Comment by FarmerPotato
15 days ago
And…who hasn’t done offensive things, before learning that what they’re doing is bad? It’s a matter of developing self control and awareness.
15 days ago
And…who hasn’t done offensive things, before learning that what they’re doing is bad? It’s a matter of developing self control and awareness.
Certainly. But you're missing the point. Feynman chose to tell the stories to Ralph Leighton who then recorded them in the "Surely" book which was published in 1985, well after Feynman's own perspective seems to have changed about the more offensive things he'd said.
By many other accounts he was a kind, caring, thoughtful person, but some of the selected stories in "Surely" paint a significantly different picture. To me it's unclear, not having studied the life of Richard Feynman, what parts are exaggerated. But it does seem clear that these stories were refined and selected for inclusion, and were therefore considered endearing or representative for the intention of the book. And in the time and culture in which it was published that seems like a bit of a miss at the very least.