Hamming, "You and Your Research" (June 6, 1995)
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN recommends it as career and research advice on choosing important problems and doing first-class work.
What it is
Richard Hamming's 1995 recording of his talk 'You and Your Research', drawn from his graduate engineering course. He discusses how great scientists pick important problems and build careers, drawing on his years at Bell Labs.
Recommended by 11 HN commenters across 10 different months, 2012 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec jgalt212 · 2016-04 · on “Richard Hamming on Artificial Intelligence (1995) [video]”
It's been posted here before, but Hamming's talk "You and Your Research" is one for the ages. [this video] Hamming passed in 1998, this talk was given about three years earlier. So much sage advice as compiled over a very long and fruitful career.
Strong rec f00_ · 2018-01 · on “Fifty Years of Shannon Theory (1998) [pdf]”
Richard Hamming developed error-correcting codes while working along side Shannon at bell labs, his book The Art and Science of Engineering: Learning to Learn and the associated lectures he gave at the naval postgraduate academy are tremendous [this video]
Strong rec gumby · 2019-01 · on “Ask HN: What tech talk does everyone need to see?”
Richard Hamming: You and Your Research It's on picking the right problems. When I heard him give it I was shocked that he criticized Einstein for working on a unified field theory (of course unlike me, he was actually qualified to offer such criticism). His point for that example was that the necessary tools to attack the problem hadn't yet been developed so it was a fruitless endeavor. While many very important problems are tractable. [this video] He gave this talk several times (I heard it at NASA in 84). Here's a good transcript: [LINK]
Recommends sadga · 2012-10 · on “Richard Hamming: You and Your Research (1986)”
[this video] > Intro: I have given a talk with this title many times, and it turns out from discussions after the talk I could have just as well have called it "You and Your Engineering Career," or even "You and Your Career." But I left the word "Research" in the title because that is what I have most studied"
Recommends stiff · 2013-04 · on “Ask HN: What's the best technical talk you've heard?”
Single best is difficult, here are some favourites of mine: "You and your research" by Richard Hamming: [this video] "How to design a good API and why it matters" by Joschua Bloch: [LINK] Google TechTalk on Git by Linus Torvalds: [LINK] All talks ever given by Alan Kay, for example: [LINK]
Recommends late2part · 2014-03 · on “Ask HN: How do you earn your money?”
Complete luck. Timing to start out in the right industry, followed by vigorous effort, learning, and experimentation. I also built many relationships early on in my career that I've mostly kept alive throughout the last decades. I've changed careers twice when the old skills/industry lowered the value of those skills. Keep learning - read Richard Hamming's _You and Your Research_ [1]. Keep friends and work hard. [1] [this video]
Recommends JSeymourATL · 2017-02 · on “Ask HN: Need advice for someone who just got first job as a software engineer?”
> I am eager to learn something new... Learning is a life-long process. As it relates to the industry, consider these questions. 1) What are the most important problems in your field? 2) Are you working on ONE of them? 3) Why not? On this subject, Richard Hamming offers excellent advice > [this video]
Recommends nestorD · 2019-01 · on “Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?”
In his "You and Your Research" talk, Hamming focusses on the selection of the problem you should work on as a researcher. I believe it does apply even if you are not in academics : [this video] (transcript : [LINK] )