the field.

Feynman enters a discussion of topology, an advanced subfield of geometry, with a group of Princeton mathematicians. Though Feynman is quite accomplished at math, he is not, at this point, a recognized expert. He teases his math colleagues that “mathematicians only prove things that are obvious” (100), leading them to challenge him with a variety of math problems. Feynman amazes the mathematicians with his acumen in their field, but Feynman explains that he is following a fairly simple series of steps to arrive at solutions: guessing; making up examples; and following logic. Furthermore, he does not get discouraged if he guesses wrong; he simply learns from the mistake. One of the mathematicians decides to “teach [Feynman] mathematics” (101), though Feynman gives up on some advanced topics. This friend also gives Feynman a calculus textbook that Feynman uses to teach himself techniques that are not normally taught in schools. Because Feynman has an eccentric way of solving calculus problems, he gains a reputation for being good at integrals, not because he is more expert at math, but because he has a different way of seeing and approaching the problem than most experts in the field.

Feynman’s father Melville has a great interest in magic and carnival tricks and is curious about how they work. Melville immigrated in 1895 to the United States from Belarus at the age of five and was educated by a private tutor who also had a job as a mind reader. The mind reader reveals the methods he uses to fake a clairvoyant ability, many of which involve being able to make educated guesses. When Feynman is 26, he and his father visit Atlantic City and take in a mind reading show. They both have theories about how this fake psychic accomplishes his magical results, but neither is certain. By using flattery and bonding over personal similarities, Melville gets the mind reader to tell him how he accomplishes his tricks. Feynman marvels at his father’s ability to do this by a social, rather than experimental method: “My father was a salesman. He could set up a situation like that. I can’t do stuff like that” (105).

Feynman recalls that in his childhood he was less interested in doing experiments that might prove a scientific theory than he was in making practical things. He enjoys watching things occur but does not take the time to systematically determine why they happened as they did. He also notices that books, especially science textbooks, too often oversimplify. At the same time, these books provide useful information that contradicts common misconceptions that many people have. For the curious amateur, books can be both a blessing and a curse.

While at Princeton, Feynman notices ants on his windowsill and becomes curious about their behavior. In contrast to his earlier years where he might have tried to research the answer from a book, he devises a set of experiments to see how ants follow a trail from their nest to a food source. He tests out several variables that might give insight into how and why ants adopt certain behaviors. Eventually, he discovers, by experimentation, a way to keep the ants away from his food without the use of pesticides.