For so long, I didn’t really get what the lore around Richard Feynman was. Sure, he was a brilliant physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project and won a Nobel Prize, but why was he so oft-cited in popular culture? Why was there a near cult-like following around him?
For so long, I had Richard Feynman’s autobiography, Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman, sitting on my bookshelf, and I only finally took the chance to read the book. What followed were some of the funniest and most entertaining hours of my life, a plunge into the life of a patient teacher, eclectic genius, and merry trickster. Why is Richard Feynman so highly regarded, a man whose influence transcends his expertise in physics? I understand now.