Growing Up Feynman - Michelle Feynman - 5/11/2018

Main ideas, concepts, and lessons conveyed

Purpose of the talk

• The speaker thanks Caltech for hosting the event.
• She explains that the talk is a tribute to her father, Richard Feynman, delivered from the stage.
• She plans to share personal stories about what it was like growing up as a Feynman.

How her father (Richard Feynman) approached life

• He had a unique sense of humor and didn’t take himself too seriously.
• He was driven by curiosity and by the belief that one shouldn’t take the universe at face value.
• His worldview involved looking at the world from different points of view.
• His confidence and enthusiasm often made his unconventional behavior seem believable or convincing—even when it was clearly a prank or play.

Family background and timeline (biographical points)

Richard Feynman

• Born in 1918 in Queens, New York.
• Son of a military uniform salesman; his mother is described as funny, pragmatic, sharp.
• He had no formal scientific training himself, but he taught Richard the scientific method—which later influenced Richard’s sister Joan to pursue physics.
• Attended MIT (undergraduate) and earned a PhD from Princeton.
• Married Arlene Greenbaum in 1942, even though she had tuberculosis, described at the time as a death sentence.
• Joined the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, becoming a group leader on the atomic bomb project.
• Arlene died June 16, 1945.
• After the war, became a professor of theoretical physics at Cornell, then joined Caltech in 1950, staying there for the rest of his career.
• Married the speaker’s mother, Gweneth, in 1960.
• Won the Nobel Prize in 1965 (for quantum electrodynamics) with Julian Schwinger and Shinichiro Tomonaga.
• Asked again to serve his country in 1986, investigating the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.

Speaker’s brother: Carl

• Born in 1962.
• Later graduated from MIT, described as following in Richard’s footsteps.

What it was like growing up: games, storytelling, and mischief

The speaker describes many childhood games and routines, including:

• “Grip of Steel”

  • He pretended his arms were “frozen,” and she would escape his grasp.
  • Paper towels were used as a substitute for herself.
  • She enjoyed surprising him.

• “Radio” games

  • She sat on his lap while he invented songs from imaginary stations.

• Sunday morning storytelling

  • Drumming, loud music, and a “wild hour” of stories shared with her and her brother.

• Carpool prank / misdirection

  • On the way to elementary school, he would intentionally go the wrong way or to a different school.
  • He called himself “dodo,” then repeatedly turned back after classmates and other kids objected.
  • Despite the detours, they always arrived on time.

Restaurant and social pranks:

• He would “order coffee for the children.”
• In restaurants, he’d pretend to speak Italian and carry on conversations with the waiter, to their embarrassment.
• At parties, when someone spoke a foreign language, he’d pretend to be fluent—“selling” obvious nonsense with such conviction that others treated it like an unfamiliar regional dialect.

Family values and personality differences

• The speaker frames her childhood as shaped by adventurousness:

  • Her mother was independent and a world traveler.
  • The family had traditions of camping and road trips.

• Differences in teaching style and imagination between siblings:

  • Her brother Carl enjoyed stories about “tiny people” in the house.
  • The speaker disliked those stories and preferred being able to read a book repeatedly; closed books became frustrating to her in that memory.

• As Carl grew up, their relationship shifted:

  • They became more like collaborators than father-and-son.
  • They discussed technical ideas on long walks, with the speaker sometimes tagging along—and often regretting it.

Teaching and awards (impact beyond research)

• Richard Feynman’s teaching was recognized with major awards:

  • 1972: Oersted Medal, the highest award of the American Association of Physics Teachers, for contributions to teaching physics.
  • 1982: an award from the Associated Students of Caltech for excellence in teaching (described as ten years later).

• When asked how to teach children, he struggled to offer a single answer:

  • His children had very different personalities, so one approach wouldn’t fit both.

The speaker’s role in the family and her own interests

• As a child, she was viewed as reliable and responsible; he tried to teach her practical tasks like income taxes.
• She didn’t become the family accountant.
• Instead, she became the family historian, curating three books about her father and cherishing hearing his voice and wit.

How genius is defined in the talk

• The speaker pushes back against the idea that “genius” is the whole story.

• She emphasizes two traits together:

  • Deep physics obsession (his thinking seemed to cover everything)
  • Warm, fun-loving fatherhood

• Closing image/point:

  • A Time magazine subscription insert/postcard was covered entirely with equations, even during leisure reading.
  • He covered margins of newspapers, placemats, restaurant surfaces, and even tissue box tops with calculations—suggesting he didn’t experience physics as work, but as something he loved.

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Detailed bullet list of any methodology or instructions mentioned

• There is no explicit step-by-step methodology presented as a formal instructional process.
• The theme is teaching-by-example, shown through childhood experiences rather than direct instruction:
  • Teach curiosity via scientific thinking (the scientific method was passed down).
  • Encourage different perspectives (his humor/pranks and approach to understanding the world).
  • Adapt teaching to the learner’s personality (he reportedly couldn’t give a single definitive answer because siblings differed).

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Speakers / sources featured (identified)

• Michelle Feynman (speaker; daughter of Richard Feynman)
• Richard Phillips Feynman (main subject; father)
• Joan Feynman (mentioned as someone who became a physicist)
• Arlene Greenbaum (Richard Feynman’s first wife)
• Gweneth (speaker’s mother; Richard Feynman’s second wife)
• Carl Feynman (speaker’s brother)
• Julian Schwinger (Nobel Prize co-recipient mentioned)
• Shinichiro Tomonaga (Nobel Prize co-recipient mentioned)
• Omni magazine (source of an assessment quoted: “smartest man in the world”)