It has been more than a month since I started on Classic Feynman, and I have finally finished the entire book. The time it took had nothing to do with the book’s quality - in fact, quite the opposite.

Reading about the life of Richard Feynman was utterly fascinating stuff, in spite of the fact that I am no fan of biographies to begin with. The book’s power comes from Feynman himself as he narrates particular events at different points in his life.

It is really hard to summarize Richard Feynman. He’s a nobel-prize winning physicist, yes, but he is also a lot more than that. He has travelled to many places, tried so many things (some even so off-tangent from his scientist career). He just pursued anything and everything that interested him. From getting quite a reputation as a safecracker, to joining a samba band in Brazil, to playing percussions for a fairly successful ballet, to taking up painting and actually getting his work in an exhibit and actually sold!

So it is with great pleasure that I consider him the Ultimate Geek - well, he is a brilliant scientist to begin with, but his geekness not only stems from that trait, but also with his honest, even childish interest in all things, and having the guts to experience them.

Most of the book’s chapters are gems: not just very entertaining, but from which one can also derive some perspective about life. And myself, for one, found the book very inspirational. Now I can say, if someone asks who my greatest hero is, without any hesitation: Richard Feynman!

Thank you, Mr. Feynman. I will always try to live by the principles you have established for yourself.