Richard Feynman’s Modest Science (and fake teaching)

Feynman was a fascinating character. Anyone interested in learning more about him should pick up <i>Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!</i>

<i>It was so humble and visceral and honest.</i><p><i>here was a Nobel laureate telling me that</i> he didn’t really understand it either<p><i>Analogies that were meant to “help understand” reality had in fact supplanted it ... ts entire aim was to pretend that science is not mysterious.</i><p>I've noticed that people at the top of their field in computing tend to have that humility, too. It's a contrast to those who insist that their way is the only way, that what they see is all there is to see. Computing is also mysterious.

Just curious, has anyone here ever read all 3 volumes of Feynman's Lectures on Physics?

I'm not a scientist and I don't play one on TV, but I've read Feynman's two auto-biographical books, "Surely You're Joking Mr.Feynman" and "What do you care what other people think - further adventures of a curious character" and they are both very well worth reading. What I didn't know until now was the sheer volume of writing he did in his lifetime. A search on bookfinder.com comes up with literally dozens of books.

<i>"Professor, please give me an approximate description of the electromagnetic waves, even though it may be slightly innacurate, so that I too can see them as well as I can see almost-invisible angels. Then I will modify the picture to the necessary abstraction.”</i><p><i>"I’m sorry I can’t do that for you. I don’t know how. I have no picture of this electromagnetic field that is in any sense accurate. (…) So if you have some difficulty in making such a picture, you should not be worried that your difficulty is unusual."</i><p>Honesty.