Richard Hamming quotes - page 2

The methods of mathematics are the main topic of the course, not a long list of finished mathematical results with such highly polished proofs that the poor student can only marvel at the results, with no hope of understanding how mathematics is actually created by practicing mathematicians. (Richard Hamming)
An idea which arises in the field, based on the direct experience of the people doing the job, cannot get going in a centrally controlled system... The not invented here (NIH) syndrome is one of the major curses of our society... View quote
Richard Hamming
The standard process of organizing knowledge into departments, and subderpartments, and further breaking it up into separate courses, tends to conceal the homogeneity of knowledge, and at the same time to omit much which falls between the courses. View quote
Richard Hamming
Understanding the methods of calculus is vital to the creative use of mathematics... Without this mastery the average scientist or engineer, or any other user of mathematics, will be perpetually stunted in development, and will at best be able to follow only what the textbooks say; with mastery, new things can be done, even in old, well-established fields. View quote
Richard Hamming
Statistics should be taught early so that the concepts are absorbed by the student's flexible, adaptable mind before it is too late. View quote
Richard Hamming
All of engineering involves some creativity to cover the parts not known, and almost all of science includes some practical engineering to translate the abstractions into practice. View quote
Richard Hamming
We constantly use the word "simplify", but its meaning depends on what you are going to do next, and there is no uniform definition. View quote
Richard Hamming
Probability is the mathematics of uncertainty. ...many modern theories have uncertainty built into their foundations. Thus learning to think in terms of probability is essential. View quote
Richard Hamming
Without real experience in using the computer to get useful results the computer science major is apt to know all about the marvelous tool except how to use it. Such a person is a mere technician, skilled in manipulating the tool but with little sense of how and when to use it for its basic purposes. View quote
Richard Hamming
There is no agreed upon definition of mathematics, but there is widespread agreement that the essence of mathematics is extension, generalization, and abstraction... [which] often bring increased confidence in the results of a specific application, as well as new viewpoints. View quote
Richard Hamming
Continuous distributions are basic to the theory of probability and statistics, and the calculus is necessary to handle them with any ease. (Richard Hamming)
In the long run, the methods are the important part of the course. It is not enough to know the theory; you should be able to apply it. View quote
Richard Hamming
Calculus systematically evades a great deal of numerical calculation. View quote
Richard Hamming
Often it is not physical limitations... but rather it is human made laws, habits, and organizational rules, regulations, personal egos, and inertia, which dominate the evolution of the future. View quote
Richard Hamming
The feeling of having free will is deep in us and we are reluctant to give it up for ourselves-but we are often willing to deny it to others! View quote
Richard Hamming
We must not forget, in all the enthusiasm for computer simulations, occasionally we must look at Nature as She is. View quote
Richard Hamming
It is not easy to become an educated person. View quote
Richard Hamming
Most mathematics books are filled with finished theorems and polished proofs, and to a surprising extent they ignore the methods used to create mathematics. It is as if you merely walked through a picture gallery and never told how to mix paints, how to compose pictures, or all the other "tricks of the trade." View quote
Richard Hamming
Just as there are odors that dogs can smell and we cannot, as well as sounds that dogs can hear and we cannot, so too there are wavelengths of light we cannot see and flavors we cannot taste. Why then, given our brains wired the way they are, does the remark, "Perhaps there are thoughts we cannot think," surprise you? View quote
Richard Hamming
The applications of knowledge, especially mathematics, reveal the unity of all knowledge. In a new situation almost anything and everything you ever learned might be applicable, and the artificial divisions seem to vanish. View quote
Richard Hamming
Faced with almost an infinity of details you cannot afford to deal constantly with the specific; you must learn to embrace more and more detail under the cover of generality. (Richard Hamming)
You live in an age that is dominated by science and engineering. ...Thus if you wish to be effective in the world and to achieve the things that you want, it is necessary to understand both science and engineering. View quote
Richard Hamming
We are mainly interested in the processes... not... in presenting mathematics in its most abstract form. ...we will often begin with concrete forms and then exhibit the process of abstraction. View quote
Richard Hamming
There are so many ways of being wrong and so few ways of being right that it is much more economical to study successes. View quote
Richard Hamming
It is obvious: The past was once the future and the future will become the past. View quote
Richard Hamming