Perfectly Reasonable Deviations

Another book is finished. This time it is "Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynman". Yes, I've gone somewhat Feynman crazy lately. Since Feynman himself published all sorts of accounts from his life of funny stories, you'd think reading letters he wrote would be pretty bland. But for the most part, the book was quite interesting. To me, at least. Being from a much earlier generation, Feynman wrote letters, not 13 word text messages, which his daughter has read through and condensed to a scant 416 pages. Feynman is the American physicist of the middle of the 20th century. In the continuum of notable physicists he occupies the space between Einstein and Hawking. And he'd completely hate that I just wrote that. He routinely asked to not be described as a Nobel prize winner, not out of disrespect for the prize, but because he didn't like the way everyone's reaction to him changed because of the prize. He learned to draw later in life, and refused to sell work to anyone who was looking for a drawing from a notable physicist; he would only sell his work to people who liked it for what it was.

Feynman lived in the middle of all the big events in physics in the middle of the 20th century. As a winner of the Einstein award, he was contacted for his opinion about a potential recipient of the award: Stephen Hawking. At a conference, he was talking to another physicist when a young man came up and asked the other physicist what he thought of his new theory to describe super-conduction. Feynman says he didn't understand any of it, but that the other guy was impressed. His letter on the subject just comments "Could this have been Cooper?" Um, as in "Cooper pairs" Cooper? It's a nerdy book. But me and Feynman, we're nerdy guys.