<p>Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman and What Do You Care What People Think? are both memoirs and wonderful reading. (I don’t know how to underline here. Sorry.) Neither are transcripts of lectures. Some of his popularized physics books are (Six Lessons in Physics and next set.)</p>
<p>Check the prefaces of those books again, as I’m pretty those will show that the books consist mostly of transcripts of stories that Feynman told. He was a great raconteur, who has become known as a great writer once someone transcribed his stories. There is an audio recording attached to one collection of his stories/writings which allows one to hear his voice. </p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character: Books: Richard P. Feynman,Freeman Dyson,Ralph Leighton](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393061329/]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393061329/) </p>
<p>An Amazon search will show that many of Feynman’s books list co-authors, the persons who transcribed his stories in some cases. </p>
<p>After edit: Here’s a set of links to a favorite speech by Feynman, which he plainly authored to be delivered as a speech. </p>
<p>[cargo</a> cult science - Google Search](<a href=“Google Search”>Google Search) </p>
<p>The speech appears in transcript in Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!.</p>
<p>i’ve read surely your’e joking and what do you care what ppl think. i also read QED (quantum electro dynamics). QED is sciency/physicy, the first two are just his memoirs and they’re written VERY colloquially, which kinda annoyed me at first since that’s basically how I would speak. but he’s awfully funny and a genius!</p>
<p>Good to know tokenadult. A friend studied at Cal Tech and knew Feynman well. He said his Brooklyn=type accent was the most salient thing about him.</p>
<p>For those reading this thread who don’t know Feynman you can gain a rough introduction by watching Infinity, a movie directed by and starring Matthew Broderick. It’s not Feynman’s personna, but it is his history.</p>
<p>I’d second the suggestion to look for an intimate campus environment. A friend’s son was helped by a LAC with very small class-size and a personal, nurturing environment. It was the kind of place where if you didn’t show up for class you were missed. The boy was clearly sharp, but ADD and extremely oppositional to authority. He had had many brushes with the law during adolescence. In fact, he once lit a bush on fire behind my house during a drought but, I was too scared of him to squeal to his parents or the police. We all thought he’d end up in jail–permanently.</p>
<p>But, what saved him was one strength and the fact that this strength was highlighted by small class size. He had to ability to be the pot stirrer in the classroom, the one who made things interesting in one way or another. While this annoyed the crap out of K-12 teachers, it wasn’t so annoying to the professors. They may have actually needed him there, because sometimes a small class can be terrible for discussion-type courses because if you get a dull or shy group it’s deadly. The adoration of his classmates kept him coming to class, and eventually he found what interested him. </p>
<p>A light turned on and now he’s getting a PhD in microbiology. A verifiable miracle.</p>
<p>Great story! I’m happy to read it.</p>
<p>GFG, if you are comfortable revealing the name … which school? My friend is researching schools for her brilliant underachiever to check into.</p>
<p>High Point in NC</p>
<p>Thanks! 10 characters</p>
<p>I think that first one must determine why the BU is a U.</p>
<p>Two possibilities:
- Poor quality teaching throughout school: BU just needs the “right” stimulus to become wildly interested in some academic pursuit and then morphs into a model high-achiever. [IMHO the phenomenon of “right” teacher unleashing BU does happen, but quite rarely.]
- BU is just not that interested in conventional academic pursuits.</p>
<p>If (1), go for a LAC. Student is most likely to get profs who are interested in teaching there.</p>
<p>If (2), go for a large state university, preferably with a decent-but-achievable honors program. With everything that goes on at large universities, BU has the maximum chance of finding something that hooks him enough to get him working up to potential.</p>
<p>Something to remember: even at LAC’s, professors tend to love their subjects more than they love devising new teaching approaches to “draw in” BU’s who don’t respond to “conventional” approaches. Think about it this way. If you’re a gourmet chef, which would you rather do - whip up yet another variation on macaroni and cheese to tempt a finicky eater, or prepare a cassoulet (sp?) for an appreciative audience?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t call Feynman a great letter, though I enjoyed his books very much. I once got to see him in a minor part in The Lady’s not for Burning.</p>
<p>Mythmom: if you want to underline, highlight the word(s) and hit control U, for italics hit control I, and for bold hit control B.</p>
<p>It works. **Wow.<a href=“Sorry,%20I%20diverge”>/B</a></p>
<p>I would like to pipe in, as a parent and a teacher. Top student in my school recently is a very, very hard working girl, every teacher says she memorized her way to the top, in my class she never participated, never has anything to say that has not been thought out, and analyzed for grade potential. She bored me to tears, and she is no way going to add much to any college as far as intellectual levels go. Nice girl, but she is at the top of her potential. She had gotten into a good, but not great, small LAC where she is really struggling to keep a 3.2 or so.</p>
