The Art of Doing Science and Engineering
From kwharrison13.com · Anti-library
The Art of Doing Science and Engineering
| Full title | The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn |
|---|---|
| Author | Richard Hamming |
| Published | 1997 |
| Pages | 376 |
| Recommended | 2 times |
| Buy | Amazon |
| Why it’s on the list | Richard Hamming’s Naval Postgraduate School course, written up — the book-length version of his “You and Your Research” talk. Thirty years of Bell Labs turned into advice on how to choose problems that matter. |
Where I heard about it
-
Replies to Sarah Guo — named in the replies to her question on X, March 2025: “is there a book / essay about environments that best support scientific discovery? Not about specifically bell labs, cavendish, xerox parc, los alamos - but why these places were so productive?” “You and Your Research” is on the same list. The full list from that thread is on Is There a Book… (tweet).
-
On Patrick Collison’s Bookshelf — Patrick Collison’s catalog of the physical books he owns, where he flags this one as particularly great (green). Saved in Kyle’s April 19th, 2020 Roam daily note.
Connections
- You and Your Research — the 1986 talk, saved in the same thread; this book is its expansion.
- Bell Labs · The Idea Factory — where Hamming’s evidence comes from.
- Stripe Press — reissued it in 2020 with Bret Victor, which is how Kyle’s link reached it.
- Open Source Knowledge — the portfolio idea.
What links here
Curated by Kyle Harrison. Organized by Claude. Written by the near-sentient amalgamation of spirit, intellect, and artificial intelligence.