Most of the time each person is immersed in the details of one special part of the whole … - Richard Hamming

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There’s the feeling, and the right reading - that’s all you really need to know; the right light and the feeling.

Richard Hamming

Most of the time each person is immersed in the details of one special part of the whole and does not think of how what they are doing relates to the larger picture. For example, in education, a teacher might say in the next class he was going to "explain Young's modulus and how to measure it," rather than, "I am going to educate the students and prepare them for their future careers".

Class, Picture, Relates, Teacher, Think, Thinking

Same Author Quotes

Mathematics is an interesting intellectual sport but it should not be allowed to stand in the way of obtaining sensible information about physical processes.

Intellectual, Interesting, Mathematics, Obtaining, Physical, Sports

Beware of finding what you're looking for. A favorite aphorism he often used.

Aphorism, Finding, Looking, Research, Science

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 an encore? The great scientists often make this error. They fail to continue to plant the little acorns from which the mighty oak trees grow. They try to get the big thing right off. And that isn't the way things go. So that is another reason why you find that when you get early recognition it seems to sterilize you.

Errors, Grow, Make, Oak, Small Problems, Tree

Computer scientists stand on each other's feet.

Computer, Feet, Scientist, Scientists, Stand

Does anyone believe that the difference between the Lebesgue and Riemann integrals can have physical significance, and that whether say, an airplane would or would not fly could depend on this difference? If such were claimed, I should not care to fly in that plane.

Airplane, Believe, Lebesgue, Math, Physical, Say