talk · 1986
Richard Hamming · read the source
“If you do not work on an important problem, it's unlikely you'll do important work.”
Richard Hamming, You and Your Research (1986) · Bell Communications Research colloquium, 7 March 1986 · read it
Kept because it is obvious and almost nobody acts on it. Hamming's test was to ask colleagues at lunch what the important problems in their field were, then why they were not working on one. Most could not answer the second question.
“It is a poor workman who blames his tools - the good man gets on with the job, given what he's got, and gets the best answer he can.”
Richard Hamming, You and Your Research (1986) · On working conditions · read it
Kept as the antidote to waiting for the right conditions. Hamming's examples were people who did their best work with worse equipment than they wanted, because the constraint forced the idea. Treat the missing tool as the problem statement.
