“Surely You’re Joking Mr Feyman” and “What do you care what other People Think?

Richard Feynman was a Nobel-prize-winning physicist best known for his alternative
formulation of quantum mechanics and his work on quantum electrodynamics. He
was also a professor at Caltech, where he won the highly prestigious Oersted Medal
for teaching.  Late in life, he became renowned for his participation in the panel
investigating the Challenger disaster.  About half the book is taken up by a detailed
history of Feynman's role in the investigation of the Challenger disaster; the rest is
stories similar to the first book, some random letters, and a speech to the National
Academy of Sciences.

Summary book1: Feynman did not fit the stereotype of a slide rule toting physicist
wearing a white lab coat (complete with a plastic pocket protector and a half dozen
pens). Instead, his was a dynamic and alive personality with a sense of adventure and
wonder. This book chronicles his mischevious days at MIT and Princeton, his
underground life as a safecracker at Los Alamos during the development of the
Atomic Bomb, and his forays into painting and music making. This book is a delightful
read even if you aren't interested in the world of physics, but if you are, it is an extra
special treat.

Summary book2: What Do You Care What Other People Think? is a follow-up to the
earlier Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, containing further stories told by Nobel-
prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman to his friend Ralph Leighton. About half the
book is taken up by a detailed history of Feynman's role in the investigation of the
Challenger disaster; the rest is stories similar to the first book, some random letters,
and a speech to the National Academy of Sciences.

The strength of the book is the second half, the story of the Challenger investigation.
It's an entertaining mix of Feynman's descriptions of his unconventional and impatient
efforts to cut through bureaucracy and the details of how this sort of investigation
happens. The first time I read this book, I was interested primarily in the scientific
explanation for why the Challenger exploded, which this story conveys quite clearly.
On this re-read, I was more interested by the obstacles and difficulties of a
government investigation and the way presentation, record-keeping, and committee
agreement interact with the attempt to find the truth. At first glance, this looks like a
story of incompetent bureaucracy getting in Feynman's way, but Feynman shows it as
more complex and trickier than that (and shows the role of the press in a surprisingly
positive light).

The story also highlights the communication problems at NASA and some of the
institutional brokenness that led to the accident, and has since led to other accidents.
Here, Feynman covers ground also studied by Edward R. Tufte, critiquing the way
scientific and engineering decisions are made and how communication works inside
the organization. It's a sad account, but also an interesting example of pathologies of
decision-making.

This is one of those rare books that I think everyone should read at least once. It's
brief, compellingly entertaining, and communicates the experimental, investigative
outlook on the world that I think is the hardest thing to capture and teach about
physics and the scientific mindset in general. Feynman both tells great stories and, in
the process, shows some of how he thinks. There are tons of books out there on
analytical thinking, how to evaluate evidence, and how to maintain an open but
skeptical mind. I think a few of Feynman's anecdotes convey more practical lessons,
indirectly and entirely without preachiness, than most of them put together.

The stories that will probably interest most readers are those more directly related
to physics, such as his college years, his time at Los Alamos working on the
Manhattan Project, and years as a college professor and research. One of the most
commonly known tales is that Feynman become something of an adept safecracker
during his time at Los Alamos, where he was able to access a large number of safes
... some of which would have contained documents vital to national security.