The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

by Richard Hamming

You must get the essentials of the job in mind and then design the mechanization to do that job rather than trying to mechanize the current version—if you want a significant success in the long run. I need to stress this point: mechanization requires you produce an equivalent product, not identically the same one. Furthermore, in any design it is now essential to consider field maintenance since in the long run it often dominates all other costs. The more complex the designed system, the more field maintenance must be central to the final design. Only when field maintenance is part of the original design can it be safely controlled; it is not wise to try to graft it on later. This applies to both mechanical things and to human organizations.