Manhattan Project Feynman was encouraged by a colleague to first join the project. He said that his reason for joining it was because he did not want to Germans to figure the bomb out first. However he also said that he wished that he would have thought of the far reaching consequences first. In Feynman's book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" Because Feynman was not very high up in the Manhattan Project he did not have much to do. Richard talks about how boring it was working there. In fact during this time he learned how to pick locks and play the bongos. He even pulled many pranks on his coworkers. However he did end up becoming friends with many of the important scientists. Bohr would even come discuss with Feynman because he would always give him a straight answer.