[Editor’s note: The full video of the Richard Feynman documentary The Pleasure of Finding Things Out is no longer embeddable, but you can watch it here. You can also view clips from the series on YouTube.]
Many times in the last five years, I’ve been asked: “If you could have dinner with anyone in history, who would it be?”
My answer is always the same: Richard Feynman.
Right alongside Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic, Feynman’s book Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) hugely impacted every aspect of my thinking when I first read them circa 2005. Since then, I have studied Feynman’s letters, teaching style, discoveries, and beyond. How many Nobel Prize winners also safe crack and play bongos in bars for fun?
The above video will give you an taste of why I love Richard Feynman. It was forwarded to me by Brew Johnson and J.R. Johnson, whom I owe huge thanks, as I’d somehow missed it. About the program, Professor Sir Harry Kroto, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, said:
“The 1981 Feynman Horizon is the best science program I have ever seen. This is not just my opinion – it is also the opinion of many of the best scientists that I know who have seen the program… It should be mandatory viewing for all students, whether they be science or arts students.”
Feynman’s makes me want to be a better teacher and, ultimately, a world-class parent (you’ll see what I mean). A few notes on the video:
- I first watched this in 10-minute bites before bed. There’s no need to watch it all at once.
- :30-:38 is fascinating physics, but physics nonetheless. He does a masterful job of getting lay people excited (his cadence helps a lot), but skip if needed, rather than missing what follows.
- :40+ explains part of his teaching philosophy, which greatly influenced how I outline my books.
- His concept of “active irresponsibility” is worth remembering.
May you all experience the pleasure of finding things out, starting here with a closer look at a most curious character: Richard Feynman.
If you could have dinner anyone from any time in history, who would you choose and why? Assume you can’t tell anyone about the dinner, so bragging rights don’t apply. What would you want to learn, know, or experience?
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Odds and Ends:
Tim Ferriss on Reddit AMA (answering some controversial questions, too)
The 4-Hour Chef site – Brand-new and soon getting more. Some of the copy is placeholder text, but it give you an idea.
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It just so happens that I would have dinner with the same curious character. Your blog and book have been telling me something, and I believe that it is to change something, to grasp what I do not know. I dont know what I want to do, so I think what I must do is go in search of it.
Great video, thanks for posting this.
Thanks for posting this Tim! 10 minutes in. What a charming guy. Makes me want to be a better dad!
i would have liked to talk to henry ford. i have read his autobigrophy a while back. i would have liked to have known how much courage it took to bring in new working ways or how it was to change the workers at that time. i have a view that they might have been hard to change. maybe stuck in their ways at that time. learn more about his private life. how did he get on with kids and family friends. was he easy to talk to. did he share his stories troubles with. know what it was like to work in the factory at that time from a workers perspective. and experience the time when he heard how succesfull he was that he had to increase production. see the look on his face and hear if he was happy or it was just another day. how did he react. vinnychoff
Just picked up and finished Surely You're Joking in two days. Amazing! Best advice: "I had a way of having adventures… it's like fishing, where you put a line out and then you have to have patience." Great stuff if you spend a lot of time solo travelling as a good 4HWW'er should.
Hi Tim–I love Feynman, too. Microsoft is working on a project that annotates video. For their test video, they chose Feynman's lectures! Karan
Thanks for the video – loved it and emailed a bunch of people with the link. I want to have a seafood lunch with Douglas Adams, Salmon Rushdie and Richard Dawkins.
I'd like to meet William Shakespeare, first of all to find out if he really wrote those great plays, and then, if he had been beamed into the present, to see his reactions to our world right now.
The Philosopher King Marcus Aurelius. Check out my blog post where I share why. http://peacefulldawn.com/2012/05/03/lunch-with-maurcus-aurelius-roman-emperor-philosopher/
Marcus Aurelius the Philosopher King – I want to discuss first hand how he balanced the search for being a good human with being a leader. Then tell him what is happening now and see his reaction.
amazing video hope i will start my 5 hour work week
That was a wonderful video, thank you. I read his book, but it adds so much to see how he speaks. His joy is palpable and enchanting.
