A talk all in research should read

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Ted Dolotta [Ted () Dolotta ORG]
Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 5:27 PM
To: David Farber; 'ip'
Subject: RE: [IP] A talk all in research should read

This is a belated reply/comment (travel, etc.)

I interacted with Dick while I was at the Labs on many, many occasions.

Every once in a while, my phone would ring and there was Dick telling
me at length about his latest epiphany.  A memorable such call was when
he called and talked for nearly en hour about the ultimate purpose of
computers, which he claimed was to dramatically enhance humans' enjoyment
of sex.  I wonder whether he foresaw the current explosion of Internet porn ...

After he left the Labs for the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA,
one day Doug McIlroy, George Baldwin, and I called him to wish him a happy
64th birthday.  We asked how he was doing, and he allowed that he liked
the place OK, but that the people there were occasionally stingy; as an
example, he said that they threw a birthday party for him that day, but
the cake had only 7 candles (in a row), with only the leftmost one lit ...

Ted Dolotta

As many young people at Bell Labs in the late 50s (at least those of us lucky enough to work with him)  Dick had a 
major impact on my life. he was the one who inspired me to stay at BTL rather than going back to school and thus 
getting the opportunity to work with some of the great people in our field. Throughout my life, Dick remained a friend 
and a source of wisdom (and  jokes). I have missed him since his death.

Dave


Richard Hamming
‘‘You and Your Research’’
Transcription of the
Bell Communications Research Colloquium Seminar
7 March 1986
J. F. Kaiser
Bell Communications Research
445 South Street
Morristown, NJ 07962−1910
jfk () ee duke edu<mailto:jfk () ee duke edu>
At a seminar in the Bell Communications Research Colloquia Series, Dr. Richard W.
Hamming, a Professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California and a
retired Bell Labs scientist, gave a very interesting and stimulating talk, ‘You and Your
Research’ to an overflow audience of some 200 Bellcore staff members and visitors at the
Morris Research and Engineering Center on March 7, 1986. This talk centered on
Hamming’s observations and research on the question ‘‘Why do so few scientists make
significant contributions and so many are forgotten in the long run?’’ From his more
than forty years of experience, thirty of which were at Bell Laboratories, he has made a
number of direct observations, asked very pointed questions of scientists about what,
how, and why they did things, studied the lives of great scientists and great
contributions, and has done introspection and studied theories of creativity. The talk is
about what he has learned in terms of the properties of the individual scientists, their
abilities, traits, working habits, attitudes, and philosophy.

<snip>

http://magic.aladdin.cs.cmu.edu/wp-uploads/hamming.pdf

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