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Over on the other side of the dining hall was a chemistry table. I had worked with one of the fellows, Dave McCall; furthermore he was courting our secretary at the time. I went over and said, ``Do you mind if I join you?'' They can't say no, so I started eating with them for a while. And I started asking, ``What are the important problems of your ... See more
Richard Hamming • You and Your Research
If you do not work on an important problem, it's unlikely you'll do important work. It's perfectly obvious. Great scientists have thought through, in a careful way, a number of important problems in their field, and they keep an eye on wondering how to attack them. (...) By important I mean guaranteed a Nobel Prize and any sum of money you want to ... See more
Richard Hamming • You and Your Research
The engineer, Richard Hamming , on the purpose of education:
“Teachers should prepare the student for the student's future, not for the teacher's past.”
“Teachers should prepare the student for the student's future, not for the teacher's past.”
James Clear • 3-2-1: On blame, the purpose of education, and compounding choices
A problem well stated is a problem half solved
Douglas W. Hubbard • How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business
The notion that a channel has a specific information capacity, which can be measured in bits per second, has had a profound influence.
Warren Weaver • The Mathematical Theory of Communication
Let me summarize. You've got to work on important problems. I deny that it is all luck, but I admit there is a fair element of luck. I subscribe to Pasteur's ``Luck favors the prepared mind.'' I favor heavily what I did. Friday afternoons for years - great thoughts only - means that I committed 10% of my time trying to understand the bigger problem... See more
Richard Hamming • You and Your Research
You observe that most great scientists have tremendous drive. I worked for ten years with John Tukey at Bell Labs. He had tremendous drive. One day about three or four years after I joined, I discovered that John Tukey was slightly younger than I was. John was a genius and I clearly was not. Well I went storming into Bode's office and said, ``How c... See more
Richard Hamming • You and Your Research
SHANNON’S PAPER contained a claim so surprising that it seemed impossible to many at the time, and yet it would soon be proven true. He showed that any digital message could be sent with virtual perfection, even along the noisiest wire, as long as you included error-correcting codes—essentially extra bits of information, formulated as additional 1s
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