One of the characteristics of successful scientists is having courage. Once you get your courage up and believe that you can do important problems, then you can. If you think you can't, almost surely you are not going to.
Interpretation
Courage is essential for tackling significant challenges in science and beyond.
This quote by Richard Hamming emphasizes the vital role that courage plays in the success of scientists. It suggests that by believing in one's ability to confront important problems, one can achieve great things, whereas self-doubt can hinder progress and prevent success.
In practice
During a conference on scientific innovation, this quote can inspire researchers to face challenging questions.
When you are famous it is hard to work on small problems. This is what did [Claude Elwood] Shannon in. After information theory, what do you do for an encore? The great scientists often make this error. They fail to continue to plant the little acorns from which the mighty oak trees grow. They try to get the big thing right off. And that isn't the way things go. So that is another reason why you find that when you get early recognition it seems to sterilize you.
Science is composed of laws which were originally based on a small, carefully selected set of observations, often not very accurately measured originally; but the laws have later been found to apply over much wider ranges of observations and much more accurately than the original data justified.
Does anyone believe that the difference between the Lebesgue and Riemann integrals can have physical significance, and that whether say, an airplane would or would not fly could depend on this difference? If such were claimed, I should not care to fly in that plane.
If you don't work on important problems, it's not likely that you'll do important work.
Beware of finding what you're looking for._x000D_ _x000D_ A favorite aphorism he often used.
Put glibly:_x000D_ _x000D_ In science if you know what you are doing you should not be doing it._x000D_ _x000D_ In engineering if you do not know what you are doing you should not be doing it._x000D_ _x000D_ Of course, you seldom, if ever, see either pure state.
Little things make the difference. Everyone is well prepared in the big things, but only the winners perfect the little things.
I don't believe there is such a thing as a 'born' soccer player. Perhaps you are born with certain skills and talents, but quite frankly it seems impossible to me that one is actually born to be an ace soccer player
I thank God for all the victories and conquests I've had this year as a player and I bring to the altar two prizes. This is first my son who is about to be born. The other is my trophy from Fifa, which I want to dedicate to God.
Those who succeed in an outstanding way seldom do so before the age of 40. More often, they do not strike their real pace until they are well beyond the age of 50.
Talent is a process, not a thing. Failure is not proof of an innate limit but rather is an indication of a skill we haven’t yet developed.
Are you willing to push the right buttons even if it means being perceived as the villain? … I'd rather be perceived as a winner than a good teammate. I wish they both went hand in hand all the time but that's just not reality. … I have nothing in common with lazy people who blame others for their lack of success.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.