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The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn
Highly effective thinking is an art that engineers and scientists can be taught to develop. By presenting actual experiences and analyzing them as they are described, the author conveys the developmental thought processes employed and shows a style of thinking that leads to successful results is something that can be learned. Along with spectacular successes, the author also conveys how failures contributed to shaping the thought processes.
Provides the reader with a style of thinking that will enhance a person's ability to function as a problem-solver of complex technical issues. Consists of a collection of stories about the author's participation in significant discoveries, relating how those discoveries came about and, most importantly, provides analysis about the thought processes and reasoning that took place as the author and his associates progressed through engineering problems.
Provides the reader with a style of thinking that will enhance a person's ability to function as a problem-solver of complex technical issues. Consists of a collection of stories about the author's participation in significant discoveries, relating how those discoveries came about and, most importantly, provides analysis about the thought processes and reasoning that took place as the author and his associates progressed through engineering problems.
376 pages, Paperback
First published January 31, 1996
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16.2k people want to read
About the author
Richard Hamming
13 books125 followersProfessor Richard Wesley Hamming, Ph.D. (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1942; M.S., University of Nebraska, 1939; B.S., University of Chicago in 1937), was a mathematician whose work had many implications for computer science and telecommunications. His contributions include the Hamming code (which makes use of a Hamming matrix), the Hamming window (described in Section 5.8 of his book Digital Filters), Hamming numbers, sphere-packing (or hamming bound) and the Hamming distance.
Hamming was a professor at the University of Louisville during World War II, and left to work on the Manhattan Project in 1945, programming one of the earliest electronic digital computers to calculate the solution to equations provided by the project's physicists. The objective of the program was to discover if the detonation of an atomic bomb would ignite the atmosphere. The result of the computation was that this would not occur, and so the United States used the bomb, first in a test in New Mexico, and then twice against Japan. Later, from 1946 to 1976, he worked at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he collaborated with Claude Shannon. During this period, he was an Adjunct Professor at the City College of New York, School of Engineering. On July 23, 1976 he moved to the Naval Postgraduate School, where he worked as an Adjunct Professor until 1997, when he became Professor Emeritus. He died a year later in 1998.
He was a founder and president of the Association for Computing Machinery. His philosophy on scientific computing appears as preface to his 1962 book on numerical methods: The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers.
Awards:
Turing Award, Association for Computing Machinery, 1968.
Fellow of the IEEE, 1968.
IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award, 1979.
Member of the National Academy of Engineering, 1980.
Harold Pender Award, University of Pennsylvania, 1981.
IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal, 1988.
Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, 1994.
Basic Research Award, Eduard Rhein Foundation, 1996.
Certificate of Merit, Franklin Institute, 1996
The IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal, named after him, is an award given annually by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), for "exceptional contributions to information sciences, systems and technology", and he was the first recipient of this medal.
Hamming discusses the use and potential of computers in the 1965 film Logic By Machine.
Hamming was a professor at the University of Louisville during World War II, and left to work on the Manhattan Project in 1945, programming one of the earliest electronic digital computers to calculate the solution to equations provided by the project's physicists. The objective of the program was to discover if the detonation of an atomic bomb would ignite the atmosphere. The result of the computation was that this would not occur, and so the United States used the bomb, first in a test in New Mexico, and then twice against Japan. Later, from 1946 to 1976, he worked at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he collaborated with Claude Shannon. During this period, he was an Adjunct Professor at the City College of New York, School of Engineering. On July 23, 1976 he moved to the Naval Postgraduate School, where he worked as an Adjunct Professor until 1997, when he became Professor Emeritus. He died a year later in 1998.
He was a founder and president of the Association for Computing Machinery. His philosophy on scientific computing appears as preface to his 1962 book on numerical methods: The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers.
Awards:
Turing Award, Association for Computing Machinery, 1968.
Fellow of the IEEE, 1968.
IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award, 1979.
Member of the National Academy of Engineering, 1980.
Harold Pender Award, University of Pennsylvania, 1981.
IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal, 1988.
Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, 1994.
Basic Research Award, Eduard Rhein Foundation, 1996.
Certificate of Merit, Franklin Institute, 1996
The IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal, named after him, is an award given annually by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), for "exceptional contributions to information sciences, systems and technology", and he was the first recipient of this medal.
