An incredibly interesting book, that can widen your perspective of the universe. It requires a relatively small amount of math and physics knowledge to understand, as it focuses primarily on concepts, although it does include examples which utilize low-level physics calculations.

I read some of this

Fun series of lecture on physics, and whether to trust theory of experimental data.

I might read this again.

It's part of our survival instinct to study patterns in nature. This particular trait has led us to ask these important questions and to pursue their answers. And tools such as science & math help us achieve these goals. But, Feynman is also making an interesting point here. He says that "Our main concentration will not be on how clever we are to have found it all out, but on how clever nature is to pay attention to it."

These lectures primarily focus on the characteristics of these laws and how nature follows them. Calling this book "fascinating" is an understatement because it's more like an epiphany.

Another point he emphasizes is how to "science". The scientific methodology asks us to make intuitive guesses & perform rigorous experiments to prove out the ideas. Thorough exercises in reason & logic provides us with a solid foundation, which could be used for improving our lives.

Curiosity sparks the deep yearning to understand oneself & the world. It doesn't always kill the cat.

Regards,
Vinay

P.S.
For those curious creatures out there. I would also recommend the following books.

1. "We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe" by Jorge Cham, Daniel Whiteson
2. "The Quantum Divide: Why Schrodinger's Cat Is Either Dead or Alive" by Christopher C. Gerry, Kimberley M. Bruno

Other recommendations:
1. PBS Spacetime on YouTube channel
2. Podcast: "Jorge and Daniel explain the universe"
3. Podcast "Infinite Monkey Cage"

Much better than other, more biographical works of his. Guess I never thought of Physics as such a scattershot patchwork of guesses before. He does a good job democratizing it, emphasizing that ideas can come from anywhere, and their value comes only from their agreement with experiment data.

This was a tough review for me: I mean, Richard Feynman?! The man is a god, really, plus the whole Nobel Prize thing, who am I to criticise? Unfortunately I think this book is showing its age, especially in the writing style. It's more or less a transcription of Feynman speaking his lectures, as captured by the BBC in the 1960s, and unfortunately that doesn't translate terribly well into a writing style.

It's also starting a bunch of physics from (nearly) the beginning, which means that for me, it didn't tell me anything terribly new.

On the other hand, it does give a very different perspective on things like Newton's theory of gravity, which you might not see in many other places. I enjoyed also his complete transparency about how physics, and science in general, is done: you make bold predictions about things in completely new spaces, you test them out, then if they fail you guess at the form of new laws that might explain them. And he's quite clear about the guessing part: great scientists are great guessers. Which makes Prof. Feynman a guesser of interstellar proportions, I think. A true polymath genius, that man. So I feel bad about the 2 stars, but I'm reviewing the book, not the man!