My collection of must-reads
- You and your research by Hamming
- ``What are the important problems in my field?'' If you do not work on an important problem, it's unlikely you'll do important work.
- ``No, I should be in the mass production of a variable product. I should be concerned with all of next year's problems, not just the one in front of my face.'' By changing the question I still got the same kind of results or better, but I changed things and did important work. I attacked the major problem - How do I conquer machines and do all of next year's problems when I don't know what they are going to be? How do I prepare for it? How do I do this one so I'll be on top of it? How do I obey Newton's rule? He said, ``If I have seen further than others, it is because I've stood on the shoulders of giants.'' These days we stand on each other's feet!
- Instead of attacking isolated problems, I made the resolution that I would never again solve an isolated problem except as characteristic of a class.
- On the cruelty of really teaching computing science