36+ Richard Hamming Quotes On Education, Religion And Universe

Richard Hamming was an American mathematician, computer scientist, and professor of mathematics. He is best known for his work in coding theory, the development of the Hamming code, and the Hamming distance. He was also involved in the Manhattan Project and worked on the development of the first computers. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Richard Hamming on education, love, leadership.

Top 10 Richard Hamming Quotes

1. The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers.
2. Given two people with exactly the same ability, the one person who manages day in and day out to get in one more hour of thinking will be tremendously more productive over a lifetime.
3. There are wavelengths that people cannot see, there are sounds that people cannot hear, and maybe computers have thoughts that people cannot think.
4. 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!
5. If you don't work on important problems, it's not likely that you'll do important work.
6. Typing is no substitute for thinking.
7. True greatness is when your name is like ampere, watt, and fourier-when it's spelled with a lower case letter.
8. Mathematicians stand on each others' shoulders and computer scientists stand on each others' toes.
9. It is better to do the right problem the wrong way than the wrong problem the right way.
10. The real problem is what can man and machine do together and not in competition.

Richard Hamming Short Quotes

• Computer scientists stand on each other's feet.
• Mathematics is not merely an idle art form, it is an essential part of our society.
• You can tell other people all the alibis you want. I don't mind. But to yourself try to be honest.
• One of the characteristics of successful scientists is having courage.
• What are the important problems of your field?
• Beware of finding what you're looking for. A favorite aphorism he often used.
• In mathematics we do not appeal to authority, but rather you are responsible for what you believe.
• What you learn from others you can use to follow. What you learn for yourself you can use to lead.

Richard Hamming Famous Quotes And Sayings

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

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

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

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

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 ten years later somehow, you dont quite know what problems are worth working on. — Richard Hamming

Does anyone believe that the difference between the Lebesgue and Riemann integrals can have physical significance, and that whether say, an airplane would or would not fly could depend on this difference? If such were claimed, I should not care to fly in that plane. — Richard Hamming

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

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. For example, in education, a teacher might say in the next class he was going to "explain Young's modulus and how to measure it," rather than, "I am going to educate the students and prepare them for their future careers". — Richard Hamming

Mathematics is an interesting intellectual sport but it should not be allowed to stand in the way of obtaining sensible information about physical processes. — Richard Hamming

The most dangerous thought you can have as a creative person is to think you know what you’re doing. — Richard Hamming

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

Once in a while a person does only one thing in his whole life, and we'll talk about that later, but a lot of times there is repetition. I claim that luck will not cover everything. And I will cite Pasteur who said, "Luck favors the prepared mind." And I think that says it the way I believe it. — Richard Hamming

If the prior distribution, at which I am frankly guessing, has little or no effect on the result, then why bother; and if it has a large effect, then since I do not know what I am doing how would I dare act on the conclusions drawn? — Richard Hamming

Good teachers deserve apples; great teachers deserve chocolate. A favorite quotation, written in calligraphy on his office door. — Richard Hamming

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

Knowledge and productivity are like compound interest. The more you know, the more you learn; the more you learn, the more you can do; the more you can do, the more the opportunity. I don`t want to give you a rate, but it is a very high rate. Given two people with exactly the same ability, the one person who manages day in and day out to get in one more hour of thinking will be tremendously more productive over a lifetime. — Richard Hamming

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

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

Life Lessons by Richard Hamming

1. Richard Hamming's work has shown us the importance of taking risks and pushing boundaries in order to make progress in any field.
2. He also demonstrated the value of collaboration and seeking out the advice of others in order to find solutions to complex problems.
3. Lastly, his work has highlighted the need to think deeply and critically in order to make meaningful advances in any field.