The Art of Doing Science and Engineering Quotes

“When you know something cannot be done, also remember the essential reason why, so later, when the circumstances have changed, you will not say 'It can't be done.”
― Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

“When something is claimed to be new, do not be too hasty to think it is just the past slightly improved - it might be a great opportunity for you to do significant things. But again it may be nothing new.”
― Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

“my boss was saying intellectual investment is like compound interest: the more you do, the more you learn how to do, so the more you can do, etc. I do not know what compound interest rate to assign, but it must be well over 6%—one extra hour per day over a lifetime will much more than double the total output. The steady application of a bit more effort has a great total accumulation.”
― Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

“You must learn to walk before you run in this matter of being creative, but I believe it can be done. Furthermore, if you are to succeed (to the extent you secretly wish to), you must become creative in the face of the rapidly changing technology which will dominate your career. Society will not stand still for you; it will evolve more and more rapidly as technology plays an increasing role at all levels of the organization. My job is to make you one of the leaders in this changing world, not a follower, and I am trying my best to alter you, especially in getting you to take charge of yourself and not to depend on others, such as me, to help.”
― Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

“A long gestation period of intense thinking about the problem may result in a solution, or else the temporary abandonment of the problem. This temporary abandonment is a common feature of many great creative acts. The monomaniacal pursuit often does not work; the temporary dropping of the idea sometimes seems to be essential to let the subconscious find a new approach. Then comes the moment of “insight,” creativity, or whatever you want to call it—you see the solution. Of course, it often happens that you are wrong; a closer examination of the problem shows the solution is faulty, but might be saved by some suitable revision. But maybe the problem needs to be altered to fit the solution! That has happened! More usually it is back to the drawing board, as they say, more mulling things over. The false starts and false solutions often sharpen the next approach you try. You now know how not to do it! You have a smaller number of approaches left to explore. You have a better idea of what will not work and possibly why it will not work.”
― Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

“an examination of history and of reports of those who have done great work, all seem to show that typically the pattern of creativity is as follows. There is first the recognition of the problem in some dim sense. This is followed by a longer or shorter period of refinement of the problem. Do not be too hasty at this stage, as you are likely to put the problem in the conventional form and find only the conventional solution. This stage, moreover, requires your emotional involvement, your commitment to finding a solution, since without a deep emotional involvement you are not likely to find a really fundamental, novel solution.”
― Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

“Almost all professionals are slow to use their own expertise for their own work.”
― Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

“This is a book about thinking. One cannot talk about thinking in the abstract, at least not usefully. But one can talk about thinking about digital filters, and by studying how great scientists thought about digital filters, one learns, however gradually, to think like a great scientist.”
― Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

“The Art of Doing Science and Engineering is the full, beautiful expression of what “You and Your Research” sketched in outline.”
― Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

“The Turing test is a popular approach, but it flies in the face of the standard scientific method, which starts with the easier problems before facing the harder ones. Thus I soon raised the question with myself, “What is the smallest or close to the smallest program I would believe could think?” Clearly, if the program were divided into two parts, then neither piece could think. I tried thinking about it each night as I put my head on the pillow to sleep, and after a year of considering the problem and getting nowhere I decided it was the wrong question! Perhaps “thinking” is not a yes/no thing, but maybe it is a matter of degree.”
― Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

“To see the obvious it often takes an outsider, or else someone like me who is thoughtful and wonders what he is doing and why it is all necessary. Even when told, the old timers will persist in the ways they learned, probably out of pride for their past and an unwillingness to admit there are better ways than those they were using for so long.”
― Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

“computers have given top management the power to micromanage their organization, and top management has shown little or no ability to resist using this power. You can regularly read in the papers some big corporation is decentralizing, but when you follow it for several years you see they merely intended to do so, but did not.”
― Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

“computers are now often an essential component of a good design.”
― Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn