Blog 20

                The book “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” Adventures of a Curious Character pieces together Dr. Richard Feynman’s life as told by him through interview. The first three parts of the chapter describe his early life, his years at Princeton, and his experience during World War II with the military and the atomic bomb research. There were quite a few parts that made up each section but the part that drew my attention the most was “String Beans.” In it Feynman describes his time working at his aunt’s hotel doing various kinds of little jobs. With each one he would try to innovate how the job was done to make it more efficient. One can see that this is a similar up bringing to that of Darwin, starting in something no where near the realm of science or invention that in the end pushed them to that realm. With each invention though, Feynman was met with opposition. Since no one else understood or liked his innovations, he would have to take them apart. This only taught Feynman the importance of persistence with one’s dreams and ideas despite what others say. By learning this early on, Feynman was able to stay persistent later on in his scientific career when he would face opposition there as well. Also, this shows that some virtues can be applied to more than one field, meaning that they are transferable so that one can learn a virtue in one field and then apply it later in another. Young aspiring scientists should find encouragement in this and recognize that one does not need to be involved in only science their whole lives to be an exemplary scientist.