Richard Hamming Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• You can tell other people all the alibis you want. I don't mind. But to yourself try to be honest.

  Richard Hamming

  People, Mind, Trying

  7 Copy quote

• 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

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• In mathematics we do not appeal to authority, but rather you are responsible for what you believe.

  Richard Hamming

  Believe, Mathematics, Authority

  4 Copy quote

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

  Richard Hamming

  Science, Research, Aphorism

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Sports, Interesting, Intellectual

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Believe, Airplane, Math

  "Guide to Essential Math: A Review for Physics, Chemistry and Engineering Students". Book by Sy M. Blinder, p. 16, February 14, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

• What are the important problems of your field?

  Richard Hamming

  Important, Fields, Problem

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  4 Copy quote

• Mathematicians stand on each others' shoulders and computer scientists stand on each others' toes.

  Richard Hamming

  Toes, Computer, Scientist

  4 Copy quote

• When you are famous it is hard to work on small problems. This is what did [Claude Elwood] Shannon in. After information theory, what do you do for an encore? The great scientists often make this error. They fail to continue to plant the little acorns from which the mighty oak trees grow. They try to get the big thing right off. And that isn't the way things go. So that is another reason why you find that when you get early recognition it seems to sterilize you.

  Richard Hamming

  Errors, Small Problems, Tree

  5 Copy quote

• 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

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  Guessing, Littles, Results

  The Art of Probability for Scientists and Engineers (p. 298)

  4 Copy quote

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

  Richard Hamming

  Teacher, Doors, Apples

  4 Copy quote

• Computer scientists stand on each other's feet.

  Richard Hamming

  Feet, Computer, Scientist

  4 Copy quote

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