Richard Hamming Quotes About Science

Quotes about: Science

• Most people like to believe something is or is not true. Great scientists tolerate ambiguity very well. They believe the theory enough to go ahead; they doubt it enough to notice the errors and faults so they can step forward and create the new replacement theory. If you believe too much you'll never notice the flaws; if you doubt too much you won't get started. It requires a lovely balance.

  Richard Hamming

  Believe, Science, Greatness

  "'You and Your Research' - 1986 Speech by Dr. Richard W. Hamming". www.valueinvestingworld.com. September 21, 2009.

• Often the great scientists, by turning the problem around a bit, changed a defect to an asset. For example, many scientists when they found they couldn't do a problem finally began to study why not. They then turned it around the other way and said, "But of course, this is what it is" and got an important result.

  Richard Hamming

  Change, Science, Important

  "'You and Your Research' - 1986 Speech by Dr. Richard W. Hamming". www.valueinvestingworld.com. September 21, 2009.

• Science is composed of laws which were originally based on a small, carefully selected set of observations, often not very accurately measured originally; but the laws have later been found to apply over much wider ranges of observations and much more accurately than the original data justified.

  Richard Hamming

  Science, Law, Data

• True greatness is when your name is like ampere, watt, and fourier-when it's spelled with a lower case letter.

  Richard Hamming

  Science, Greatness, Names

• It is better to do the right problem the wrong way than the wrong problem the right way.

  Richard Hamming

  Science, Way, Problem

• A parable: A man was examining the construction of a cathedral. He asked a stone mason what he was doing chipping the stones, and the mason replied, "I am making stones." He asked a stone carver what he was doing. "I am carving a gargoyle." And so it went, each person said in detail what they were doing. Finally he came to an old woman who was sweeping the ground. She said. "I am helping build a cathedral." ...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.

  Richard Hamming

  Science, Men, Thinking

• Newton said, "If I have seen further than others, it is because I've stood on the shoulders of giants." These days we stand on each other's feet!

  Richard Hamming

  Science, Feet, Giants

• There are wavelengths that people cannot see, there are sounds that people cannot hear, and maybe computers have thoughts that people cannot think.

  Richard Hamming

  Science, Thinking, People

• Perhaps the central problem we face in all of computer science is how we are to get to the situation where we build on top of the work of others rather than redoing so much of it in a trivially different way.

  Richard Hamming

  Hard Work, Science, Differences

  "Turing Award lecture". Journal of the ACM 16 (1), p. 7, January, 1969.

• He who works with the door open gets all kinds of interruptions, but he also occasionally gets clues as to what the world is and what might be important.

  Richard Hamming

  Hard Work, Science, Doors

• What you learn from others you can use to follow.
  What you learn for yourself you can use to lead.

  Richard Hamming

  Learning, Science, Use

• Put glibly:
  In science if you know what you are doing you should not be doing it.
  In engineering if you do not know what you are doing you should not be doing it.
  Of course, you seldom, if ever, see either pure state.

  Richard Hamming

  Science, Engineering, Doing You

• Science is concerned with what is possible while engineering is concerned with choosing, from among the many possible ways, one that meets a number of often poorly stated economic and practical objectives.

  Richard Hamming

  Science, Engineering, Numbers

• It may be said "In research, if you know what you are doing, then you shouldn't be doing it." In a sense, if the answer turns out to be exactly what you expected, then you have learned nothing new, although you may have had your confidence increased somewhat.

  Richard Hamming

  Learning, Knowledge, Science

  Richard W. Hamming, Richard Wesley Hamming (1973). “Numerical Methods for Scientists and Engineers”, p.704, Courier Corporation

• Beware of finding what you're looking for.
  A favorite aphorism he often used.

  Richard Hamming

  Science, Research, Aphorism

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