Hamming discusses the use and potential of computers in the 1965 film Logic By Machine.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 172 reviews
February 18, 2020
Q:
The unexamined life is not worth living. (c)
Q:
The use of FORTRAN, like the earlier symbolic programming, was very slow to be taken up by the
professionals. And this is typical of almost all professional groups. Doctors clearly do not follow the advice they give to others, and they also have a high proportion of drug addicts. Lawyers often do not leave decent wills when they die. Almost all professionals are slow to use their own expertise for their own work. The situation is nicely summarized by the old saying, “The shoe maker’s children go without shoes”. Consider how in the future, when you are a great expert, you will avoid this typical error! (c)
Q:
There is a clever proposed method whose effectiveness I do not know in practice. Suppose you want to measure the amount of murder which escapes detection. You interview people and tell them to toss a coin without anyone but themselves seeing the outcome, and then if it is heads they should claim they have committed a murder, while if tails they should tell the truth. In the arrangement there is no way anyone except themselves can know the outcome of the toss, hence no way they can be accused of murder if they say so. From a large sample the slight excess of murders above one half gives the measure you want. But that supposes the people asked, and given protection, will in fact respond accurately. Variations on this method have been discussed widely, but a serious study to find the effectiveness is still missing, so far as I know. (c)
Q:
In closing, you may have heard of the famous election where the newspapers announced the victory for President to one man when in fact the other won by a land slide. There is also the famous Literary Digest poll which was conducted via the telephone, and was amazingly wrong afterwards—so far wrong the Literary Digest folded soon after—some people say because of this faulty poll. It has been claimed at that time the ownership of a telephone was correlated with wealth and wealth with a political party—hence the error. (c)
The unexamined life is not worth living. (c)
Q:
The use of FORTRAN, like the earlier symbolic programming, was very slow to be taken up by the
professionals. And this is typical of almost all professional groups. Doctors clearly do not follow the advice they give to others, and they also have a high proportion of drug addicts. Lawyers often do not leave decent wills when they die. Almost all professionals are slow to use their own expertise for their own work. The situation is nicely summarized by the old saying, “The shoe maker’s children go without shoes”. Consider how in the future, when you are a great expert, you will avoid this typical error! (c)
Q:
There is a clever proposed method whose effectiveness I do not know in practice. Suppose you want to measure the amount of murder which escapes detection. You interview people and tell them to toss a coin without anyone but themselves seeing the outcome, and then if it is heads they should claim they have committed a murder, while if tails they should tell the truth. In the arrangement there is no way anyone except themselves can know the outcome of the toss, hence no way they can be accused of murder if they say so. From a large sample the slight excess of murders above one half gives the measure you want. But that supposes the people asked, and given protection, will in fact respond accurately. Variations on this method have been discussed widely, but a serious study to find the effectiveness is still missing, so far as I know. (c)
Q:
In closing, you may have heard of the famous election where the newspapers announced the victory for President to one man when in fact the other won by a land slide. There is also the famous Literary Digest poll which was conducted via the telephone, and was amazingly wrong afterwards—so far wrong the Literary Digest folded soon after—some people say because of this faulty poll. It has been claimed at that time the ownership of a telephone was correlated with wealth and wealth with a political party—hence the error. (c)
November 9, 2021
Original 2019 Review: Hamming invented a lot of cool stuff, but he is best known for sitting down and asking people why they weren't working on the most important problems in their domain. Presumably he didn't make a lot of friends with this strategy, but his is the name we remember, not theirs.
This book is excellent excellent excellent. The thesis is that a life lived without producing excellent work isn't one worth living. Hamming describes the book as a manual of style; while university is good at teaching technical skills, it's not very good at teaching the important stuff that falls /between/ the discrete subjects. Like how to choose important problems to work on, or where insight comes from, or how to stay ahead of the trend and not become obsolete.
To this extent, Hamming talks about his own successes and failures (though mostly his successes --- he says it's more important to study success than failure, since you'd like to replicate only the former.) He's obviously proud of his accomplishments, which is a refreshing note from most technical autobiographies, in which the authors present a cool, modest description of their work. Hamming provides commentary behind each of his wins, describing the circumstances that lead to it, and how having a "prepared mind" helped him jump on it before others did. He further notes how he could have done better, and gives explicit advice to the reader for how to do a better job than he did.
This is a wonderfully insightful book, and is chocked full inspiration and interesting technical topics. If you're in a technical field and you'd like to do great work, this is mandatory reading.
This book is excellent excellent excellent. The thesis is that a life lived without producing excellent work isn't one worth living. Hamming describes the book as a manual of style; while university is good at teaching technical skills, it's not very good at teaching the important stuff that falls /between/ the discrete subjects. Like how to choose important problems to work on, or where insight comes from, or how to stay ahead of the trend and not become obsolete.
To this extent, Hamming talks about his own successes and failures (though mostly his successes --- he says it's more important to study success than failure, since you'd like to replicate only the former.) He's obviously proud of his accomplishments, which is a refreshing note from most technical autobiographies, in which the authors present a cool, modest description of their work. Hamming provides commentary behind each of his wins, describing the circumstances that lead to it, and how having a "prepared mind" helped him jump on it before others did. He further notes how he could have done better, and gives explicit advice to the reader for how to do a better job than he did.
This is a wonderfully insightful book, and is chocked full inspiration and interesting technical topics. If you're in a technical field and you'd like to do great work, this is mandatory reading.
Want to read
August 2, 2009Hamming's essay, "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics" (together with Eugene Wigner's precursor piece, "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences", is one of the four or five most important papers I've ever read:
Prologue. It is evident from the title that this is a philosophical discussion. I shall not apologize for the philosophy, though I am well aware that most scientists, engineers, and mathematicians have little regard for it; instead, I shall give this short prologue to justify the approach.As G. H. Hardy said in A Mathematician's Apology:
Man, so far as we know, has always wondered about himself, the world around him, and what life is all about. We have many myths from the past that tell how and why God, or the gods, made man and the universe. These I shall call theological explanations. They have one principal characteristic in common-there is little point in asking why things are the way they are, since we are given mainly a description of the creation as the gods chose to do it.
Philosophy started when man began to wonder about the world outside of this theological framework. An early example is the description by the philosophers that the world is made of earth, fire, water, and air. No doubt they were told at the time that the gods made things that way and to stop worrying about it.
