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Making Your Research Count (MLP)

By jongleur
Thu Apr 28th, 2005 at 03:05:45 AM EST

"Why do so few scientists make significant contributions and so many are forgotten in the long run? ... I became very interested in the difference between those who do and those who might have done."

- From "You and Your Research", a post-retirement talk by Richard Hamming (via Lambda the Ultimate)

"From his more than forty years of experience, thirty of which were at Bell Laboratories, he has made a number of direct observations, asked very pointed questions of scientists about what, how, and why they did things, studied the lives of great scientists and great contributions, and has done introspection and studied theories of creativity. The talk is about what he has learned in terms of the properties of the individual scientists, their abilities, traits, working habits, attitudes, and philosophy."

Also, from How to do Research in the MIT AI Lab, Emotional Factors which is broadly applicable and makes some of Hamming's points. Finally, some fun inspirational creativity quotes.

Hamming:

"Knowledge and productivity are like compound interest. Given two people of approximately the same ability and one person who works ten percent more than the other, the latter will more than twice outproduce the former. The more you know, the more you learn; the more you learn, the more you can do; the more you can do, the more the opportunity - it is very much like compound interest. I don't want to give you a rate, but it is a very high rate. Given two people with exactly the same ability, the one person who manages day in and day out to get in one more hour of thinking will be tremendously more productive over a lifetime."

"Well, we know very little about the subconscious; but one thing you are pretty well aware of is that your dreams also come out of your subconscious. And you're aware your dreams are, to a fair extent, a reworking of the experiences of the day. If you are deeply immersed and committed to a topic, day after day after day, your subconscious has nothing to do but work on your problem. ... Keep your subconscious starved so it has to work on your problem, so you can sleep peacefully and get the answer in the morning, free."

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Making Your Research Count | 68 comments (52 topical, 16 editorial, 0 hidden)

Einstein (none / 1) (#49)
by echnon on Thu Apr 28th, 2005 at 08:12:21 AM EST

said he always needed at least 10 hours (often 12) of sleep a day.

Guess he really made that subconscious work. Guess part of him had to work to become the most famous scientist of all times ;)

Perhaps this justifies my initial reading of the by glor, 04/28/2005 10:34:12 AM EST (none / 0)

Robert Owen (2.66 / 3) (#20)
by jd on Tue Apr 26th, 2005 at 10:08:49 PM EST

Noticed something very similar. He was a mill owner in the Industrial Revolution, in England, and founded Owen's College (now the University of Manchester) in part to educate his workforce. The theory being that an educated workforce would be able to do better and do more. I don't know if this occured to him or not, but a major problem of the time was worker injuries. People lost limbs or died from workplace accidents all the time. These accidents could have been avoided with greater skill and greater understanding, thus not only saving lives but doing so in a way that the business could profit from.

(Yes, having an intelligent, capable workforce, rather than wage-slaves, can be the superior option.)

I believe that this theory would hold true today in all lines of work. Sure, you don't need to be Einstein to pick up the trash, but a working knowledge of mechanics could make the heavy lifting easier, and outside skills could make the job a little less tedious.

It doesn't require massive brains to handle the checkout counter in a supermarket, but some basics of material science and geometry would help pack things more efficiently, with less risk of damage or breakage.

Sales clerks don't need to be geniuses, but it would help if they knew their products, the psychology of shoppers and economics. They'd be far better equipt to target people who would buy, and be able to produce a convincing reason as to why they should. As it stands, they produce a bunch of techno-waffle in the hope that the consumer will buy to shut them up.

I see absolutely no reason why America should not aim for 75-80% or more of the population graduating from High School, and 50-60% graduating from University with at least one degree. This is very doable, it would require relatively little effort, and the positive impact it would have on the economy as a whole (because people would know what they were doind, and why) would more than pay for the effort.

It won't happen, because there is an initial investment, and Americans are lousy investers. They far prefer to borrow for themselves, even though they must pay back with interest, over investing in others, no matter what the return.

"Americans are lousy investors" by forgotten, 04/28/2005 05:58:43 PM EST (none / 1)
Europe has already done this. by ghjm, 04/27/2005 08:57:18 AM EST (none / 0)

Ireland seems to have done pretty well by nlscb, 04/27/2005 10:15:07 PM EST (none / 1)

.. and got boatloads of assistance from the E.U. x by jongleur, 04/27/2005 11:54:25 PM EST (3.00 / 2)

But so has Greece by nlscb, 04/28/2005 01:17:43 PM EST (2.66 / 3)

A lot. Hard to tell. Yes. Yes. Yes. by ant0n, 04/27/2005 10:07:54 AM EST (2.75 / 4)

Better standard of living... if you have a job by smithmc, 04/28/2005 11:54:21 AM EST (none / 1)

All things being equal by Coryoth, 04/28/2005 05:40:51 PM EST (none / 1)

working poor ? by Eivind, 04/28/2005 06:27:31 AM EST (none / 0)
Interesting by Polverone, 04/27/2005 05:50:15 PM EST (2.50 / 2)
when 12 < 5 then we'll talk by Lode Runner, 04/27/2005 12:38:49 PM EST (none / 1)

germany is a peculiar case. by aphrael, 04/27/2005 05:01:14 PM EST (none / 1)

Blaming the Ossies by Lode Runner, 04/27/2005 07:52:00 PM EST (none / 1)

