20 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine
H
T
Those who do –
and those who
might have done
By Anirudh Dhebar
21
ST
CENTURY ENGINEERING
This headline was motivated by the concluding
sentence of the second paragraph of a March 7,
1986, talk given at Bell Labs by mathematician
Richard Hamming (“Richard Hamming: You and Your
Research”). The talk was “not about managing research
... (but) about how you individually do your research.”
Replace “research” with “engineering” and you have
valuable advice on how to be someone who does truly
outstanding work.
I came to Hamming’s speech via a June 30, 2025,
column in The Economist, “Bartleby: Are Startup
Founders Dierent? – The Best Entrepreneurs Ask
Themselves a Particular Question.” The column, in
turn, referred to a 2020 blog post by Sam Altman of
OpenAI who reects “on the qualities that unite the best
entrepreneurs and the best researchers ... They spend a
lot of time reecting on some version of the Hamming
question.” The reection also applies to engineers.
The “Hamming question” is actually three questions
(spelled out in his Bell Labs talk): What are the important
problems in your eld? What important problems are
you working on? If what you are doing is not important,
and if you don’t think it is going to lead to something
important, why are you working on it?
Hamming has raised these questions, one at a time,
over dierent lunch sittings at a “chemistry” table at Bell.
Some months later, an attendee at the table stopped
Hamming and said: “Hamming, that remark of yours got
underneath my skin. I thought about it all summer, i.e.,
what are the important problems in my eld.” We, too,
must let the “Hamming question” get under our skin.
I urge readers to read, reect on and internalize
Hamming’s complete talk, but here is a quick summary
of his “How to do it” advice.
First, he suggests dropping modesty and say to
yourself, “Yes, I would like to do rst-class work. ... I
would like to do something signicant.” Discounting luck
at the main explanation of doing rst-class work, he
adds: “The particular thing you do is luck, but that you do
something is not.”
Second, it is important to have independent thoughts
and the courage to pursue them. Great scientists,
Hamming suggests, “will go forward under incredible
circumstances; they think and continue to think.” And
they “continue to plant the little acorns from which
the mighty oak trees grow.” The advice also applies to
engineers.
Third, have “tremendous drive,” but apply it sensibly.
“Drive misapplied does not get you anywhere.”
Fourth, be committed to the important problem: “Don’t
let anything get the center of your attention … 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.”
Fifth, tolerate ambiguity: “Great scientists ... believe
the theory enough to go ahead; they doubt it enough
to notice the errors and faults so they can step forward
and create the new replacement theory.” And embrace
opportunity. When one comes up, drop everything and
go after it with courage, drive and commitment.
Sixth, invest in compounding: “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.”
Seventh, make room for “Great Thoughts Time” and
keep your oce door open: You may be interrupted but
you will “occasionally get clues as to what the world is
and what might be important.”
Finally, don’t blame your tools (“The good man gets
on with the job, given what he’s got, and gets the best
answer he can”) and don’t look to working conditions
as the enabler of great work (“The ones you want aren’t
always the best for you”).
You have now done your part – and are prepared for
luck to do its part.
Anirudh Dhebar is a professor of marketing at Babson
College. He is an IISE member.
It is important to have
independent thoughts and the
courage to pursue them.