From these early attempts to explain things slowly came philosophy as well as our present science. Not that science explains "why" things are as they are-gravitation does not explain why things fall-but science gives so many details of "how" that we have the feeling we understand "why." Let us be clear about this point; it is by the sea of interrelated details that science seems to say "why" the universe is as it is.
Our main tool for carrying out the long chains of tight reasoning required by science is mathematics. Indeed, mathematics might be defined as being the mental tool designed for this purpose. Many people through the ages have asked the question I am effectively asking in the title, "Why is mathematics so unreasonably effective?" In asking this we are merely looking more at the logical side and less at the material side of what the universe is and how it works.
What is the proper justification of a mathematician’s life? My answers will be, for the most part, such as are expected from a mathematician: I think that it is worthwhile, that there is ample justification. But I should say at once that my defense of mathematics will be a defense of myself, and that my apology is bound to be to some extent egotistical. I should not think it worthwhile to apologize for my subject if I regarded myself as one of its failures. Some egotism of this sort is inevitable, and I do not feel that it really needs justification. Good work is not done by "humble" men. It is one of the first duties of a professor, for example, in any subject, to exaggerate a little both the importance of his subject and his own importance in it. A man who is always asking "Is what I do worthwhile?" and "Am I the right person to do it?" will always be ineffective himself and a discouragement to others. He must shut his eyes a little and think a little more of his subject and himself than they deserve. This is not too difficult: it is harder not to make his subject and himself ridiculous by shutting his eyes too tightly.Every schoolboy, of course, knows Hamming's Codes, without which tkis 2es7age woz7d 333 uNintel3siblke due to 434rror5 (or at least would have aarrrrrriiiiiivvvveeeedddd mooooooreeeeeeee sllllooooooooowwwwllllllllllyyyy). Van Roy highly recommends this slim volume in Concepts Techniques and Models of Computer Programming, and who am I to reject a book by Hamming? Hoping for fun.
April 4, 2017
A book full of wisdom from an engineer and scientist who spent his entire life in computing and research. Richard Hamming discusses why scientist do things they do, how leaders are different from followers, how to spot trends and focus on the core, what changes are going to take place in the near future and how do we adapt to them. "Luck favors the prepared", indeed a quote that is the main theme of this book.
Recommend to anyone in the search of the meaning of work, research and generally life.
Recommend to anyone in the search of the meaning of work, research and generally life.
October 30, 2020
This is a fairly niche book which presents itself as Hamming teaching a meta class on how to be successful in your scientific and engineering focused career. Taking a brief glance around the classroom, it seems that many people have pretty unqualified praise for this work. I’m not sure they are quite accurate. While all books are read by a self-selected group, BooksWithMath™are an even more hyper-selected group. Thus, there is going to be a propensity for them to inflate the overall score of the book just due to the nature of who they are. Enough about the other reviewers, let’s look at the book.
Hamming starts out by presenting what he is going to teach you in this “class”. He purports to teach them the idea of creativity and the style of doing engineering.
As you’ll come to learn later, this isn’t explicitly true. Hamming spends four whole chapters discussing relatively useless information concerning Digital Fillers—by far the worst chapters in my opinion—and only one on the error correcting codes which he is most known for. In these chapters, which thoroughly dissuade you of the notion that there will be little mathematics in this book, there seems to be much more bragging than there is actionable information. Interesting if you want an analysis of what it was like to work around the best scientists of that era, but not quite relevant to the thesis.
Personally, I didn’t feel like the book started revealing secrets until Hamming was able to write through all of his personal triumphs. Sure, there are important sentences scattered around, but nothing really compares to the chapters from 25 on.
He drops a few short lines, like an engineering poet:
Longer asides, which aid in the orienteering of a career when times are fruitless:
And then a restatement of his true purpose throughout the book: to create better scientists. To introduce and cement in his students the notion that the biggest ideas do not come to the smallest thinkers.
I could probably share another 5+ quotes from the final chapters, but I’m afraid that you would be better off reading those final chapters in full. However, despite my praise, I’m not falling into the trap of rating something on the strength of its ending vs. the strength of the whole. Overall, the work was chaotic, messy, and without cogent direction. I suppose one could make an interesting analogy between the construction of the book and the often winding path of an engineering career, but I may be veering into the cliche with that comparison. I can only hope that I do work that is good enough to have people complaining about my lack of direction one day on some random review on the internet.
Hamming starts out by presenting what he is going to teach you in this “class”. He purports to teach them the idea of creativity and the style of doing engineering.
“There really isn't this course any technical content, although I'm going to talk about digital fillers and all kinds of things. There are things you presumably know. I am concerned about style.
I have studied great scientists, ever since I was at Los Alamos during the war. What is different between those who do and those who do not do significant things? Mainly, it's a manner of style.”
As you’ll come to learn later, this isn’t explicitly true. Hamming spends four whole chapters discussing relatively useless information concerning Digital Fillers—by far the worst chapters in my opinion—and only one on the error correcting codes which he is most known for. In these chapters, which thoroughly dissuade you of the notion that there will be little mathematics in this book, there seems to be much more bragging than there is actionable information. Interesting if you want an analysis of what it was like to work around the best scientists of that era, but not quite relevant to the thesis.
