>Richard walked in, saluted, and said, "Richard Feynman reporting for duty. OK, boss, what's my assignment?" The assembled group of not-quite-graduated MIT students was astounded.<p>> After a hurried private discussion ("I don't know, you hired him..."), we informed Richard that his assignment would be to advise on the application of parallel processing to scientific problems.<p>> "That sounds like a bunch of baloney," he said. "Give me something real to do."<p>> So we sent him out to buy some office supplies.<p>I love this bit. There's the aspect that everyone mentions, how Feynman is happy to do something as seemingly menial as get office supplies, despite his qualifications.<p>But the students' reaction is also fun to think about. Like if a regular working guy was given a million dollars, and his first reaction was "man, what am I going to do with <i>this</i>?" It takes him a while to realise what new opportunities he has.<p>And then I imagine that Feynman recognises this reaction in them, and enjoys watching it. It's a form of good-natured teasing.<p>I don't know if the actual thought processes were anything like this. But I like to think they were.