What Do You Care What Other People Think?

This collection functions perfectly as a standalone volume, though it is considered a companion or sequel to his earlier anecdotal memoir. Reading the first book is not required, but it provides helpful context for his overall personality and life trajectory.

Unlike the rapid-fire, lighthearted anecdotes of his first book, this work is divided into two distinct halves. The first section features deeply personal, tender stories about his early life and his first wife, Arlene, while the second half is a detailed, single-topic journalistic account of his investigation into the Challenger space shuttle disaster.

The title is a direct quote from Feynman's first wife, Arlene, who used the phrase to encourage him to ignore social expectations and maintain his independent, questioning mind during her terminal illness.