Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman book club questions

1. 1.

   Gleick suggests Feynman's genius lay partly in his refusal to simply accept established results. Is that skeptical approach universally useful or only valuable in certain scientific contexts?

2. 2.

   Feynman worked through graduate school at MIT and then Princeton during the Depression. How does historical context — the Depression, World War II, the Cold War — shape the science in this book?

3. 3.

   How do you evaluate Feynman's relationship with women as Gleick describes it? Does separating the science from the person seem possible or necessary?

4. 4.

   His father gave him a deep love of inquiry and his own way of seeing the world. What does that relationship suggest about how scientific curiosity is formed?

5. 5.

   Feynman claimed he learned best by deriving things himself rather than reading others' work. Is that a replicable learning strategy or a feature of an unusual mind?

6. 6.

   The Challenger investigation made Feynman famous to a new generation as someone willing to challenge NASA bureaucracy. How do institutional pressures typically distort expert judgment?

7. 7.

   Feynman won the Nobel Prize for work done in his mid-twenties. Did his later career match the promise of that early work, or is there a pattern of declining productivity after early genius?

8. 8.

   The book covers Feynman diagrams in some detail. Before reading, had you encountered them? What makes a scientific tool like that genuinely useful?

9. 9.

   Gleick distinguishes Feynman from Julian Schwinger, who developed an equivalent but more abstract formalism. What decided which approach physicists adopted?

10. 10.

    Feynman was famously skeptical of philosophy and of using words rather than mathematics to describe physics. Is that skepticism justified or limiting?

11. 11.

    Several of Feynman's own books — including Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! — are also widely read. How does the biography differ in its portrait from the self-portrait?

12. 12.

    What does Gleick seem to admire most about Feynman, and what does he seem to find troubling?

How to run the discussion

• Pick six to eight, not all of them. An hour of real discussion covers fewer questions than anyone expects, and racing the list is what makes a book club feel like homework.
• Open with what people noticed, not what they concluded. Asking for a verdict first hardens opinions before anyone has heard each other.
• Let the disagreement run. The questions below that split a room are the ones worth the time; the ones everyone answers the same way can be skipped.
• Ask the quiet person a specific question. A direct, narrow question is far easier to answer than an open invitation to contribute.