The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

by Richard Hamming

Please remember this when you have risen to the top and are in charge; do as I have tried to do and let the next generation have a cleaner chance at success than you were granted by your management while you were rising to the top. I observed to you some lectures ago that a friend behind my back remarked he doubted Hamming understood error-correcting codes—and I admitted he was probably right! I do believe in what I am telling you; the old expert is all too often wrong and a block to progress. Consider the case of Einstein, who gave qm such a start with his photoelectric paper, and was in his turn a plain drag on qm when he so aggressively opposed the theory of qm as it developed. Physicists are polite about this point as they hate to admit their tin god Einstein could be so definitely wrong; they excuse him this way and that, but under pressure they have to admit that once again the person who opened up the field did not understand what he had done, and is best ignored at a later date!