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Comment by bsoles | Hacker News Reader

Angela Collier has a 3-hour video on the topic (The Sham Legacy of Richard Feynman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwKpj2ISQAc) with funny takes and criticism. It has been a while, so I cannot remember if she was criticizing Feynman himself to some extent or how his legacy is being portrayed by the media. In the latter case, I am also a bit annoyed how he is constantly portrayed as some kind of a super star by American media, where the rest of the world does not really care that much.

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Her primary thesis, if I understood correctly, is to clarify that none of the books with Feynman listed as the author were written by him, and that they were transcribed from interviews, lectures etc with editorializing. For example, by Ralph Leighton. Her secondary point was that she hates the "autobiographical" ones, and finds parts sexist, and thinks most of the stories are mostly false/lies/storytelling.

With that in mind, I think we'll agree it's not relevant here, as these seem to be handwritten notes by Feynman himself.

> and thinks most of the stories are mostly false/lies/storytelling.

It's been a while since I read "Surely, you must be joking" but I seem to recall Feynman himself makes the same point. He basically says something to the effect that some of his stories and bon mots are things he wished he said or did rather than stuff that actually happened.

Feynman didn’t write these notes. John T. Neer did. There’s an explanation at the beginning.

Ty for the correction!

This video really helped solidify for me why I always thought the worship of Feynman was kind of weird. Collier is a treasure.

especially reading Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! leaves a bad taste in my mouth after all these years. i can only take the title literally "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"

Surely you're joking Mr Feynman begins in the 30s and takes us to the 60s IIRC, so one has to take into account, what the mainstream was in those times. But he is against hazing, explaining how traumatized European Jews were hazed and reliving their fears in Europe. But, of course, some things cannot be understood nowadays with the mindset we have now.

i don't mean the misogyny but the general vibe of how full of himself/sociopathic he was

there are books from the 19 century written by people with much better values

There is a nice essay from Paul Graham that starts with:

> The word "prig" isn't very common now, but if you look up the definition, it will sound familiar.

This should be required reading to make an account here.

calling someone that is rich coming from paul graham. come on guys. what's next? reading mark manson? a16z?

This video is clickbait drivel.

Her criticism is purely about the man, not Feynman as a physicist, a thinker, or a teacher. Feynman was probably on the spectrum and he had a lot of problematic behaviors. That doesn't meaningfully alter the core of his legacy.

It's also not terribly insightful to point out that a great figure from history was deeply flawed. If anything, that's so common as to be nearly guaranteed.

I don't think you actually watched the video? Nearly all of the criticism is about the myth creation around him with a short bit at the end mostly praising him as a person

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