### Richard Hamming's course handout on learning I came across a comment on a Youtube video of Richard Hamming's famous The Art of Doing Science and Engineering. The user mentioned they had the great pleasure of taking his Digital Filters course while at NPS in '88 and shared a few nuggets from a handout he gave the, on the first day: ##### Observations for Students by R.W. Hamming 1. All learning occurs in the student's head. 2. At best, the teacher is only a coach to guide, encourage, and criticize your style. 3. The purpose of the examples and exercises cannot be "to get the right answers" because they are already known! Their purpose, like that of running a mile, is to improve yourself. 4. Apparently, that which you actively learn for yourself you can use later creatively; that which you learn passively you can only use to follow others. 5. The attitude that you are here to be taught rather than to learn is counter productive. and finally, 6. The most important things you can do while here are: 1. a. Learn to learn, 2. b. Learn to question things 3. c. Acquire the permanent habit of learning. (the commenter only recalled 6/12 points)