What are you working on?

"Richard Hamming’s three questions for new hires at Bell Labs:
1- What are you working on?
2- What’s the most important open problem in your area?
3- Why aren’t they the same? (Ouch!)



« Trois questions que Richard Hamming posait aux nouvelles recrues des laboratoires de Bell :
1 - Sur quoi travaillez-vous ?
2 - Quel est le problème non résolu le plus important dans votre secteur de recherche ?
3 - Pourquoi ne sont-ils pas identiques ? (Aïe !)

« You and your research » --- Richard Hamming (1986)



".....Darwin writes in his autobiography that he found it necessary to write down every piece of evidence which appeared to contradict his beliefs because otherwise they would disappear from his mind.
When you find apparent flaws you've got to be sensitive and keep track of those things, and keep an eye out for how they can be explained or how the theory can be changed to fit them.
Those are often the great contributions.
Great contributions are rarely done by adding another decimal place....." Richard Hamming.