<p>Many of my most brilliant students were underachievers because the small public school they are in has bored them, and never challenged them. They want to pull their hair out! But once they get into a challenging, intellectually stimulating environment, they soar.</p>
<p>So if I were a top college or university in which the level of intellect was very high, I would take the brilliant underachiever. The underachieving kid has probably been bored to death, and is like a candle waiting to be lit, while the overachiever may very well get frustrated and be less successful than he or she would have at a less competitive college.</p>
<p>kenf1234,
Amen!! Most public schools, especially once you get out of the wealthy suburb districts, have cut all of their gifted programs. I remember my son coming home in 3rd grade, sitting on the steps, and knocking his head against them, saying, “They go over the same math again and again and again.” Good Lord, what bright kid wouldn’t be frustrated by all of the repetition in the public school system which is necessary for most of the kids, but deadly for the bright ones.</p>
<p>And yes - not to be elitist, but the brightest people in our society should be nurtured because USUALLY they are the ones who advance civilization. (and I speak as a mother of 3, one of whom is very bright, one of whom is bright, and one of whom is average) We throw away the brains of the brightest kids, cutting gifted programs, and Honors programs, and society as a whole suffers for it, as these are the kids who, when they decide to cause trouble, are smart enough to cause real trouble.</p>
<p>Mythmom,</p>
<p>“Men have the advantage of being heavily recruited at many liberal arts colleges; therefore some students of this description have found a home at Vassar.”</p>
<p>I hope this is true, as my underachiever is headed to Vassar in September!! I did want him to go to a small LAC, because they will notice if he is not living up to his ability.</p>
<p>Ok, mythmom and adigal, which LACs do you believe are heavily recruiting men? I am interested b/c - when I attended the Vassar info session with my son - the adcom specifically denied that such was the case, at least at Vassar. While I am aware of the stats (girls vs. boys applying in greater numbers), I have also heard the refrain of we do not admit males that are not equally qualified.</p>
<p>I have seen soooo many overachievers in my day, and they are an amazing in their sheer grit and determination. Unfortunately, grit alone rarely provides deep insight, natural curiosity, unusual connections. I have seen kids toil away at homework for hours a night, and yes, they might have impressive GPAs, but they aren’t interesting people, many of them. </p>
<p>So, I too, would take the brilliant underachiever, because I think they can run circles around the overachievers in so many respects. And I think an underachiever always has greater heights to reach, many of which are unrealized, whereas the average overachiever has usually maxed out, at a certain point.</p>
<p>When I checked out the SAT scores from Vassar, they were very similar for men and women, actually, the mens’ math scores were a little higher. But they got approximately 4200 applications from women and 1700 from men, so while your scores have to high enough to meet their bar, you have a better chance of being admitted as a male.</p>
<p>I hope all these brilliant women around help motivate my underachieving son!!</p>
<p>Re Vassar: The adoffs can deny it up and down the wazoo but when they have two candidates of equal merit, male and female, I will wager they will take they male any day. The questions is not if the males are qualified, I am sure they are, but how many equally qualified females are being turned away.</p>
<p>My S was very interested in Vassar. Therefore, when DD was rejected (no sour grapes, she preferred Barnard where she is – DS was still very interested in Vassar) I called admissions at Vassar, mainly to assess DS’s chances, not to complain. However, DD and BGF were both rejected with stellar stats (BF accepted to Middlebury, usually considered a harder get) and I asked, “What did we do wrong?” disingenuously, I just wanted to pump his brain.</p>
<p>He said, “I’ll check applications.” Came back, “You did nothing wrong. We had institutional priorities.” I read this as THEY WEREN’T BOYS. THEY WERE FROM LONG ISLAND. THERE WERE TOO MANY GIRLS JUST LIKE THEM.</p>
<p>Story has happy ending. DD has found a perfect home at Barnard (though she is in London this semester.) BGF has found a perfect home at NYU (she is in Madrid this semester.)</p>
<p>I still love Vassar; DD is a bit sour on it, but would have been happy for her brother had he gone. His underachieving friend (guy) is doing brilliantly there and adores it.</p>
<p>My underachieving S is at, wait for it, Williams (see horrified face.) NOT the place for an underachiever. Grade deflation is real there folks. He did get one A (see smiley face) and an assortment of B’s, but B- in Music Theory (his major) see sad face.</p>
<p>Now he has GF in NYC and I can’t help wondering if he wishes he were at Vassar. But he loves Williams. Did you know they call it Willie? I kid you not.</p>
<p>LOL, I remember a parent’s quote when his son who read books on radio waves in space in elementary school and yet basically flunked out…</p>
<p>“Jimmy, you are going to be the smartest cook at McDonalds.” such is the fate for many of these brilliant underachievers…they are so bored in school that they lose interest</p>