Hamming on working harder after John Tukey
- YT :: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvHgI9k_tzs
- Original title :: Richard Hamming on the importance of hard work
A 1 minute 53 second clip of Richard Hamming (original: https://youtu.be/a1zDuOPkMSw) telling how a remark about John Tukey made him reorganize his life around harder, more focused work.
The trigger
Hamming worked extensively with John Tukey, who was his own age and clearly a genius. Hamming asked a mutual boss how anybody of the same age could know as much as Tukey. The boss answered that Hamming would be surprised how much he would know if he worked as hard as Tukey did. Hamming had nothing to say and left the office.
The decision
Hamming concluded that he was not working as hard as he could. Matching Tukey was out of reach for lack of that kind of psychic energy, but working far harder than before was possible. The conclusion was to reorganize life around career-relevant study.
What changed
- Reading :: dropped nonsense magazines, newspapers and the New Yorker (read mostly for the jokes), at the cost of occasional complaints from his wife.
- Book reviews :: took the position of book review editor on purpose, so a book to read and review was always on the coffee table, and he could pick the books he wanted.
- Review loop :: each finished review was set aside for a week, then judged: does it really digest the book? If not, re-read the book and write a better review.
- Result :: a wide acquaintance with computer science, forced by the device.
Takeaway
Not being a first-class genius meant not having time for everything, so the other things were set aside. Hamming's closing point: it is not hard to do, it just has to be done.