Am I blaming the ossis? by aphrael, 04/27/2005 08:00:37 PM EST (none / 1)

I can't help but wonder by Lode Runner, 04/27/2005 10:05:39 PM EST (none / 1)

informed consideration? by aphrael, 04/28/2005 02:01:26 AM EST (2.00 / 2)

as long as we're drawing analogies by Lode Runner, 04/28/2005 03:05:21 PM EST (2.00 / 2)

While unemployment is a problem, by jongleur, 04/27/2005 04:28:48 PM EST (none / 1)

what Jeremy Rifkin doesn't say by Lode Runner, 04/27/2005 04:50:54 PM EST (2.00 / 2)

Make work... by Znork, 04/30/2005 09:48:09 AM EST (2.50 / 2)

MMORPGs to the rescue! by Lode Runner, 05/01/2005 04:50:05 AM EST (none / 1)

Better to have intelligent, capable slaves. by Russell Dovey, 04/27/2005 12:12:31 AM EST (3.00 / 2)
bah by trane, 04/26/2005 11:04:48 PM EST (3.00 / 2)

Hamming was smart (2.66 / 3) (#18)
by waxmop on Tue Apr 26th, 2005 at 08:55:33 PM EST
(matt@overlook.homelinux.net) http://overlook.homelinux.net

Among a bunch of other stuff I'm sure, Hamming came up with ways to compress data based on the frequency of patterns. Information theory owes a lot to this guy. But I don't buy the idea that I should keep my subconscious starved. I usually have the best breakthroughs after giving up and going for a walk and thinking about something else.
--
_{fuck meatspace man I gotta level my dwarf cleric lonelyhobo}

Agreed that workaholism is a failure mode by nuntius, 04/26/2005 10:58:51 PM EST (2.33 / 3)

hm (3.00 / 2) (#11)
by trane on Tue Apr 26th, 2005 at 01:25:38 PM EST

"Given two people of approximately the same ability and one person who works ten percent more than the other, the latter will more than twice outproduce the former."

Okay, linguistically analyzing that sentence, "latter" would refers to "the other", i.e. the one who works 10 percent less. Maybe this dude should work on his communication clarity skills a little bit...

Personally I've found that those people who are really good at whatever they do, and work hard at it, are not concerned about how hard others work; they sort of assume that everyone is working on something, at their own pace, and are not interested in hurrying them up. They're far too involved in their own work to worry about what others are doing...

So this guy seems to be sort of a Polonius reciting platitudes to me.

I can't believe by trane, 04/27/2005 01:31:40 PM EST (none / 0)

We are. by glor, 04/28/2005 09:54:55 AM EST (3.00 / 3)
s/are/is! nt. by trane, 04/27/2005 02:27:44 PM EST (none / 0)

Move on. by killmepleez, 04/28/2005 09:20:43 AM EST (none / 1)

yeah by trane, 04/28/2005 05:32:08 PM EST (3.00 / 2)
Or observe, without correcting. by glor, 04/28/2005 10:27:22 AM EST (2.50 / 2)

10% more work? No.. (2.83 / 6) (#9)
by shinnin on Tue Apr 26th, 2005 at 10:29:47 AM EST
(kyounshi(at)gmail(cot)com)

..in my experience those scientists who work 50% less than others but talk (about themselves) 100% more are likely to be at least 500% more successful [figures proven by scientists].

I.e. success in science depends from my POV a lot on more on marketing than working a little more.

And yes, cut down the cut-and-pasted section..

That depends how you define success. by skyknight, 04/29/2005 09:52:09 PM EST (none / 1)

Yes by shinnin, 05/03/2005 05:34:45 PM EST (none / 0)

varies by field, but yes by Delirium, 04/26/2005 04:01:14 PM EST (3.00 / 3)

I would say marketing is a prerequisite by GenerationY, 04/27/2005 12:52:47 PM EST (2.50 / 2)

it depends on the turd by Delirium, 04/28/2005 12:08:23 AM EST (none / 0)

Meh conferences by GenerationY, 04/28/2005 12:38:44 AM EST (none / 0)

that also depends on the field by Delirium, 04/28/2005 09:04:14 AM EST (none / 0)

Right by shinnin, 05/03/2005 05:30:49 PM EST (none / 0)
Maybe more nation than field? by GenerationY, 04/29/2005 03:07:15 AM EST (none / 0)

don't think it is by Delirium, 04/29/2005 03:16:28 AM EST (none / 1)

although i should note an ingenius solution by Delirium, 04/29/2005 03:17:59 AM EST (none / 1)

Indeed by shinnin, 04/27/2005 08:49:08 AM EST (none / 1)

This is just a cut and paste job (1.71 / 7) (#4)
by StephenThompson on Tue Apr 26th, 2005 at 01:58:32 AM EST

This is just a cut and paste job from the first link. I don't think this is what MLP is about. The idea is that you leave the text at the link, an then you elaborate about why its interesting. Essentially all you have done is stolen content from another site and pasted it onto k5.

.. now? Or too much of a mess? by jongleur, 04/26/2005 04:41:14 AM EST (none / 0)
Mmm, 'why', right. by jongleur, 04/26/2005 03:44:29 AM EST (none / 0)
You mean no value added? To me, 'Mindless' by jongleur, 04/26/2005 03:36:52 AM EST (none / 1)

Making Your Research Count | 68 comments (52 topical, 16 editorial, 0 hidden)

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