When you are famous it is hard to work on small problems. This is what did [Claude Elwood] Shannon in. After information theory, what do you do for a…

- Richard Hamming

It is better to do the right problem the wrong way than the wrong problem the right way.

- Richard Hamming

If you don't work on important problems, it's not likely that you'll do important work.

- Richard Hamming

Most people like to believe something is or is not true. Great scientists tolerate ambiguity very well. They believe the theory enough to go ahead; t…

- Richard Hamming

There are wavelengths that people cannot see, there are sounds that people cannot hear, and maybe computers have thoughts that people cannot think.

- Richard Hamming

Put glibly: In science if you know what you are doing you should not be doing it. In engineering if you do not know what you are doing you should n…

- Richard Hamming

Given two people with exactly the same ability, the one person who manages day in and day out to get in one more hour of thinking will be tremendousl…

- Richard Hamming

The most dangerous thought you can have as a creative person is to think you know what you’re doing.

- Richard Hamming

A parable: A man was examining the construction of a cathedral. He asked a stone mason what he was doing chipping the stones, and the mason replied, …

- Richard Hamming