It's worth mentioning this is just one of around 30 lectures that cover a lot of indepth material on design, theoretical computer science, systems engineering and what in 1995 he thought future technology will be like. You won't go wrong if you watch there from start to finish.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2FF649D0C4407B30

Added to http://www.reddit.com/r/hnyoutubechannels.

It's a good sign that there are no comments yet (less than 44 minutes after posted).

I've seen the video version before, but it never fails to inspire me, so I think I'll go watch it now as well.

Really gets you to think in terms of the impact you could have and what intentional steps you could take to get there.

Maybe even reading less Hacker News. I can't think of a more appropriate place for this message. As the monthly Who's Hiring posts are effectively automatic, I suggest this talk should appear regularly as well.

Transcript of the original version of this talk: http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html

Agreed, except maybe read more Hacker News. I used to, like many people here, consider HN a distraction. Thanks to changing my reading style (I now set aside an hour to read/skim every single front page article) I find that the distraction is worth it.

Somewhat similar to Hamming's "open door" philosophy, I suppose.

(Also, HN's comments and community seem to have improved, lately.)

I try to re-read Hamming's "The Art of doing Science and Engineering" every year or so. It's basically the book version of this talk IIRC.

Thanks for the reference! I had no idea Hamming elaborated further on this topic.

He didn't. It's just the (full set) of lectures he gave here in book form. There is literally a one to one correspondence between the two.

The only difference it could make to you is if you like your material presented by a person or by a book.

Just for good measure, here is a short criticism of a few points in this talk:

http://www-stat.wharton.upenn.edu/~steele/Rants/HammingBelco...

> On this matter of drive Edison says, "Genius is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration." He may have been exaggerating, but the idea is that solid work, steadily applied, gets you surprisingly far.

The thing that is often forgotten about this little gem by Edison is that it was during a live radio debate with Tesla. Tesla came back with "If Mr. Edison thought a bit more, he wouldn't have to sweat so much". It is ironic in that it would have been a more appropriate quote for Hamming to use.

Source? I'm having trouble finding information on that "radio debate" context, and Wikiquote doesn't mention it: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison

i cant find a decent one either but i remember reading quite a long story about it

I take some exception to the part at ~14:46 where he says essentially that if the work you're doing isn't important and isn't likely to be important, why are you doing it?

I'd suggest that a lot of our progress is because of people that are passionate about things that other people think are a dead end. Also, some fields are more mysterious than others.

Meaningful work is a personal thing. Passion and insights arise from deep within, and the creative sparks and fuel powering you to the edge of discovery may not yet exist in others. Each artist is on their own trajectory, almost by definition.

The key is that you are working on something that you think is important. Unless other people have spent time contemplating the problem and building up the mental vista, they won't be able to see what you see -- their lens will be cloudy and filled with spots.

If you see a meaningful problem that you know how to attack, it's up to you to make it a priority because if you have a unique perspective on a problem, you may be the only one in the world right now with the vision to solve it. He's saying make the conscious choice to seek meaningful work. Be guided by vision, don't waste time working on frivolous shit when you know you could be doing something more.

I think he touches on this. He later elaborates that you should work on problems that will become important.

Very cool post. Here's a link to his book, "The Art of doing Science and Engineering": http://worrydream.com/refs/Hamming-TheArtOfDoingScienceAndEn...

Thanks, i have been wanting to read his book for a while.

On the side note, is this book free? if it is not i would like to buy it sometime.

I am also wondering , Richard Hamming has died in 1998 right? if his books is distributed electronically (like in ebooks) is it violating his copyright? (i don't really understand about ebooks copyright)

This is amazing. I'm watching the whole playlist now. Please someone make any additional suggestions to more things like this. Also any criticism on Hamming's lectures?

Great lecture.

For those familiar with the name Hamming in telecom related interests -- Hamming Code, Hamming Distance, etc. -- this is that Hamming.

Don't forget the Hamming window, this is where I got to know his name. I re-read this talk more or less each year. Didn't know there was a video of it, glad to be sble to watch it.

There are two ways to interpret the lecture.

- Whatever you work on, should be really great, otherwise why are you doing it?

- Do things fearlessly, since fear is the most limiting constraint researchers (or anyone) impose on themselves.

I find the second take more personally relevant. Even if I'm not on par with Feynman, Turing, Von Neumann... I still should try weird things courageously.

I was introduced to this recently and it has become one of my favourite talks. Maybe also of interest on the topic of doing important work, Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

This talk literally changed my life. I owe my academic career to it.

Wow the audio on this video is really good. How did they do that?

His endorsement of survivor bias seems like a gaff.

Great lecture to start my day!