

Simple Rules for Lifelong Learning According to Hamming - roye
http://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004020

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bboreham
Thoroughly recommended: Hamming's book "The Art of Doing Science and
Engineering: Learning to Learn"

Slightly rambling, and diving into differential equations a bit more than I
like in my bedtime reading, it reveals the mind and soul of a true engineering
genius.

[http://worrydream.com/refs/Hamming-
TheArtOfDoingScienceAndEn...](http://worrydream.com/refs/Hamming-
TheArtOfDoingScienceAndEngineering.pdf)

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bboreham
Hamming, on how anyone can make a mistake:

    
    
      "I did not [discover] the FFT, though a book I had already published (1961) 
       shows I knew all the facts necessary, and could have done it easily! [...] 
       Think of my error! How much more stupid can anyone be?"

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jf
The first "rule" in this paper contains a sentence that is strikingly similar
to Elon Musk's advice on learning. I wonder if that is a coincidence?

From the linked paper: "when faced with new knowledge, try to establish nodal
points in the knowledge network;"

Elon Musk's advice: "it is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic
tree -- make sure you understand the fundamental principles" (via)
[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2rgsan/i_am_elon_musk_...](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2rgsan/i_am_elon_musk_ceocto_of_a_rocket_company_ama/cnfput4)

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mastre_
Came here to say basically this (you beat me to it). Learning how to optimally
learn is crucial if you're going to learn a lot, particularly if it will be
across multiple disciplines.

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jtth
This feels a little Buzzfeed-y for PLOS. But they'll publish whatever so long
as it's not full of lies, and you pay, I suppose.

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hownottowrite
The entire book is excellent but I think the final chapter is really the best
"You and Your Reseach"

"If you are to be leader into the future, rather than to be a follower of
others, @it is necessary for you to look at the bigger picture on a regular,
frequent basis for many years." \- Hamming

(@) A little edit by me to remove some hedging.

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mychaelangelo
Great article. Thanks for sharing. Are there any other books on the art of
learning anyone would recommend?

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cozzyd
There's a signal processing joke here... except I can never remember if the
punchline is Hamming or Hanning.

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cb18
The Hamming distance from '_Hanning' to 'Shannon_' is uh... 3!

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g_delgado14
shouldn't we be talking about scientists to global pop. and not just nominal
number of scientists?

