Things to know for researchers..

Around a week back, I had read the transcript of the talk 'You and Your Research' given by Richard Hamming (Hamming-distance/ Hamming-code fame). I found it interesting as he explained his points with some really good experiences of his life. Mostly aimed for people aspiring to be scientists, this talk can still be useful for the people from other fields. At least for me, it was really enlightening! Some of his views might still be debatable but a good insight to start with.

Some excerpts:
1. Luck favors the prepared mind.
For success, luck changes the odds, but there is some definite control on the part of the individual. You should be prepared for opportunities. Don't panic but welcome them. Push yourself and put all possible efforts for every opportunity.

2. You just need enough brains to invent.
You need not be very intelligent but you do need to have confidence in yourself and courage to pursue your ideas.

3. Scientists contribute more when they are young. The contribution reduces when they have received a Nobel Prize. Its because they no longer get to pursue the problems from scratch.
In Hamming's opinion, "The Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton has ruined more good scientists than any institution has created, judged by what they did before they came and judged by what they did after. Not that they weren't good afterwards, but they were superb before they got there and were only good afterwards."
So, you should always continue to plant little acorns from which mighty oak trees grow.

4. Change faults to assets ALWAYS!
Major inventions have come out of some limitations. So, what you want isn't always the best for you.

5. Put that 10-20% extra effort for your work if you want to outperform others. It is like compound interest; the increase in productivity will be more than twice. You might have to neglect few things, do it. But be very sure about doing that hard-work sensibly. The steady application of effort with a little bit more work, 'intelligently applied' is what does the trick.

6. Be committed to your problem and always keep track of the unexplained misfits of theory.
Creativity comes out of subconscious. 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. So, Keep your subconscious starved so it has to work on your problem such that you can sleep peacefully and get the answer in the morning free.

7. Always ask "What are the important problems in my field"?
If you want to do great work, you clearly must work on important problems, and you should have an idea; something a normal scientist forgets to realize in his routine work.

8. Keep the doors of your cube open.
It allows important ideas to flow towards you. You get to involve in the discussions about future developments and get the right directions.

9. Adapt yourself according to system.
Your primary goal is to invent. So, you should not waste your energy fighting the system.
You can either learn how to adapt the system to your desires or you can fight it steadily, as a small undeclared war, for the whole of your life. you pay a small steady price throughout the whole of your professional career. And this, over a whole lifetime, adds up to an enormous amount of needless trouble.

10. Don't get used to excessive reading.
Spend more time in thinking what you can do about something rather than reading about what others have done. Believe me, that study never ends. Before reading others' solutions, think and figure out your solutions.

11. Always have great people around.
You need to discuss the things with the critical mass who makes the discussion meaningful. Stay away from 'sound absorbers'.

12. Stay away from self-delusion and learn to put up with stress.
You should accept your drawbacks and at the same time, you have to put up with stress if you want to be a great scientist. You can lead a nice life; you can be a nice guy or you can be a great scientist.

13. Be clear about what you want.
When your vision of what you want to do is what you can do single-handedly, then you should pursue it. The day your vision, what you think needs to be done, is bigger than what you can do single-handedly, then you have to move towards management. If you want to be a great researcher, you won't make it being president of the company.

Well, these are few things which might summarize the talk but you will appreciate it more when you read the talk. By the way, this was a paper given for informal studies as part of one of the MS course in a US university. How I wish, in India, we would have understood education correctly!