Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character

When he is 11 or 12 years old, Feynman creates a science lab from things he finds around the house. He creates a series of practical gadgets like heaters, alarms, and a string of lights. Though much of what he accomplishes is “very dangerous” (23), he recalls that “it was fun!” (22). He becomes so adept at tinkering in his laboratory that he recreates significant inventions, at one point building “the type of telephone [Alexander Graham Bell] originally used” (24).

Feynman gains a name for himself when he begins to play with radios. People in the neighborhood hear about his technical abilities and ask him to fix their broken machines. During the Great Depression, a boy who seems to enjoy fiddling with electronics is a cost-effective repairman. Though some of his customers have doubts about whether someone that young can make repairs, Feynman takes their skepticism as a challenge and is pleased to prove them wrong. Feynman ponders the things that could go wrong with the device until he uncovers the proper repair, making one of his customers cry out, “He fixes radios by thinking!” (27). Feynman teaches himself to apply abstract thinking to practical problems, and from his high school days forward he relishes the “fancy reputation” this brings him (28), though one of his biggest challenges is to communicate what he knows.