Personally, I didn’t feel like the book started revealing secrets until Hamming was able to write through all of his personal triumphs. Sure, there are important sentences scattered around, but nothing really compares to the chapters from 25 on.
“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.”
He drops a few short lines, like an engineering poet:
“Society will not stand still for you,...”
Longer asides, which aid in the orienteering of a career when times are fruitless:
“If, on the average campus, you asked a sample of professors what they were going to do the next class hour, you would hear they were going to: “teach partial fractions”, “show how to find the moments of a normal distribution, “explain Young’s modulus and how to measure it”, etc. I doubt you would often hear a professor say, “I am going to educate the students and prepare them for their future careers.”
You may claim in both cases the larger aim was so well understood there was no need to mention it, but I doubt you really believe it. Most of the time each person is immersed in the details of one special part of the whole and does not think of how what they are doing relates to the larger picture. It is characteristic of most people that they keep a myopic view of their work and seldom, if ever, connect it with the larger aims they will admit, when pressed hard, are the true goals of the system. This myopic view is the chief characteristic of a bureaucrat. To rise to the top you should have the larger view—at least when you get there.”
And then a restatement of his true purpose throughout the book: to create better scientists. To introduce and cement in his students the notion that the biggest ideas do not come to the smallest thinkers.
“I strongly recommend this taking the time, on a regular basis, to ask the larger questions and not stay immersed in the sea of detail where almost every one stays almost all of the time. These chapters have regularly stressed the bigger picture, and if you are to be a leader into the future, rather than to be a follower of others, I am now saying it seems to me to be necessary for you to look at the bigger picture on a regular, frequent basis for many years.”
I could probably share another 5+ quotes from the final chapters, but I’m afraid that you would be better off reading those final chapters in full. However, despite my praise, I’m not falling into the trap of rating something on the strength of its ending vs. the strength of the whole. Overall, the work was chaotic, messy, and without cogent direction. I suppose one could make an interesting analogy between the construction of the book and the often winding path of an engineering career, but I may be veering into the cliche with that comparison. I can only hope that I do work that is good enough to have people complaining about my lack of direction one day on some random review on the internet.
November 7, 2015
Hamming's goal with this book is to teach style and creativity to people who do engineering or research. He primarily does this using a ton of anecdotes from his own research career. He'll give a story about doing something or other, then explain how it relates to the broader picture of being a top notch researcher.
The book itself is organized into separate chapters, each focusing on a technical area that Hamming was interested in. He gives enough information to understand the topic (assuming you know calculus) and then dives into various proofs. He does a lot of back of the envelope calculations, and they sometimes aren't motivated until afterwards. There were multiple times where I had no idea why he was doing some derivation until a while after it was done. The derivations are also sometimes not the most clear.
Interspersed in each chapter are the anecdotes about engineering style, and Hamming tries to use the technical content to illustrate his examples. This works pretty well, but it does mean that it's harder to read the book and just pick out his advice for being a good scientist.
Overall I thought the book was great. It's full of good advice and interesting histories about the discoveries of various theorems.
The book itself is organized into separate chapters, each focusing on a technical area that Hamming was interested in. He gives enough information to understand the topic (assuming you know calculus) and then dives into various proofs. He does a lot of back of the envelope calculations, and they sometimes aren't motivated until afterwards. There were multiple times where I had no idea why he was doing some derivation until a while after it was done. The derivations are also sometimes not the most clear.
Interspersed in each chapter are the anecdotes about engineering style, and Hamming tries to use the technical content to illustrate his examples. This works pretty well, but it does mean that it's harder to read the book and just pick out his advice for being a good scientist.
Overall I thought the book was great. It's full of good advice and interesting histories about the discoveries of various theorems.
June 27, 2021
Richard Hamming was a leading computational scientist with significant contributions to Computer Science, Networks and many other fields.
This book is a collection of lectures given by him (titled Learning to Learn) at the US Naval Postgraduate College. The source videos (of low quality) are available at YouTube. The videos are pretty excellent!
I skipped a few chapters on Electrical Engineering when they were too technical. But the rest of chapters were top notch! Hamming casually throws around profound quotes including but not limited to creativity, experts and research. My favorites chapters: History of Computers: Software, Artificial Intelligence-I and the chapters 25-30. The last 6 chapters should be required reading for all engineering graduates. This was long pending to be read and I'm so glad to have finally completed it.
This book is highly recommended.
This book is a collection of lectures given by him (titled Learning to Learn) at the US Naval Postgraduate College. The source videos (of low quality) are available at YouTube. The videos are pretty excellent!
I skipped a few chapters on Electrical Engineering when they were too technical. But the rest of chapters were top notch! Hamming casually throws around profound quotes including but not limited to creativity, experts and research. My favorites chapters: History of Computers: Software, Artificial Intelligence-I and the chapters 25-30. The last 6 chapters should be required reading for all engineering graduates. This was long pending to be read and I'm so glad to have finally completed it.
This book is highly recommended.
April 28, 2021
This was an inspiration read, it makes we want to brush up on my algebra and calculus. Despite not following all the mathematics, Hamming shares prophetic wisdom considering it was published in 1996. The book is a collections of essays where Hamming shares his experience as a scientist and researcher that guided his career at Bell Laboratories and work in computing creating error correction codes, among many other projects. Hamming offers advice on managing a career, focusing on doing high quality work solving problems that matter - and to anticipate you will have to constantly learn and reinvent yourself managing through compounding change and technical advancement in your career. I loved Hamming ideas on leadership, and to plan for ambiguity and change as inevitable in your field and career.