Imhotep. He is considered to be the first architect, engineer and physician in early history. He designed pyramids, fathered empirical medicine and so much more…… He must have been able to grapple with immense problems, and simplify them into executable projects (build pyramids etc) and communicate clearly enough to win support of Pharaohs to the extent that he is the only mortal to be awarded devine status. #tferriss Since you recommended Surely you must be joking Mr. Feynman in the Random Show and I listened to the audiobook, I have been smitten with him and his work, but most importantly, his playful curiosity. A lesson I learned from the book is when he is asked to rate the US mathematics text books in advance of the school year. His methodology is brilliant. But as he aludes to in the video too, he observes that most people just don't do the hard work first (well done on grinding out the work in advance of releasing 4HB!). He exposes the charlatans in the academic publishing world. Thanks Tim for introducing me to greatness.
I love that he's an iconoclast. He marches to a different drummer. We can always use more examples of successful, interesting, cool people who chose their own route to creating something important, lasting, and meaningful. It's great what he had to say about the Nobel Prize. He's having none of it! Ha! No interest in petty cliques! 🙂
what a charming man, i love how he ends each of his sentences with a smile…i wouldn't mind having dinner with him either. i don't know much about physics or maths, but what i do know now is what qualities i would love to see in a father – based on feynman's descriptions of his! he sounds like he had a wonderful childhood. thank you for sharing such a nice video.
For dinner… I'd say… Clay Christensen. Incredible mind. Tim Ferriss. It's sincere — not trying to kiss up. I've already learned a lot from you. Thanks for the post.
Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, Ben Graham and George Washington.
Worth thinking about For myself I would choose Richard Branson as he is in the here and now,a great explorer and entreprenuer,plus a humble man donating millions to wortyhy causes What makes him tick and where does the inspiration and ideas stem from
Richard Feynman has been tops on my people I wish I could have met list since I read about his quest for Tuva many years ago. I did a double take when I saw the clip of him on your site. I liked reading all the other posts as there were many other people listed that are also on my list especially Chris B's list as it is in the same order as mine. Another one I would add is JFK.
I enjoyed listening to the Q & A Reddit session, it was helpful and thanks for the resources. Looks like you've come a long way since your first start up.
Ayn Rand. She was probably the greatest philosopher of all time.
I'd have dinner with either Charles Sanders Peirce, one of the most prolific (over 100,000 known pages of his writing) and difficult to read American philosophers (d. 1914), and founder of pragmatism, which he later changed to pragmaticism after other philosophers started using the term. He also made great contributions to logic (some of which he figured could be performed by electronic devices), semiotics, statistics and the scientific method, among other fields. He was also a victim of career sabotage, and lived in poverty most of his life. I'd love to discuss semiotics, pragmaticism and epistemology with him. Or John Locke, whose Essay of Human Understanding I wrote on for my senior thesis. I'd love to discuss the nature of ideas, knowledge and identity he wrote about in the Essay and other writings.
Interesting video – agree with a lot. I'm sad for him for not knowing Jesus Christ as his personal savior. Towards the end he mentions he "enjoys" not knowing the answers to life's biggest questions – including "Why are we here?". The Bible answers that…the answer of which gives me peace daily. I'm afraid he had no peace towards the end of his life – I hope I am wrong. Another great video…keep up the good work Tim!
Same. Richard Feynman is( at least one of) my heroes.
Feynman for dinner. That is because I spent over a 400 hours attending his special Lectures at the Hughes Malibu Research labs from 1966-1971. No one teacher had such a powerful influence on me and I would like to thank him. His approach to teaching physics is what kept my interested and loving science.If only more teachers were like him our children would love to learn, explore and not sit in front of a tv or play video games for hours.
Napolean Bonaparte or Talleyrand. Really have a lot of respect for the magnitude of what they did in life. Science wise – Darwin or Einstein. Einstein for obvious reasons[learn general relativity and think about how crazy that must have seemed to everyone else]. Darwin for his focus on dis-confirming evidence and his methods for testing and retesting his ideas.
Kary Mullis – Nobel prize winner in Chemistry and author of Dancing Naked in the Mind Field. He is incredibly intelligent…and also a kook. He has some crazy ideas, but very credible reasons for them.
Richard Feynman! One of my favorites. Always seems to have a playlike approach to things. Hope I can play my life like he has his.
So sad that the BBC took this down. I was really looking forward to listening. Does anyone know of anywhere else I can find it?
