Hamming's Three Questions: Why Aren't You Working on the Most Important Problem?
IgorCarron · x · 2026-08-25
Igor Carron cites Richard Hamming's classic three questions for researchers at Bell Labs, which remain relevant today:
- What are you working on?
- What’s the most important open problem in your area?
- Why aren't they the same?
Hamming's point cuts deep: "We hired you because of your judgment but you are obviously not using it because you are not working on the most important problems in your field." This insight applies to many fields beyond programming languages.
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