But be careful—the race is not to the one who works hardest! You need to work on the right problem at the right time and in the right way—what I have been calling “style.”
June 16, 2020
"Man is not a rational animal, he is a rationalizing animal."
"Learning a new subject is something
you will have to do many times in your career if you are to be a leader and not be left behind as a follower by newer developments."
"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.""
"More than most people want to believe, what we see depends on how we approach the problem! Too often we see what we want to see, and therefore you need to consciously adopt a scientific attitude of doubting your own beliefs."
"What you learn from others you can use to follow;
What you learn for yourself you can use to lead."
"There is another trait of great people I must talk about-and it took me a long time to realize it. 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!"
"Learning a new subject is something
you will have to do many times in your career if you are to be a leader and not be left behind as a follower by newer developments."
"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.""
"More than most people want to believe, what we see depends on how we approach the problem! Too often we see what we want to see, and therefore you need to consciously adopt a scientific attitude of doubting your own beliefs."
"What you learn from others you can use to follow;
What you learn for yourself you can use to lead."
"There is another trait of great people I must talk about-and it took me a long time to realize it. 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!"
August 29, 2020
there's a lot of wisdom here.
January 7, 2023
3.5 stars
Overall, really enjoyed this book but struggled immensely with Chapters 9 through 17, covering coding theory, n-dimensional space, error-correcting codes, digital filters.
The preface promised the book was about "learning to learn" but those above chapters got a little too into the weeds and I was having flashbacks from stuff I struggled with in my EE degree, despite Hamming's much better explanations than my former professors.
Good reading for current or future scientists, engineers, and/or technical leaders. I believe the book can still be enjoyed when speeding through the hard stuff and skipping over the math (not what Hamming wants of his readers, but too bad).
Overall, really enjoyed this book but struggled immensely with Chapters 9 through 17, covering coding theory, n-dimensional space, error-correcting codes, digital filters.
The preface promised the book was about "learning to learn" but those above chapters got a little too into the weeds and I was having flashbacks from stuff I struggled with in my EE degree, despite Hamming's much better explanations than my former professors.
Good reading for current or future scientists, engineers, and/or technical leaders. I believe the book can still be enjoyed when speeding through the hard stuff and skipping over the math (not what Hamming wants of his readers, but too bad).
February 14, 2017
Lots of skippable stuff for non technical audiences, but the first few and last few chapters are goldmines for anyone.
December 5, 2024
Taken from Patrick Collison’s recommended book list, didn’t really know what I was getting into but ended up liking it a lot.
Basically Richard Hamming had one of the coolest science careers ever, was involved in Los Alamos and the atomic bomb to start his career, went to Bell Labs and helped develop the transistor and tons of EE work, then taught courses at the Naval Postgraduate school. Had no idea he was like one of the founders of computing
He wrote this at the end of his career in the 90s and it’s basically like a career advice book, how to be up to date with technology and how to live a life of learning.
Quote from the last chapter sums it up pretty well: “Each of you has but one life to lead, and it seems to me it is better to do significant things than to just get along through life to its end” - the book is basically to convince you to set ambitious goals, see them through, and how you should go about it. Lots of cool primary source examples from throughout his career.
Some suuuuper prescient chapters on AI wow. And a lot is centered on “what will the world be like in 2020”. There are a few technical chapters that I skimmed through like on Digital Filters and some coding theory, but like 2/3 of this book is really good and worth reading, regardless of your career
Basically Richard Hamming had one of the coolest science careers ever, was involved in Los Alamos and the atomic bomb to start his career, went to Bell Labs and helped develop the transistor and tons of EE work, then taught courses at the Naval Postgraduate school. Had no idea he was like one of the founders of computing
He wrote this at the end of his career in the 90s and it’s basically like a career advice book, how to be up to date with technology and how to live a life of learning.
Quote from the last chapter sums it up pretty well: “Each of you has but one life to lead, and it seems to me it is better to do significant things than to just get along through life to its end” - the book is basically to convince you to set ambitious goals, see them through, and how you should go about it. Lots of cool primary source examples from throughout his career.
Some suuuuper prescient chapters on AI wow. And a lot is centered on “what will the world be like in 2020”. There are a few technical chapters that I skimmed through like on Digital Filters and some coding theory, but like 2/3 of this book is really good and worth reading, regardless of your career
April 29, 2021
"Is programming closer to novel writing than it is to classical engineering?" I am amazed how he posed the question in the 90's when the primary language in business was still C and FORTRAN!
This book was basically a peek into Hamming's remarkable work ethic. If you are interested in his approach towards science in general I recommend his famous talk: You and Your Research, which is how I found this book.
This book was basically a peek into Hamming's remarkable work ethic. If you are interested in his approach towards science in general I recommend his famous talk: You and Your Research, which is how I found this book.
May 18, 2023
It took me a long time to read it, but I am glad I did.
My first advice for everyone is to skip (or skim) all the chapters in the middle (coding theory to simulations) unless you are very interested in technical stuff. I skimmed them and don't think I missed out on a lot of important information for myself.