For those that can't view it on YouTube. -> http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x24gwgc_richard-feynman-the-pleasure-of-finding-things-out_news
I really love Richard Feynman. If you haven't read You Must Be Joking Mr Feynman do it. Incredible stories told by an inspiring man. Also one of the few physicists to actually have an interesting personality about them! (Speaking as a physicist that is a rare quality)
What drew me to Feyman was the definition of science in one of his classroom lectures. Within that 1 minute, I became a better scientist, or started thinking scientifically.
You're forgetting becoming a highly accomplished draughtsman later in life, good enough to sell his drawings in a leading gallery…
When i read "Surely…" i was fascinated by his bio. I would be a great honor to meet him.
Hi, the link is dead. does anybody have a substitute?
Stan Grof. Psychedelic and psychological pioneer. In a few years time he'll be considered one of the 20th century's greatest thinkers… Search out his 'psychology of the future'; lecture on youtube.
New link to the Feynman doc: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x24gwgc_richard-feynman-the-pleasure-of-finding-things-out_news
Hi, Richard Feynman was one of the world's greatest physicists and characters. If you have read anything about his life you know that he was irreverent, quirky, odd and an absolute genius of the highest magnitude. This is a fantastic book to understand the power of curiosity. If you want to know how one of the smartest people on the face of the earth approached innovation, creativity, and deep thinking – this is an excellent book to read.
The video is unavailable 🙁
Many Thanks for continuing to sing the praises of your 2 'desert island' books. They are both game changers for me.
Since the YouTube video is already deleted, here's another upload at DailyMotion: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x24gwgc_richard-feynman-the-pleasure-of-finding-things-out_news
Hi Tim The YouTube vid at the top of this article doesn't play when using an iPhone 6 or iPad. On iPad the page Now I know why – a message appears saying the video is no longer available due to copyright claim by BBC Worldwide.
Milton Erickson. Such a remarkable man, still so many decades ahead on human possibility some 36 years after his death.
Milton Erickson. Such a remarkable man. And still decades ahead on human possibility some 36 years after his death. Feynman is fantastic too.
This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by BBC Worldwide. The video can be found via a quick search, but I didn't feel I should link that. Thought you all should know. As always, thanks for everything, Tim!
The video link no longer works. Could you add a (new) link to it perhaps?
Tim, the video is no longer available but I believe this is the same video? Thanks for the tip on Feynman. Be well, https://www.ted.com/talks/richard_feynman
Andrew Carnegie
I don't this video works anymore 🙁
Great because of you they removed the video…
Oh bummer – link not available
Hello Tim!… I also discovered Feynman around the time you did, I'm somehow drawn to personalities like that. As Elon Musk said, since I was a kid I "devoured" information, personages, read all about my passions. I'm an architect and just recently I've pivoted into a second career as an Account Manager in a leading Big Data and BI, AI, provider in Mexico City… I've always been passionate about technology and design so… you have to attend your passions right? If I had to meet someone, share a glass of wine or a good espresso… Ayrton Senna, Paul Smith, Renzo Piano, Howard Hughes, Elon Musk today… and Sting.
So many influencers that I follow referring to this very man, that I have to start studying on him. I just have a feeling that I might have a few things common with him.
So true, and the story behind it will inspire people. He was clinically depressed at one point and wondering which direction to take. In the end he decided to work on what he loved, and forget what might have seemed to lead to success. it lead him to a nobel prize! So the lesson is to seek happiness and enjoy the process, and success will more likely come anyway. After all we do work better doing what we really love.
I would really love to dine with either: Tim Ferriss – to get more of his vibe on how to do things the smart way not the hard way, enjoying all of that as a cool game, the rules of which can be challenged as well. Oprah – on how to develop your character/personality and build the life that you want based just on your mind regardless of any circumstances. Also connecting and helping other people with passion and heart. Warren Buffett – on how to ignore any hype, working with what you understand one step at a time, being honest with yourself and others. Also just for his amazing sense of humor. Arnold – to feel what it's like to get under his outstanding charm and to get his achieve and conquer vibe. Bjork – on how to be brave enough to listen to your heart/intuition and not to be afraid to express/open yourself to the world the way you are. These people are just from the top of my head as of now. There are tons more. Thanks a lot for sharing this video and asking this truly interesting question!
Sorry, seems I unintentionally replied to someone's comment. My opinion is still valid though :)))
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/pleasure-finding-things-out/
ugh – with an ad every 5 minutes.