youtube version (1995, 44 mins), from Hamming's Learning to Learn course

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1zDuOPkMSw

(The original linked text has a good Q&A session, worth reading.)

What I remember from the talk: 1) Don't be a drunken sailor that aimlessly wanders from one topic to another; 2) There are millions of competitions out there, pick one, and become the best. It's an excellent talk.

> Don't be a drunken sailor that aimlessly wanders from one topic to another

This is a pity because new people often have fresh insights.

If you browse for a while and come up with an interdisciplinary fresh idea, I don't think he would mind at all, as long as you stick with it as your main focus :).

I downloaded Hamming’s The Art of doing Science & Engineering - Learning to Learn book only 2 days ago. Skimmed through the chapters on hardware & software.

What you have summarized above is very much applicable to me :) Thanks

I love all his books - you get the know-how, not just know-that. But the complete Learning to Learn lectures are on youtube, which is even better:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD4b-52jtos&list=PL2FF649D0C...

I formatted the text for printing in landscape mode with a two column layout. I shared the PDF here: https://github.com/bluemont/hamming-on-research

piggybacking your comment (and fine work!) to point to my own re-hosting of this transcript that makes minor formatting improvements to the original, primarily for scanning width: https://wcarss.ca/reading/you_and_your_research/

Long, but incredible talk. Thank you for posting it!

Many previous threads: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%22You%20and%20Your%20Research...

(I feel like there have been larger ones, though...)