Born in Chicago. B.S. in mathematics (University of Chicago, 1937), M.A. (University of Nebraska, 1939), Ph.D. (University of Illinois, 1942). Ran computing at Los Alamos (1945-1946), spent thirty years at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey (1946-1976), then taught at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California until shortly before his death.

Major accomplishment
Invented the Hamming codes (error-detecting and error-correcting codes) that made reliable digital communication practical, from telephone switches to modems, disks, and satellites. Won the ACM Turing Award in 1968 for numerical methods, automatic coding systems, and those codes. Later distilled what he learned watching Shannon, Feynman, Shockley, and the rest into “You and Your Research,” still one of the clearest guides to doing significant technical work.

Quote

“If you do not work on an important problem, it’s unlikely you’ll do important work. It’s perfectly obvious.”

Fun fact
For years he kept “Great Thoughts Time”: after Friday lunch he would only discuss big questions (Where is the field going? What will computers do to science?). He says dedicating ten percent of the week thinking big helped him avoid wasting time working on the wrong things.

Takeaways

1. Ask the lunch-table question: What are the important problems in your field, and are you working on one of them? If the answer is ‘no,’ why not?

2. After a win, keep planting acorns (ie, working on small problems). Hamming points out that Shannon and the other Nobel-Prize winners later refused to work on the small problems, which prevented them from a great encore.

3. Prepare your mind on purpose. If you commit all your mental energy on a problem, your subconscious will keep working on it from different angles. Also leave the door open enough to hear which problems matter.

Keep exploring

• Article: You and Your Research (1986 Bellcore transcript)

• Video: Hamming, “You and Your Research” (June 6, 1995) (him delivering the talk)

• Book: Richard W. Hamming, The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

1874-1964 (90)

Born in West Branch, Iowa; orphaned young and raised partly in Oregon. Geology graduate of Stanford’s pioneer class (1895). Made his fortune as an international mining engineer (Australia, China, London), then lived and worked in DC as a relief organizer, Commerce Secretary, and 31st U.S. President.

Major accomplishment
Turned failing mines into profitable operations, built a fortune on the order of Ford and Edison’s, then applied the same operational skill to humanitarian relief. As head of the Commission for Relief in Belgium in World War I, he organized food for millions under occupation. As president, he pushed major public works (including the Hoover Dam and SF bridge). His engineering career got him to the White House, but his inability to inspire people through the Depression prevented him from staying there for a second term.

Quote

“The great liability of the engineer compared to men of other professions is that his works are out in the open where all can see them. His acts, step by step, are in hard substance. He cannot bury his mistakes in the grave like the doctors. He cannot argue them into thin air or blame the judge like the lawyers. He cannot, like the architects, cover his failures with trees and vines. He cannot, like the politicians, screen his shortcomings by blaming his opponents and hope that the people will forget. The engineer simply cannot deny that he did it. If his works do not work, he is damned”

(Article in “Engineer’s Week”)

Fun fact
He read two hours a night for fun from a young age. When U.S. booksellers gave the White House a 500-book “home library” in 1930, Hoover told a guest: “If they sent those here to educate me, I’m afraid it was too late. I’d read 85% of them before.”

Takeaways

1. Engineering skill can provide money and prestige, but leading machines is very different from leading people. Hoover’s optimizer tendencies failed him when the job required empathy, persuasion, and selling a vision.

2. Identify your likely engineer flaw (pride, stubbornness, perfectionism, or emotional flatness), get a baseline, and track it. (See my YouTube video below for tracking examples.) You are not trying to erase the flaw overnight. You are trying to chip away at it before it’s too late.

3. Write to yourself. Hoover blamed the economy, opponents, and “fear of the common man” after his defeat. He wrote to everyone else except himself. A dated notebook conversation with reality is cheaper insurance than waiting for a failed reelection, a stalled promotion, or flat download numbers to humble you.

Keep exploring

• Article: Herbert Hoover: Life Before the Presidency (Miller Center)

• Video: Remembering Herbert Hoover and the Commission for Relief in Belgium

• Book: Kenneth Whyte, Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times

1910-1989 (died at 79)

Born in London to American parents; raised in Palo Alto, California. B.S. in physics (Caltech, 1932), Ph.D. in physics (MIT, 1936). Spent his peak research years at Bell Labs in New Jersey, then founded Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Mountain View, California; later taught at Stanford.

Major accomplishment

Led the Bell Labs group that produced the first working transistor (Bardeen and Brattain built the point-contact device; Shockley invented the junction transistor). Shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1956 he founded Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory, the first silicon semiconductor company in what became Silicon Valley. Eight of his employees (the “Traitorous Eight”) left to found Fairchild Semiconductor, which later spun out Intel and much of the Valley’s chip industry.

Memorable quote

“It has today occurred to me that an amplifier using semiconductors rather than vacuum is in principle possible.”

(Laboratory notebook, 29 December 1939.)

Fun fact

Was an semipro rock climber with a first-ascend.

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Takeaways

1. Intellect isn’t enough. Shockley got really far on brains alone, then his need to feel superior wrecked the teams, the company, and eventually his reputation. Brilliance can get you really far (like, a Nobel Prize), but it can’t make people like you.

2. When people leave and thrive without you, look inward before you look outward. Shockley blamed the world instead of his behavior. Which direction did you look after your last career change?

3. Keep a simple tracker (mood, habits, or a monthly page). You’ll be amazed how hard it is to believe your own BS when you have something to hold you accountable.

Keep exploring

- Article: Beckman, Shockley and the 60th Anniversary of the Birth of Silicon Valley

- Video: 391 San Antonio Rd. — A Semiconductor Documentary

- Book: Joel N. Shurkin, Broken Genius: The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age

1903–1995 (91)

Son of a Bulgarian immigrant. B.S. in electrical engineering (University of Florida, 1925), M.S. in mathematics (Iowa State College, 1926), Ph.D. in theoretical physics (University of Wisconsin, 1930). Professor of mathematics and physics at Iowa State in Ames; later lived and worked in Washington, D.C., then Maryland.

Major accomplishment
With graduate student Clifford Berry, he built the Atanasoff–Berry Computer (ABC) at Iowa State (1939–1942), an electronic, binary, digital machine for solving systems of linear equations. In 1973, the Honeywell v. Sperry Rand trial credited him as the inventor of the electronic digital computer and invalidated the ENIAC patent, putting that architecture in the public domain.

Memorable quote

“During that evening in the Illinois roadhouse, I made four decisions for my computer project… I am now amazed and pleased to find that each of my four decisions relates to structures that are in use in modern computers.”

(From his account of the 1937–38 night he locked in electricity/electronics, binary, regenerative capacitor memory, and direct logical computation.)

Fun fact
Iowa State funded the first ABC prototype with a $650 grant. Atanasoff and Berry built a working “breadboard” model in about one semester.

Takeaways

1. Strive for goodness, not greatness. Atanasoff proves that you by staying humble and focusing on yourself and your work, you can still accomplish remarkable things without turning into a jerk. Do the best work you can without trading away being a decent collaborator, mentor, or friend.

2. When you’re stuck, don’t force the solution. Instead, spend time in the problem space, then write your non-negotiable requirements before you worry about how you’ll build it.

3. Keep a dated log of how your thinking evolves. Atanasoff’s notes later proved he invented the computer. What would your notebook prove about the problem you’re wrestling with now?

Keep exploring

• Article: John Vincent Atanasoff Biography (Iowa State)

• Video: The Forces That Led to the Atanasoff-Berry Electronic Computer (Atanasoff’s own 1980 lecture)

• Book: Jane Smiley, The Man Who Invented the Computer