The Art of Doing Science and Engineering
- Author
- Richard Hamming
- Published
- 1997
- Pages
- 376
- Recommended
- Once
Richard Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn (1997).
Why it’s on the list: Hamming’s Naval Postgraduate School course, written up — the book-length version of the “You and Your Research” talk that is also on this list. Thirty years of Bell Labs turned into advice on how to choose problems that matter.
Where I saw it: In the replies to Sarah Guo’s March 22, 2025 question on X — “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?” Kyle saved the link and reconstructed the full reply-thread list on 2026-09-17; the whole recovered list is on Is There a Book… (tweet).
Metadata checked: Open Library (1997; 376 pages).
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.
Not yet read.