the sham legacy of Richard Feynman [VIDEO 2:48:11]

See the sham legacy of Richard Feynman [VIDEO 2:48:11] on youtube.com/@acollierastro

When I finally got around to reaching renound physicist Richard Feynman’s “autobiography” Sureley You’re Joking Mr Feynman and I thought that while he had a great view on learning, he was a massive asshole. After watching this long ass video, it turns out that the image of Feynman portrayed by the book may not be entirely clear.

For one, as I noted by putting “autobiography” in quotes, he didn’t write the book—it was put together by his friend Ralph Leighton from a series of interviews and discussions they had together. That wouldn’t be so bad on its own but the stories themselves tend to be exaggerated and best and possibly fake as worst, mostly to look cool for other dudes. That also impacts the sexism that really put me off, since it’s possible that those stories didn’t happen. He promoted and recommended a lot of women during his tenure at Caltech. There’s still the whole thing to do with abusing his wife, though some argue that it’s probably a way to get around the fact no-fault divorce wasn’t a thing yet¹.

Pretty much all of the books and compiled lectures he “wrote” weren’t written by him, but were taken from his lectures and stories. I don’t want to spoil it for you, but the video is well worth watching. If I had to summarize it in a sentence, @DanGRV puts it best:

““You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. - Richard Feynman” - Ralph Leighton”