理查德 · 卫斯理 · 汉明（Richard Wesley Hamming）是美国数学家，图灵奖得主，其贡献包括汉明码、汉明距离和汉明谱窗以及数值方法。他曾做过一场演讲《You and your research》，这篇文章算是浓缩版，其中关于人生和做研究的建议，看完惭愧不已却又大受鼓舞。简单总结的话——等等，为什么要简单总结呢，这么好的文章值得花上半小时慢慢品味！
原文、编译和一些批注如下。
天才之举：在你所做的一切中争取伟大
Little has been written on managing your own research (and very little on avoiding other people managing your research); however, your research is much more under your control than you may realize.
关于如何管理自己的研究的文章很少（关于避免其他人管理你的研究的文章也很少）；不管怎样，你的研究比你可能意识到的更受你控制。
We are concerned with great research here. Work that will get wide recognition, perhaps even win a Nobel Prize. As most people realize, the average published paper is read by the author, the referee, and perhaps one other person. Classic papers are read by thousands. We are concerned with research that will matter in the long run and become more than a footnote in history.
我们在这里关注的是伟大的研究。有些会获得广泛认可，甚至获得诺贝尔奖。众所周知，论文一般会被作者、评委，或许还有另一个人读到。经典论文则有成千上万人阅读。我们所关心的（应该）是那些长远来看将起到重要作用的，而不仅仅是历史上的一个脚注的研究。
If you are to do important work then you must work on the right problem at the right time and in the right way. Without any one of the three, you may do good work but you will almost certainly miss real greatness.
如果你要做重要的工作，那么你必须在正确的时间，以正确的方式，解决正确的问题。如果没有这三者中的任何一个，你可能会做得很好，但你几乎肯定会错过真正的伟大。
Greatness is a matter of style. For example, after learning the elements of painting, you study under a master. While studying you pay attention to what the master says in discussing your work, but you know that if you are to achieve greatness then you must find your own style. Furthermore, a successful style in one age is not necessarily appropriate for another age. Cubism would not have gone over big during the realism period.
伟大是一种风格。例如，在学习了绘画的要素之后，你在大师手下学习。学习时，你会留意大师在讨论你的作品时所说的话，但是你知道，如果你想成就伟大，那么你必须找到自己的风格。此外，一个时代的成功风格并不一定适合另一个时代。在现实主义时期，立体主义不会走得太远。