The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

by Richard Hamming

Certainly near the end it is nice to look back at a life of accomplishments rather than a life where you have merely survived and amused yourself. Thus in a real sense I am preaching the messages that (1) it is worth trying to accomplish the goals you set yourself and (2) it is worth setting yourself high goals.

There is an old saying: “A prophet is without honor in his own country.”

Ability comes in many forms, and on the surface the variety is great; below the surface there are many common elements.

If you do not work on important problems, how can you expect to do important work?

The courage to continue is essential, since great research often has long periods with no success and many discouragements.

Not that you should merely work on random things, but on small things which seem to you to have the possibility of future growth.

When stuck, often inverting the problem and realizing the new formulation is better represents a significant step forward. I am not asserting all blockages can be so rearranged, but I am asserting that many more than you might at first suspect can be so changed from a more or less routine response to a great one.

All these stories show that the conditions you tend to want are seldom the best ones for you—the interaction with harsh reality tends to push you into significant discoveries which otherwise you would never have thought about while doing pure research in a vacuum of your private interests.

Great people can tolerate ambiguity; they can both believe and disbelieve at the same time. You must be able to believe your organization and field of research is the best there is, but also that there is much room for improvement!

A problem is important partly because there is a possible attack on it and not just because of its inherent importance.

Again, you should do your job in such a fashion that others can build on top of it. Do not in the process try to make yourself indispensable; if you do, then you cannot be promoted, because you will be the only one who can do what you are now doing! I have seen a number of times where this clinging to the exclusive rights to the idea has in the long run done much harm to the individual and to the organization.

I must come to the topic of “selling” new ideas. You must master three things to do this (Chapter 5): Giving formal presentations, Producing written reports, and Mastering the art of informal presentations as they happen to occur. All three are essential—you must learn to sell your ideas, not by propaganda, but by force of clear presentation.

Change does not mean progress, but progress requires change.

Certainly a good after-dinner speech requires three well-told jokes: one at the beginning, one in the middle to wake them up again, and the best one at the end so they will remember at least one thing you said!

Finally, I must address the topic of whether the effort required for excellence worth it. I believe it is—the chief gain is in the effort to change yourself, in the struggle with yourself, and it is less in the winning than you might expect. Yes, it is nice to end up where you wanted to be, but the person you are when you get there is far more important.