Second is that there is a lecture series based on this book that I have not watched myself. But just want to put out there in case anyone does not want to read but watch/listen: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list.... Please tell me about it if you watched it.
The book talks about research style and attitude. A lot of this should be taught at university, and luckily my uni does it. But it is still nice to hear from such an accomplished person, who has been alive during and involved in much of the development of computation and computers. Very fascinating how much has changed during the lifetime of one individual and how forward thinking Dr Hamming must have been.
This really talks about habits of minds and foundational concepts, crucial if you want to do good research and discover new theories or see connections. Our world is complex, and being open minded and willing to look deeper and challenge the status quo is very important. Just accepting assumptions or following what other people have been doing is not always the best possible decision. There are biases at play that we have to identify if we want to advance our fields.
Definitely a good book for every aspiring or current researcher.
A few quotes I highlighted and want to remember: (These are from the skimmed chapters only, I do not understand why I did not write others down, I really need to work on my note taking habits!)
- "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.'"
- "It has long been recognized the initial definitions determine what you find, much more than most people care to believe. The initial definitions need your careful attention in any new situation, and they are worth reviewing in fields in which you have long worked, so you can understand the extent the results are a tautology and not real results at all."
- "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"
My first advice for everyone is to skip (or skim) all the chapters in the middle (coding theory to simulations) unless you are very interested in technical stuff. I skimmed them and don't think I missed out on a lot of important information for myself.
Second is that there is a lecture series based on this book that I have not watched myself. But just want to put out there in case anyone does not want to read but watch/listen: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list.... Please tell me about it if you watched it.
The book talks about research style and attitude. A lot of this should be taught at university, and luckily my uni does it. But it is still nice to hear from such an accomplished person, who has been alive during and involved in much of the development of computation and computers. Very fascinating how much has changed during the lifetime of one individual and how forward thinking Dr Hamming must have been.
This really talks about habits of minds and foundational concepts, crucial if you want to do good research and discover new theories or see connections. Our world is complex, and being open minded and willing to look deeper and challenge the status quo is very important. Just accepting assumptions or following what other people have been doing is not always the best possible decision. There are biases at play that we have to identify if we want to advance our fields.
Definitely a good book for every aspiring or current researcher.
A few quotes I highlighted and want to remember: (These are from the skimmed chapters only, I do not understand why I did not write others down, I really need to work on my note taking habits!)
- "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.'"
- "It has long been recognized the initial definitions determine what you find, much more than most people care to believe. The initial definitions need your careful attention in any new situation, and they are worth reviewing in fields in which you have long worked, so you can understand the extent the results are a tautology and not real results at all."
- "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"
May 20, 2021
Sort of a weird mix of general thoughts and highly technical information. I have no idea what the chapters on digital filters were even about, and was starting to wonder if the rest of the book would be a waste of time due to lacking the right background knowledge, but fortunately it goes back to higher-level discussions after that.
Some of the most interesting points to me:
- Consciously try to predict the future of your field; Hamming set aside a specific time each week to think about the future of computing
- Ruminate on new knowledge from many angles as soon as you encounter it
- Bad data is everywhere; don't trust without taking a careful look
- What worked well in your past often hinders you in the future; don't become overconfident in one way of thinking simply because your own experience has validated it
- The relevance of n-dimensional geometry for approaching any kind of design decision that involves n parameters*
* An example he gives is that, for a large n, most of the volume of an n-dimensional sphere actually resides very near the surface. From this he draws the conclusion, if I understand correctly, that when you're trying to find the optimal design when you have a large number of parameters to make decisions about, you should expect that at least one of the parameters will have an extreme value, rather than all of them being sort of in the middle. I don't know if I buy this - it seems to assume the optimal design lies somewhere at random within the volume, but what if having balanced values of all parameters is part of what makes a design optimal for a particular problem? - but it's an interesting perspective.
Some of the most interesting points to me:
- Consciously try to predict the future of your field; Hamming set aside a specific time each week to think about the future of computing
- Ruminate on new knowledge from many angles as soon as you encounter it
- Bad data is everywhere; don't trust without taking a careful look
- What worked well in your past often hinders you in the future; don't become overconfident in one way of thinking simply because your own experience has validated it
- The relevance of n-dimensional geometry for approaching any kind of design decision that involves n parameters*
* An example he gives is that, for a large n, most of the volume of an n-dimensional sphere actually resides very near the surface. From this he draws the conclusion, if I understand correctly, that when you're trying to find the optimal design when you have a large number of parameters to make decisions about, you should expect that at least one of the parameters will have an extreme value, rather than all of them being sort of in the middle. I don't know if I buy this - it seems to assume the optimal design lies somewhere at random within the volume, but what if having balanced values of all parameters is part of what makes a design optimal for a particular problem? - but it's an interesting perspective.
April 18, 2020
It is difficult to classify the book. In theory, it's a textbook, in practice, it's more on a collection of thoughts and approaches to do science, engineering and live your life.
The background of the author is impressive, to say the least, having worked at Los Alamos and shared office with Claude Shannon at Bell Labs should say enough on its own.
The book has many gold nuggets, and some math filled pages I skipped.
Hamming explains how to make your work visible, how to approach what kind of work you take on, how to work with others and many more topics that are relevant to any engineer and probably any person when thinking about work in a broader sense.
Some quotes I really liked from the book are:
In forming your plan for your future you need to distinguish three different questions:
What is possible?
