Anodino. Imposible de acabar. De los pocos que he tenido que dejar a medias.

Gleick is a thorough, intelligent science writer able to give over complex ideas without sacrificing too much depth. He still lost me with some of the particle physics stuff. Feynman started his academic career as a precocious math undergrad at Princeton, and went to the pinnacle of modern science, first at the Manhattan Project and later designing a daunting freshman physics curriculum at CalTech later published as "Six Easy Pieces". His career neatly parallels the modern perception of science: theoretical physics was transformed from a discipline akin, in practical application, to "medieval French", to a near-religion, captivating the awed respect of the public, and leading to enormous increases in governmental research spending and the development of "Big Science". And later, as the pace of new developments dropped, and scientists, confronted with an ever-increasing list of particles, gradually gave up on finding a unified theory of the atom, more mystical and antiscientific thinking gradually re-emerged. Notable personal aspects of Feynman were his pre-feminist attitudes toward women, culminating in protests at some of his public talks, and, related, his near-constant womanising. (He never recovered emotionally from the death of his beloved first wife.) Also worth noting is that his quips and stories, seemingly off-the-cuff, were carefully rehearsed in his notebooks.All of which shouldn't take away from the scope of his genius. Gleick sees his subject as the genius par excellence, akin to Einstein and Newton (the latter a previous biographical subject). He devotes a chapter in the final section to a fascinating discussion of the nature and history of "genius". Feynman's thinking was, in speed and clarity, unlike that of normal people.One final point: in an interview with the BBC retold by Gleick, Feynman becomes quite agitated when asked to explain in layman's terms how magnets work. He insists that they just work. This is quite out of the ordinary, as in every other regard Feynman seemed to consider the ability to explain something in simple terms as the hallmark of a clear understanding. This just adds to my conviction that the Insane Clown Posse was really onto something.

Fantastic bio of Feynman, and likely the best (in the same vein as Isaacson's takes on Einstein or Jobs) that we'll see. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the nature of science during Feynman's rise a period where quantum mechanics was very much developing and characters like Feynman were radically unorthodox.Hearing Feynman's story is truly inspirational and makes you want to go out and discover things.

I do not do well with audiobooks. I quickly drift away to thoughts about other things. When I come back to the audiobook, I usually have no idea what's going on. I recently launched into Genius, James Gleick's biography of Richard Feynman, and this experience has been surprisingly different. I have immensely enjoyed having his words poured into my ears. I suspect it has to do with the gorgeous style and structure of Gleick's writing here. He clearly has amassed a staggering amount of vivid detail from Feynman's life, but he's selected from this mountain carefully, rather than dumping it all on the reader's head. To tell Feynman's story, he has to guide us through the recent history of physics, which he manages to do with remarkable grace. It's the story of a remarkable person in a remarkable time. I look forward to hours more of listening.

Big disappointment. Coming off of American Prometheus, the fantastic biography of Robert Oppenheimer, and having read a book or two of Gleick's earlier stuff, I was surprised that I couldn't even finish the damned thing. Tossed it into my donation pile a hundred pages in.