"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" - unam.

have the company decide who their better engineers were, and to have them look at the
book. I couldn't claim that I was smarter than sixty­five other guys ­­ but the average of
sixty­five other guys, certainly!
I couldn't get through to him, and the book was approved by the board.
When I was still on the commission, I had to go to San Francisco a few times for
some of the meetings, and when I returned to Los Angeles from the first trip, I stopped in
the commission office to get reimbursed for my expenses.
"How much did it cost, Mr. Feynman?"
"Well, I flew to San Francisco, so it's the airfare, plus the parking at the airport
while I was away."
"Do you have your ticket?"
I happened to have the ticket.
"Do you have a receipt for the parking?"
"No, but it cost $2.35 to park my car."
"But we have to have a receipt."
"I told you how much it cost. If you don't trust me, why do you let me tell you
what I think is good and bad about the schoolbooks?".
There was a big stew about that. Unfortunately, I had been used to giving lectures
for some company or university or for ordinary people, not for the government. I was
used to, "What were your expenses?" ­­ "So­and­so much." ­­ "Here you are, Mr.
Feynman."
I then decided I wasn't going to give them a receipt for anything.
After the second trip to San Francisco they again asked me for my ticket and
receipts.
"I haven't got any."
"This can't go on, Mr. Feynman."
"When I accepted to serve on the commission, I was told you were going to pay
my expenses."
"But we expected to have some receipts to prove the expenses."
"I have nothing to prove it, but you know I live in Los Angeles and I go to these
other towns; how the hell do you think I get there?"
They didn't give in, and neither did I. I feel when you're in a position like that,
where you choose not to buckle down to the System, you must pay the consequences if it
doesn't work. So I'm perfectly satisfied, but I never did get compensation for the trips.
It's one of those games I play. They want a receipt? I'm not giving them a receipt.
Then you're not going to get the money. OK, then I'm not taking the money. They don't
trust me? The hell with it; they don't have to pay me. Of course it's absurd! I know that's
the way the government works; well, screw the government! I feel that human beings
should treat human beings like human beings. And unless I'm going to be treated like
one, I'm not going to have anything to do with them! They feel bad? They feel bad. I feel
bad, too. We'll just let it go. I know they're "protecting the taxpayer," but see how well
you think the taxpayer was being protected in the following situation.
There were two books that we were unable to come to a decision about after much
discussion; they were extremely close. So we left it open to the Board of Education to
decide. Since the board was now taking the cost into consideration, and since the two
books were so evenly matched, the board decided to open the bids and take the lower