Summary of “You and Your Research” by Richard Hamming

Introduction

Richard hamming talk:

"You and Your Research.'' It is not about managing research, it is about how you individually do your research.I wanted to know why they were so different from me. I saw Feynman up close. I saw Fermi and Teller. I saw Oppenheimer. I saw Hans Bethe: he was my boss. I saw quite a few very capable people. I became very interested in the difference between those who do and those who might have done.Following the observation i maded throught my life.

1)Is it all matter of luck?

I find that the major objection is that people think great science is done by luck.Well,consider Einstein.Note how many different things he did that were good.Was it all luck?Wasn't it a little too repetitive?

Newton said, “If others would think as hard as I did, then they would get the same results as me”

2)Courage

One of the characteristics of successful scientists is having courage. Once you get your courage up and belive that you can do important problems then you can.If you think you can't almost surely you are not going to.

3)Age

Age is another factor which the physicists particularly worry about. They always are saying that you have got to do it when you are young or you will never do it. Einstein did things very early, and all the quantum mechanic fellows were disgustingly young when they did their best work. Most mathematicians, theoretical physicists, and astrophysicists do what we consider their best work when they are young. It is not that they don't do good work in their old age but what we value most is often what they did early.

4) Drive

You observe that most great scientists have tremendous drive.The steady application of effort with a little bit more work, intelligently applied ' is what does it. That's the trouble; drive, misapplied, doesn't get you anywhere. The misapplication of effort is a very serious matter. Just hard work is not enough - it must be applied sensibly.

5)Ambiguity

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. But most great scientists are well aware of why their theories are true and they are also well aware of some slight misfits which don't quite fit and they don't forget it.When you find apparent flaws you've got to be sensitive and keep track of those things, and keep an eye out for how they can be explained or how the theory can be changed to fit them

6)Working on important problem

If you do not work on an important problem, it's unlikely you'll do important work. It's perfectly obvious. Great scientists have thought through, in a careful way, a number of important problems in their field, and they keep an eye on wondering how to attack them.The average scientist, so far as I can make out, spends almost all his time working on problems which he believes will not be important and he also doesn't believe that they will lead to important problems.The great scientists, when an opportunity opens up, get after it and they pursue it. They drop all other things. They get rid of other things and they get after an idea because they had already thought the thing through. Their minds are prepared; they see the opportunity and they go after it. Now of course lots of times it doesn't work out, but you don't have to hit many of them to do some great science. It's kind of easy. One of the chief tricks is to live a long time!.

7)Close and open Doors

If you have the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years later somehow you don't know quite know what problems are worth working on; all the hard work you do is sort of tangential in , importance. 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.Somehow -closed door seem to work on slightly the wrong thing - not much, but enough that they miss fame.

8)The way you do the work

He 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! You should do your job in such a fashion that others can build on top of it, so they will indeed say, ``Yes, I've stood on so and so's shoulders and I saw further.'' The essence of science is cumulative.

"It's the poor workman who blames his tools-the goog man gets on with the job, given what he's got, and gets the best answer he can.'' And I suggest that by altering the problem, by looking at the thing differently, you can make a great deal of difference in your final productivity because you can either do it in such a fashion that people can indeed build on what you've done, or you can do it in such a fashion that the next person has to essentially duplicate again what you've done. It isn't just a matter of the job, it's the way you write the report, the way you write the paper, the whole attitude. It's just as easy to do a broad, general job as one very special case. And it's much more satisfying and rewarding!

9)Not just build,but to sell

There are three things you have to do in selling. You have to learn to write clearly and well so that people will read it, you must learn. to give reasonably formal talks, and you also must learn to give informal talks.

10)Commitment

The people who do great work with less ability but who are committed to it, get more done that those who have great skill and dabble in it.

11)Self-delusion

Now self-delusion in humans is very, very common. There are enumerable ways of you changing a thing and kidding yourself and making it look some other way. When you ask, ``Why didn't you do such and such,'' the person has a thousand alibis. If you look at the history of science, usually these days there are 10 people right there ready, and we pay off for the person who is there first. The other nine fellows say, ``Well, I had the idea but I didn't do it and so on and so on.'' There are so many alibis. Why weren't you first? Why didn't you do it right? Don't try an alibi. Don't try and kid yourself. You can tell other people all the alibis you want. I don't mind. But to yourself try to be honest. if you really want to be a first-class scientist you need to know yourself, your weaknesses, your strengths, and your bad faults, like my egotism. How can you convert a fault to an asset? How can you convert a situation where you haven't got enough manpower to move into a direction when that's exactly what you need to do? I say again that I have seen, as I studied the history, the successful scientist changed the viewpoint and what was a defect became an asset.

Reference

https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html

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Summary of “You and Your Research” by Richard Hamming