What are you worrying about what others think?

Author: Richard Feynman
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: He is one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century, with an insatiable thirst for adventure and a rare talent for storytelling. What Do You Care What Other People Think is a continuation of Feynman's legendary tales, recorded by L. Leiden, who was his close friend and also his drumming partner. Some stories in the book are lighthearted and humorous, while others are touching and poignant. Through these stories, we meet Feynman's wife, Arlene, see how she, lying on her deathbed, taught Feynman, working at Los Alamos on the atomic bomb, the eternal secrets of love. We also see how Feynman participated in the investigation after the 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster. The stories are captivating, making us feel as if we are there, as if we have seen firsthand how Feynman, with a simple experiment, revealed the truth of the accident: throwing a rubber band into an ice-water cup and then taking it out, the rubber band had deformed. Throughout the book, the voice of Feynman's wildness and straightforwardness echoes. — James Gleick, The New York Times Book Review
Because "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" had already been published, I need to explain a few things here. First, although the main theme of this book remains the same, still about "the adventures of a strange man," the adventures described here are different from those in the previous book: some are light-hearted, some are tragic, but mostly, during most of the time, Mr. Feynman was not playing around—though it is often hard to say. Second, the stories in this book are more loosely connected than those in "Surely You're Joking." The stories in that book are arranged chronologically, like a diary, seemingly with some order (which led some readers to mistake "Surely You're Joking" for Feynman's autobiography). My motivation is simple: ever since I first heard the stories of Feynman, I had a strong desire to share them with others. Later, most of the stories here are no longer as rambling as before, filling up pages of roughly equal length. Regarding this, I will briefly explain as follows.
Editor's Note:
In the first part, "The Strange Man," I begin by writing about those who greatly influenced Feynman and ultimately shaped his personality: his father, Melvin, and his beloved wife, Arlene. One story is adapted from a BBC program called "The Pleasure of Discovery," produced by Christopher Sachs. The Arlene story—the title of this book comes from this story—was painful for Feynman to tell. There were six different stories. This time, the stories were pieced together over ten years from those six. When the assembly was finally completed, Feynman loved it very much and was eager to share it with others.
The other stories in this part, though generally light in tone, are still included in this book because it is no longer possible to publish another "Surely You're Joking." Feynman was particularly proud of the story "It Was Just Like Counting One, Two, Three." At one point, he even considered writing it as a psychology paper. The last chapter of this part includes correspondence, which I am grateful to Gwyneth Feynman, Freeman Dyson, and Henry Bethe for allowing me to use.
The second part, "Mr. Feynman in Washington," became Feynman's last adventure. This story is particularly long because its content is still relevant (a shorter version has appeared in Engineering & Science and Physics Today). This story was not published earlier because Feynman had undergone three and four major surgeries since serving on the Rogers Commission, along with radiation therapy, hyperthermia, and other treatments. Feynman's decade-long battle with cancer ended on February 15, 1988. This was two weeks after he finished teaching at the California Institute of Technology. I decided to include an eloquent and captivating speech by Feynman as the epilogue of this book, titled "The Value of Science."