The joke around Princeton was that John von Neumann “was not human, but a demigod who had made a detailed study of humans and could imitate them perfectly.” Bad news for any aspiring von Neumanns of more terrestrial stock. Hamming’s conviction—indeed, obsession—was the opposite: that this greatness was less a matter of genius (or divinity), and more a kind of virtuosity. He saw these undeniably great figures as human beings that had learned how to do something, and by studying them, he could learn it too.
