Richard Hamming
Richard Hamming
Richard Wesley Hammingwas an American mathematician whose work had many implications for computer engineering and telecommunications. His contributions include the Hamming code, the Hamming window, Hamming numbers, sphere-packing, and the Hamming distance...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth11 February 1915
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
answers carefully change clear correct people problem reasonably refuse slightly until
If you want to think new thoughts that are different, then do what creative people do - get the problem reasonably clear and then refuse to look at any answers until you've thought the problem through carefully how you would do it, how you could slightly change the problem to be the correct one.
emotion point song technical women
The emotion at the point of technical breakthrough is better than wine, women and song put together.
math numbers purpose
The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers.
hard-work important problem
If you don't work on important problems, it's not likely that you'll do important work.
science men thinking
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.
science feet giants
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!
engineering numbers way
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.
important fields problem
What are the important problems of your field?
mind luck favors
Luck favors the prepared mind.
successful scientist characteristics
One of the characteristics of successful scientists is having courage.
people mind trying
You can tell other people all the alibis you want. I don't mind. But to yourself try to be honest.
simple sheep effectiveness
I have tried, with little success, to get some of my friends to understand my amazement that the abstraction of integers for counting is both possible and useful. Is it not remarkable that 6 sheep plus 7 sheep makes 13 sheep; that 6 stones plus 7 stones make 13 stones? Is it not a miracle that the universe is so constructed that such a simple abstraction as a number is possible? To me this is one of the strongest examples of the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics. Indeed, I find it both strange and unexplainable.
toes computer scientist
Mathematicians stand on each others' shoulders and computer scientists stand on each others' toes.
science way problem
It is better to do the right problem the wrong way than the wrong problem the right way.