This title tells the story of Leonard Mlodinow's first year on the Caltech faculty in the winter of 1981. It is the narrative of himself as a young physicist trying to find his place in the world and the wisdom of an old, and dying physicist who helped him, the legendary Richard Feynman. But it is also the story of this famous scientist's last days, his rivalry with fellow Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann, and the beginnings of the string theory, the theory that is now the leading theory in physics and cosmology. The book reveals the untold side of Richard Feynman, candid and off-the-cuff. Over two years the two spoke many times and discussed many questions. How do I know if I have what it takes? How does a scientst think? What is the nature of creativity? Through these conversations, Leonard Mlodinow found the answers he sought about the nature of science and the scientist, but more than that, he discovered a new approach to life.