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Richard P. Feynman
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"What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character (Feynman Book 2) Kindle Edition

by Richard P. Feynman (Author), Ralph Leighton (Editor) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 out of 5 stars 2,431 ratings

The New York Times best-selling sequel to "Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!"


One of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century, Richard Feynman possessed an unquenchable thirst for adventure and an unparalleled ability to tell the stories of his life. "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" is Feynman’s last literary legacy, prepared with his friend and fellow drummer, Ralph Leighton. Among its many tales—some funny, others intensely moving—we meet Feynman’s first wife, Arlene, who taught him of love’s irreducible mystery as she lay dying in a hospital bed while he worked nearby on the atomic bomb at Los Alamos. We are also given a fascinating narrative of the investigation of the space shuttle Challenger’s explosion in 1986, and we relive the moment when Feynman revealed the disaster’s cause by an elegant experiment: dropping a ring of rubber into a glass of cold water and pulling it out, misshapen. 
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  1. Book 2 of 2
    Feynman Series
  2. Print length
    260 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  5. Accessibility
    Learn more
  6. Publication date
    February 14, 2011
  7. File size
    16.0 MB
  8. Page Flip
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  9. Word Wise
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  10. Enhanced typesetting
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  1. You can know the name of that bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird.
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A thoughtful companion volume to the earlier Surely You Are Joking Mr. Feynman!. Perhaps the most intriguing parts of the book are the behind-the-scenes descriptions of science and policy colliding in the presidential commission to determine the cause of the Challenger space shuttle explosion; and the scientific sleuthing behind his famously elegant O-ring-in-ice-water demonstration. Not as rollicking as his other memoirs, but in some ways more profound.

From Publishers Weekly

Roughly half of these 21 short, colloquial essays deal with Feynman's firsthand investigaton of the Challenger space-shuttle disaster. He casts himself in the role of intrepid detective, and the first-person singular pronoun keeps intruding on the worthwhile things he has to say about flight safety and lack of communication within NASA. An appendix offers his chilling technical observations on the shuttle's reliability or lack of it. The remaining pieces are mostly a blur of international conferences, purveying slight anecdotes. But two essays touch genuine depths of feeling: his tribute to his father, who taught him to cultivate a sense of wonder, and his account of his love affair with his first wife (who died). In this posthumous miscellany, theoretical physicist Feynman displays only sporadically the adventurousness that captivated readers of Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004OA6KIS
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company
  • Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 14, 2011
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ Reprint
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 16.0 MB
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 260 pages
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393079814
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Book 2 of 2 ‏ : ‎ Feynman Series
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 2,431 ratings

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  1. Richard P. Feynman

    Richard P. Feynman

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    Richard P. Feynman was born in 1918 and grew up in Far Rockaway, New York. At the age of seventeen he entered MIT and in 1939 went to Princeton, then to Los Alamos, where he joined in the effort to build the atomic bomb. Following World War II he joined the physics faculty at Cornell, then went on to Caltech in 1951, where he taught until his death in 1988. He shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1965, and served with distinction on the Shuttle Commission in 1986. A commemorative stamp in his name was issued by the U.S. Postal Service in 2005.

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  2. Ralph Leighton

    Ralph Leighton

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    Ralph Leighton (born 13 November 1949) is a biographer, film producer, and friend of the late physicist Richard Feynman. He recorded Feynman relating stories of his life. Leighton has released some of the recordings as The Feynman Tapes. These interviews became the basis for the books Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think?, which were later combined into the hardcover anniversary edition Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character. Leighton is an amateur drummer and founder of the group Friends of Tuva. In 1990 he wrote Tuva or Bust! Richard Feynman's Last Journey.

    See more on the author's page
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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
2,431 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find this book a fun read about serious subjects, filled with good lessons and insights. They appreciate Feynman's personality, describing him as a brilliant scientist and true genius, while finding the writing humorous throughout. The autobiography receives positive feedback for its reading of Feynman's thoughts and experiences, though some find it somewhat disjointed. Customers describe the book as incredibly touching and very human, with one review noting it provides a deep dive into the workings of science.

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ReadabilityInsightPersonalityHumorEmotional contentAutobiographyInterestBoredom
119 customers mention "Readability"112 positive7 negative

Customers find the book highly readable, describing it as a gem with good stories and an entertaining view of serious subjects.

"...Each story is amusing whilst managing to provide a deeper glimpse into the erratic, comical yet intelligent character of Feynman...." Read more

"...book made me feel like I finally understood his capacity for love and devotion...." Read more

""What Do You Care What Other People Think?" is a very good book. It is well written, and keeps you interested. It also is very informative...." Read more

"...An excellent read. Highly recommend." Read more

53 customers mention "Insight"53 positive0 negative

Customers find the book insightful and full of good lessons, with one customer noting it provides a deep dive into the workings of science.

