The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
by Richard Phillips Feynman, Sean Runnette, Freeman Dyson · first published 1999
29% recommend68% neutral3% critical
Why HN recommends it
Feynman's essays and interviews on curiosity, science, and how scientists think. It offers an engaging, feel-good introduction to his approach, suited to general readers who enjoy his storytelling.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"Richard Feynman was one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century - from his work on the atomic bomb to his solution to the puzzle of the Challenger disaster. Feynman helped to shape the world as we know it. Nobel laureate, iconoclastic icon, caring family man, amateur artist, and professional musician (in a Rio de Janeiro samba band), Feynman was a man of many dimensions.". "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out is a treasury of the best of Feynman's short works - from interviews and speeches to lectures and printed articles."--BOOK JACKET.
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Looks like a random sampling. My personal favourites: The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard Feynman Little Dieter Needs to Fly by Werner Herzog
on “Down The Rabbit Hole We Go: Mind-Expanding Documentaries” ↗"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" and "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out", also by Richard Feynman. He worked on the Manhattan Project among other things, writes in a very engaging way and shares a huge number of funny anecdotes. Yet he is also thought-provoking, for example…
on “Ask HN: Recommend one book I need to read this summer?” ↗…Seveneves - Greg Egan, Teranesia Liked: - Arthur C. Clarke, 3001: The Final Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke, 2061: Odyssey Three - Richard Feynman, The Character of Physical Laws - Richard Feynman, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out - Jonathan Slack, Stem Cells: A Very Short Introduction - John Scalzi, Fuzzy Nation (bought the audiobook for Wil Wheaton's narration) - Ray Monk, Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center - Alastair…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗…Feynman's excellent lectures (there are more than the other poster linked) there's also a lot of general videos on the nature of science, what it means to be scientific, and about Feynman himself. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out is one of my favorites: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srSbAazoOr8 * When you find a Karate Girl who can jump kick a charged pole into a perfect semi-circular arc without transferring any charge to herself…
on “Richard Feynman on education in Brazil” ↗I argue the best primer is Feynman's "The meaning of it all: Thoughts of a citizen-scientist" and "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out". I'm not just linkbaiting HN's love for Feynman: Feynman was an active, practicing scientist and besides being introspective, he had a great knack for explaining things in a perspective accessible to…
on “To an alarming degree, science is not self-correcting” ↗Another video which touches more on the same point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkv0KCR3Yiw (Highly recommend the whole Feynman series, which is excerpted from an interview video called The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, which is also spectacular)
on “If you can’t explain something in simple terms, you don’t understand it” ↗Not fiction but I love this part in Feynman’s The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: “When he was very small we used to rock him to bed … and tell him stories, and I’d make up a story about little people … they lived in the ventilator; and they’d go through these woods which had great…
on “‘Robber bees’ invade apiarist’s shop in attempted honey heist” ↗The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard Feynman It’s a collection of his essays but the one quote that stuck out to me is: I don’t see that it makes any point that someone in the Swedish Academy decides that this work is noble…
on “Ask HN: What's a book that fundamentally altered your mental models” ↗The pleasure of finding things out- Richard Feynman
on “Ask HN: What good books have you read lately?” ↗Indeed - the pleasure of finding things out. A fantastic book and also a great way of life. Be curious and be successful!
on “Curiosity Is Better Than Being Smart?” ↗I think Feynman take on this is more interesting and less muddled. For example, in the video series "The Pleasure of finding things out", he clearly lays out that something can only ever be explained by taking something else for granted, and at some point you need to stop the regression and just admit that you have to take something as…
on “Chomsky – The Machine, the Ghost and the Limits of Understanding (2012) [video]” ↗…work necessary, haven't done the checks necessary, haven't done the care necessary. I have a great suspicion that they don't know, that this stuff is [wrong], and they're intimidating people." -- The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, by Richard P. Feynman
on “Cargo Cult Science, by Richard Feynman (1974)” ↗…know it – they haven’t done the work necessary, they haven’t done the checks necessary, they haven’t done the care necessary. I have a great suspicion that they don’t know.” — Richard Feynman, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out (1981) This is why we have large double-blind studies with control groups, and published papers, and peer review, and committees, and so forth – it’s really hard to actually know something. By contrast,…
on “My experiment with smart drugs (2008)” ↗…they know it – they haven’t done the work necessary, they haven’t done the checks necessary, they haven’t done the care necessary. I have a great suspicion that they don’t know.” — Richard Feynman, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out (1981)
on “Making It All Up: The behavioral sciences scandal” ↗…interview given to Omni Magazine in 1979: "... I had a calculus book once that said, 'What one fool can do, another can'..." I have this in Chapter 9: 'The Smartest Man in the World' in Feynman's book 'The Pleasure of Finding Things Out'.
on “Calculus Made Easy (1914) [pdf]” ↗