What is likely to happen?
What is desirable to have happen?
Moral: 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”.
“There is never time to do the job right, but there is always time to fix it later.”
Change does not mean progress, but progress requires change.
Again, you should do your job in such a fashion 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
The background of the author is impressive, to say the least, having worked at Los Alamos and shared office with Claude Shannon at Bell Labs should say enough on its own.
The book has many gold nuggets, and some math filled pages I skipped.
Hamming explains how to make your work visible, how to approach what kind of work you take on, how to work with others and many more topics that are relevant to any engineer and probably any person when thinking about work in a broader sense.
Some quotes I really liked from the book are:
In forming your plan for your future you need to distinguish three different questions:
What is possible?
What is likely to happen?
What is desirable to have happen?
Moral: 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”.
“There is never time to do the job right, but there is always time to fix it later.”
Change does not mean progress, but progress requires change.
Again, you should do your job in such a fashion 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
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December 31, 2021
Книга классная, но в целом те же основные идеи, что изложены в знаменитом выступлении Хемминга
May 25, 2023
Among the books I have read to this day, this one was one of the most remarkable and enlightening books. To begin, this book allows you to wander around a great mind and discover ideas that are familiar to you from somewhere yet not noticed well and veiled things you did not dare or know.
Hamming quotes from Pasteur many times and shall it be noted here as well: "Luck favors a prepared mind." He recognizes the luck factor, and further, states that in life there are many times you encounter luck, but, if you are prepared exploitation is possible. Overall, it is up to you to prepare yourself for the future whatever it sells. Well, this dragged me into thoughts for a while, since I have always thought that without luck based on initial conditions, such as genetics, family, society, etc., there was a limit to what a person can accomplish. By being they are solid factors, human is not limited to them. Quoting from the book "Change does not mean progress, but progress requires change."
Hamming makes you think about various concepts. Like;
"What is possible?->Science, What is likely to happen?->Engineering, What is desirable to happen?->Ethics"
"Perhaps, 'thinking' is not a yes-no thing; but maybe it is a matter of degree."
"Machines do not produce logical novelty when working properly, but they certainly produce psychological novelty."
"Thinking may be the way something is done rather than what is done."
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing-especially if you lack the fundamentals!"
"Language at first glance is just a discrete symbol system."
"An expert is one who knows everything about nothing; a generalist knows nothing about everything."
"The myopic view is the chief characteristic of a bureaucrat. To rise to the top you should have the larger view-at least when you get there."
"Great people tolerate ambiguity, they can both believe and disbelieve at the same time."
"To master the presentation of ideas, while books on the topic may be partly useful, I strongly suggest you adopt the habit of privately critiquing all presentations you attend and also asking the opinions of others."
Throughout the book, he provided guidance for me: "Most of the things I have been saying were not said to me; I had to discover them for myself."
Memorably, he ends the tour within his mind: "I have now told you in some detail how to succeed, hence you have no excuse for not doing better than I did. Good luck!"
Hamming quotes from Pasteur many times and shall it be noted here as well: "Luck favors a prepared mind." He recognizes the luck factor, and further, states that in life there are many times you encounter luck, but, if you are prepared exploitation is possible. Overall, it is up to you to prepare yourself for the future whatever it sells. Well, this dragged me into thoughts for a while, since I have always thought that without luck based on initial conditions, such as genetics, family, society, etc., there was a limit to what a person can accomplish. By being they are solid factors, human is not limited to them. Quoting from the book "Change does not mean progress, but progress requires change."
Hamming makes you think about various concepts. Like;
"What is possible?->Science, What is likely to happen?->Engineering, What is desirable to happen?->Ethics"
"Perhaps, 'thinking' is not a yes-no thing; but maybe it is a matter of degree."
"Machines do not produce logical novelty when working properly, but they certainly produce psychological novelty."
"Thinking may be the way something is done rather than what is done."
"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing-especially if you lack the fundamentals!"
"Language at first glance is just a discrete symbol system."
"An expert is one who knows everything about nothing; a generalist knows nothing about everything."
"The myopic view is the chief characteristic of a bureaucrat. To rise to the top you should have the larger view-at least when you get there."
"Great people tolerate ambiguity, they can both believe and disbelieve at the same time."
"To master the presentation of ideas, while books on the topic may be partly useful, I strongly suggest you adopt the habit of privately critiquing all presentations you attend and also asking the opinions of others."
Throughout the book, he provided guidance for me: "Most of the things I have been saying were not said to me; I had to discover them for myself."
Memorably, he ends the tour within his mind: "I have now told you in some detail how to succeed, hence you have no excuse for not doing better than I did. Good luck!"
December 20, 2020
A sort of a good leadership book, and I keep feeling I'm not fond of leadership books.
The author is a respected person with lots of experience and wisdom. He explains how computing changed science and engineering, how such changes may continue, how new paradigma in science may replace the old one and what obstacles it gets on the way. It was quite interesting about the role of experts, systems engineering, work with data and measuring, some good notes on creativity and focus in your career.
The author also focuses on "your own style", but it did not feel explained well through the book. What I also missed is how to make author's advices usable for myself. Obviously, I should have my own style, anyway. :)
In the end, a very good book worth reading!