"...These are particularly helpful in eliminating any ambiguity in the description of technical rocket components (O-rings, etc)...." Read more

"...done about the exploding space ship, The Challenger, and NASA is very informative and interesting, how NASA, made the poor decision of not..." Read more

"...recalling and retelling episodes of his life, Feynman offers us a detailed insight on his unique approach to view the world and solve its problems...." Read more

"...is the conclusion of his two book autobiography and gives a deep dive into the workings and conclusions of the Rogers Commission report on the..." Read more

42 customers mention "Personality"42 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate Feynman's personality, describing him as a brilliant scientist and true genius, with one customer noting his refreshing down-to-earth nature.

"...to provide a deeper glimpse into the erratic, comical yet intelligent character of Feynman...." Read more

"Feynman was an extremely popular teacher as well as a world class scientist. He has a great sense of humor and makes learning fun." Read more

"...one of the great names of twentieth century science, and a remarkable individual. His "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!”..." Read more

"...What a brilliant, courageous person and the World would benefit greatly with more individuals that share his strength, intelligence, and sense of..." Read more

26 customers mention "Humor"26 positive0 negative

Customers find the book humorous throughout, with one customer describing it as laugh-out-loud funny.

"...Despite the serious content, this part of the book retains the strong elements of humor found within rest of the book...." Read more

"...Well written, informative, and entertaining." Read more

"...He has a great sense of humor and makes learning fun." Read more

"...He was tenacious. Funny, poignant, interesting read...." Read more

18 customers mention "Emotional content"18 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the emotional depth of the book, describing it as incredibly touching and very human.

"...This book was much more intimate than anything else I had read...." Read more

"He was one of the best thinkers and yet very human" Read more

"...That this legendary scientist can write with such humor and joy lifts my soul. God bless Richard Feynman." Read more

"...but the recount of his youth and life with his first wife was incredibly touching...." Read more

13 customers mention "Autobiography"13 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy reading about Feynman's thoughts and experiences, particularly his inspiring stories.

"...I enjoyed the book and reading of Feynman's thoughts and experiences...." Read more

"...I loved his lecture's on youtube, this man was ahead of his time and I am very grateful to have access to his readings and his video's." Read more

"This compilation presents some funny, serious, sad and inspiring stories about Feynman, told by Feynman...." Read more

"...The book is autobiographic and the stories he shares so clearly reflect that this man, which for us scientists is as close to god as we get, is so..." Read more

4 customers mention "Interest"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book interesting, with one mentioning it provides valuable background information and another noting it offers a creative perspective.

"...The process was compelling. It was interesting for the background and personal story of his first wife and things that Dick did with his..." Read more

"Richard Feynman was a truly excellent teacher. He was entertaining, creative, and knowledgeable...." Read more

"Funny throughout and an interesting look into the like of a great scientist...." Read more

"Great View into the Mind of a Genius..." Read more

10 customers mention "Boredom"0 positive10 negative

Customers find the book boring and somewhat piecemeal, with one customer noting it's not as enthralling as the predecessor.

"...'re a Feynman fanatic, you're sure to enjoy this even though the content is erratic and not as good as Surely You're Joking...." Read more

"...is perhaps not quite as good, being somewhat disjointed, but it is clearly still a solid 5 stars. A fascinating read." Read more

"...and find it not as good mainly because the second half is somewat boring description of investigation of NASA shuttle crash...." Read more

"...This occupies about half of the book and is mostly boring. Avoid the book unless you're really into space shuttle disasters." Read more

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Umer Vakil
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fails to disappoint. A great sequel!
    Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2011
    Verified Purchase
    Just absolutely wonderful - another collection of anecdotes from Feynman's life. The first part of the book almost seems indistinguishable from 'Surely You're...', using the same style of narration to present details of incidents. These 'incidents' are often unconnected and span from childhood recollections from Feynman's life and his original encounter with Arlene (his wife) to the time he spent during a trip to Brazil. Each story is amusing whilst managing to provide a deeper glimpse into the erratic, comical yet intelligent character of Feynman.

    The second and greater part of this book deals with Feynman's presence on the committee investigating the 1986 crash of the Space Shuttle Challenger, capturing the incredible dissatisfaction felt by him as he is plunged into the administrative bureaucracy of Washington and NASA. The descriptions of the shuttle and its faulty components are illustrated clearly with the help of figures and photographs. These illustrations help the reader visualize the circumstances of the crash and where the the major fault within the shuttle actually lay. These are particularly helpful in eliminating any ambiguity in the description of technical rocket components (O-rings, etc). Despite the serious content, this part of the book retains the strong elements of humor found within rest of the book. It manages to paint a ludicrous picture of the way things tended to be handled in NASA (e.g. NASA informing an official that the probability of failure of an manned rocket is 1 in 100,000 which implied that "you could fly the shuttle every day for an average of 300 years between accidents- every day, one flight, for 300 years- which is obviously crazy!"). He also points towards the general errors made by large organizations such as NASA due to the divide between levels of management by narrating personal conversations with the management, engineers and workers. The perspicuous manner with which he describes his involvement in the investigation almost makes the reader feel as if he were right alongside Feynman while he was dealt the task of investigating the crash.

    I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed "Surely You're Joking..." and is willing to put his mind to a bit more work to enjoy the second part of the book. Overall, it is a great book that any Feynman fan will be willing to appreciate!
    32 people found this helpful
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  • Leonard Washington
    5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome man, awesome book.
    Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2016
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    I'm biased.

    I love just about everything Richard Feynman. After reading "Surely you must be joking..." in high school, I was fascinated by the man who seemingly shattered the preconceptions of what a scientific personality was like.
    During my college years I had a physics professor who spoke somewhat disaparagingly of him, with particular focus on how he thought that Professor Feynman's views on women were distasteful at best.
    After reading a few books now, I think this idea is not very accurate. He may have had some predispositions that were pretty common during the time-period of his young adult life, but this book made me feel like I finally understood his capacity for love and devotion. Unless I find out something really crazy, I think my physics professor was misled at some point.
    This book was much more intimate than anything else I had read. Those of us with engineering education tend to miss out a bit on the human side of the heroes of science. I recommend to anyone who wants to know more about what I consider the most extraordinary human mind that the world has ever known.

    And btw:
    In the Description link on the product page, the Publishers Journal seems to recommend that readers skip the first parts of the book and just read about the Challenger anecdotes. I hope a robot wrote that review, because they're suggesting you forego the most poignant and fundamentally human side of the man. I struggle to comprehend how even the most detached of people would offer this as a suggestion. A bit disturbing, imo.
    9 people found this helpful
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  • D. Durnwald
    4.0 out of 5 stars A very pleasing and informing book
    Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2010
    Verified Purchase
    "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" is a very good book. It is well written, and keeps you interested. It also is very informative. There are also moments in the book that are moving. Like the way he handles his brides' deathly sickness and how he still treat her well, even though they both know she is going to die soon. Then when the story switches to the science parts, you can really learn a lot. The investigating that is done about the exploding space ship, The Challenger, and NASA is very informative and interesting, how NASA, made the poor decision of not postponing the launch. I would deffinatelly recommend this book to anyone that wants to read a good book, and learn about interesting science at the same time. I gave this book a 4 out of five because it's interesting while at the same time you learn about interesting science topics.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Koen Swings
    5.0 out of 5 stars Memoires of a brilliant mind
    Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2020
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    By recalling and retelling episodes of his life, Feynman offers us a detailed insight on his unique approach to view the world and solve its problems. An approach that is rooted in doubt (not artificial certainty) and in a desire/love to understand the world at its most fundamental level. In the current decade where one seems to have given up on this ideal of being able to understand the world at its fundamental level, this serves as an example, a beacon that hopefully would inspire many to follow his lead and counter react the current superficial black/white attitude to solve the world’s problems.
    The following quote from the book illustrates this perfectly: “Our freedom to doubt was born out of a struggle against authority in the early days of science. It was a very deep and strong struggle: permit us to question—to doubt—to not be sure. I think that it is important that we do not forget this struggle and thus perhaps lose what we have gained. Herein lies a responsibility to society.”
    In many ways, Feynman’s view of the world is very similar to Elon Musk’s who has turned this not in a scientific but a commercial success.
    The book also offers a detailed review of the way the commission operated that investigated the accident with Space Shuttle Challenger.
    Highly recommended!
    7 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • acheteur
    5.0 out of 5 stars Personnalité intéressante et amusante
    Reviewed in France on November 29, 2022
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    Un bon livre pour mieux comprendre l'auteur et sa vision du monde moderne.
    Report
  • Agnes.B
    5.0 out of 5 stars Der wunderbare Feynman
    Reviewed in Germany on October 15, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Phantastisch, humorvoll und sachlich geschrieben… so wie das nur Meister Feynman konnte.
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  • paolo dal mas
    5.0 out of 5 stars recensione libro
    Reviewed in Italy on February 21, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    l'articolo mi è piaciuto molto: il rapporto qualità/prezzo è soddisfacente, la fattura del prodotto è adeguata alle aspettative e quanto indicato nell'offerta è corrispondente alle caratteristiche dell'articolo. I tempi di consegna sono stati rispettati e Amazon si dimostra ancora una volta un'organizzazione perfetta.
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  • rosesinbud
    5.0 out of 5 stars A genius in physics with a great sense of humor.
    Reviewed in Japan on December 5, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    It seems that you hear Feynman's name here and there all the time although the man has been dead now for awhile. Since my focus in life wasn't physics, I missed out on knowing anything about this brilliant man until I finally decided to read his books and find out for myself who he was and what he discovered. I didn't expect such a humorous guy to pop out of the pages of this book, but he did pop out and not only presented himself to me, but entertained me with his tales enough that I started to feel like I really missed out when I avoided learning physics. Just reading his narrative made me want to know more and as Feynman said you are never finished with learning things. While I suspect Quantum Mechanics is beyond my capabilities, this book gave me a great appreciation for the field and the man. If you read this book, you'll discover a fine sense of humor that existed along with brilliant insights into the universe in this one man. I recommend it.
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  • anderson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Muito interessante!
    Reviewed in Brazil on September 18, 2021
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    A book that explains some points of Richards’ life, such as, your wife e her illness. I never understood how he worked in Los Alamos in this situation and this book shows this.
    Of middle the book ahead there is the Richards’ point of view about the Challenge investigation. Very interesting!
    Report

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