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For some, it was that special connection with a grandparent or a football coach, a boss, or a cleric. For a young physicist struggling to find his place in the world, the relationship that would most profoundly influence his life was with his mentor, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. Shares Feynman's provocative answers to such questions as "What is the nature of creativity?" - and "How does a scientist think?" At once a moving portrait of a friendship and an affecting account of Feynman's final, creative years, celebrates the inspiring legacy of one of the greatest thinkers of our time. Annotation. Academic scientist turned Hollywood screen writer, Mlodinow recounts his first year on the faculty at California Technical Institute, beginning in winter 1981, and his interactions there with renowned physicist Richard Feynman during his last years.… (more)
User reviews
“The creative mind has a vast attic. That homework problem you did in college, that intriguing but seemingly pointless paper you spent a week deciphering as a postdoc, that offhand remark from a colleague, all are stored in hope chests somewhere in the creative person’s brain, often to be picked through and applied to the subconscious at the most unexpected moments. It is part of the creative process that transcends physics.” (p. 82)
“I thought, you don’t need cancer to die. It could come just like that, from a moment of carelessness. You get into the car. You are terminally ill, but you don’t even know it until the last moment when you are slamming the brakes.” (p. 148)