In the discussion, participants agreed that although these lessons come from science, they were general lessons for success in life.
The Path to Fame: Do Significant Things
Before we dive into Richard’s wisdom, let me give my 20,000 mile high summary: If you want to live a life that matters, it is necessary to do something outstanding, otherwise it will all be taken away from you. This talk is not a talk about living a happy life, nor a helpful life. Richard himself says: “I am really trying to get you to think about doing significant things…”
Happy or Significant?
You can perfectly well decide that a happy, helpful, enjoy-the-little-things life is your preference. If so, these lessons must be taken with a pinch of salt. However, if you feel that doing significant things sounds like a good use of a life, these lessons are powerful. Richard is old enough to be brutal in his comments and judgements. He tells participants in his course that his aim is: “…to stick a knife in your back and give it a good twist and make you say at the end: ‘If Hamming could do it, why couldn’t I?’”
The 14 Lessons for Success as a Scientist
Hamming’s 14 lessons for success (as a scientist, but I believe easily applicable to any profession) are:
Here’s Richard Hamming himself on video
And I’d like to thank Paul Graham, the founder of Y-Combinator, who originally shared Richard Hamming’s work with me. The full text of Richard Hamming’s remarks is on his blog here. Featured photo credit: Association for Computing Machinery via amturing.acm.org