The author is a respected person with lots of experience and wisdom. He explains how computing changed science and engineering, how such changes may continue, how new paradigma in science may replace the old one and what obstacles it gets on the way. It was quite interesting about the role of experts, systems engineering, work with data and measuring, some good notes on creativity and focus in your career.
The author also focuses on "your own style", but it did not feel explained well through the book. What I also missed is how to make author's advices usable for myself. Obviously, I should have my own style, anyway. :)
In the end, a very good book worth reading!
January 8, 2025
Not really a book I would recommend to most people. Although, it’s seemingly a useful niche book for STEM careerists, it is still bogged down with details and details and messy writing which I could understand as a fellow STEM student.
Bursting with ideas but no idea to organize. Anyway, I must admit honestly that most of his ideas are bare minimum and not really “enlightening” as some would hype this book out to be. I really appreciated the last chapter as it encouraged to see the big picture regularly rather than being stuck in details.
The last quote I find particularly interesting is
“Great people can tolerate ambiguity; they can both believe and disbelieve at the same time.”
Confidence and criticism should go hand in hand rather than being opposite to each other.
Bursting with ideas but no idea to organize. Anyway, I must admit honestly that most of his ideas are bare minimum and not really “enlightening” as some would hype this book out to be. I really appreciated the last chapter as it encouraged to see the big picture regularly rather than being stuck in details.
The last quote I find particularly interesting is
“Great people can tolerate ambiguity; they can both believe and disbelieve at the same time.”
Confidence and criticism should go hand in hand rather than being opposite to each other.
September 7, 2020
The book was a nice read and had a lot of interesting ideas. I skipped a few chapters that were too technical for me (like Quantum Mechanics) but the first few and the last few chapters were less technical and full of insights.
I learned more about the history of computing and how little many aspects of computer science have changed during the last 30 years.
I learned more about the history of computing and how little many aspects of computer science have changed during the last 30 years.
January 6, 2025
This is a nice little book chock full of helpful advice. Hamming's an engaging writer, especially for engineering topics, and really situates his tips in a lot of good stories. Yes, the filter chapters are kind of a waste--if you don't have good familiarity of filter theory, then the short exposition doesn't teach you anything, and if you do know the filter theory, then the math doesn't teach you anything you don't know, and frankly, that part of the exposition didn't seem necessary to make his point. Ignore that and the wandering discussion at times, and you have got yourself a nice read. Really can't dispute a lot of the advice--get good at communicating, be brave and tackle the hard problems, be intellectually honest, be prepared and always learning--that's all there, you know, the good stuff, just dressed up real nice and pretty. On the technical side, I found the advice about simulations, experts, systems engineering, and data quality spot on from my experiences and let it give me pause to inspect how I go about things.
November 13, 2022
Chapter 9: n-dimensional spaces is a good chapter to decide whether to give this one a read. Engineering or science background helps a great deal in reading. Turns out it will be one of my favorite books.
December 28, 2022
Incredibly interesting and inspiring reflections on effective “styles” of thinking. Lost one star because Dick Hamming could easily read through it once and clean up the prose, repetitions, and chaotic organization a little. Don’t let that deter you, though!
March 8, 2025
虽然是一本出版较久的书，但这本可以说是电子/信息工程学的经典之作。从数字革命的基础，计算的本质在于获得洞察力，而不仅仅是数字本身，计算能力的大幅提升增强了微观管理能力，软件工程更接近文学创作强调创新性和不确定性，需要不断思考和迭代；高维空间许多集合性集合空间关系变得反直觉，比如高维空间随机行走，相遇的概率几乎为零，而如要增加相遇概率则需要降维（时间与距离），在高纬空间中我们也更注重边界，其本质是针对复杂设计问题的思考和解决能力...这些所有的洞见有助于回头看工程领域这些问题的共性的思考方法。
September 29, 2023
Couldn’t understand a lot of it because the math is simply beyond me but the parts that I did understand, I enjoyed. There are a lot of good quotes from this book, so let me share my favorite:
"...there was a great deal of emotional stress on me at the moment, and this is characteristic of most great discoveries. Working calmly will let you elaborate and extend things, but the breakthroughs generally come only after great frustration and emotional involvement. The calm, cool, uninvolved researcher seldom makes really great new steps."
"...there was a great deal of emotional stress on me at the moment, and this is characteristic of most great discoveries. Working calmly will let you elaborate and extend things, but the breakthroughs generally come only after great frustration and emotional involvement. The calm, cool, uninvolved researcher seldom makes really great new steps."
November 24, 2023
I got a bit bogged down in the proofs of the first half but found the second half pretty useful. Definitely need to review some math
September 23, 2024
This took me way longer to finish than I planned, but predictions are hard, especially about the future —just ask Hamming! The man practically foresaw the rise of AI and modern computing, all while dishing out advice on how to tackle the future. It is impressive!
Hamming doesn’t just teach engineering; he sneaks in life lessons too—like how to fail gracefully and ask smarter questions. It’s part philosophy, part how-to guide for being a bold thinker, which makes it as inspiring as it is practical.
Thanks to a special friend for recommending this!
Hamming doesn’t just teach engineering; he sneaks in life lessons too—like how to fail gracefully and ask smarter questions. It’s part philosophy, part how-to guide for being a bold thinker, which makes it as inspiring as it is practical.
Thanks to a special friend for recommending this!
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